On February 5th the Town Council is expected to reconsider the text amendment it recently passed that would allow 4-story buildings and increased development potential throughout the Town’s NH-1 zone. The Council should reverse its previous decision and reject this text amendment. If Town’s intention is to facilitate intense development of housing on the former site of the Virginian RV Park, then changing the zone of that single parcel to CR-3 (a zone that already allows four stories) is a much better solution.
The text amendment is too broad. Higher density and taller buildings that might be appropriate for the Virginian project are not appropriate for the West Kelly Ave. or Rancher St. NH-1 neighborhoods. The predominantly single family West Kelly neighborhood is already struggling to assimilate the large apartment building at 440 West Kelly. The proposed text amendment would allow a developer to combine lots and build a massive building that is even taller. Is this text amendment a foreshadowing of the kind of development the Town has in mind for the Fairgrounds next door?
On the east side of town there is a dense node of NH-1 zoning at Rancher and Hansen embedded within quiet neighborhoods with limited access to services or arterial roads. Doubling down on this already thorny planning problem would force even more traffic to filter through the single family neighborhoods that surround the Pioneer Homestead. This text amendment opens the door to the development of a huge 4-story apartment complex on the far edge of Town adjacent to the Putt Putt Trailhead. Rational land use planning requires that high density should be focused into the commercial corridor of Town where large/tall buildings won’t loom over single family homes, and where residents won’t have to drive in order to get to work, services, and shopping. Far east Jackson is not the place for 4-story buildings.
This hastily conceived text amendment undermines the laborious planning and public input that went into creating our Comprehensive Plan and LDRs. Town Council should reject the NH-1 text amendment and instead implement CR-3 zoning to get the desired result for the Virginian project. There is no reason to put the character of the entire Town at risk when there is a more appropriate and targeted solution available.