Jackson may tighten Land Development Regulations on big-project impacts

The Jackson Town Council will use its June 15 workshop to give direction on proposed Land Development Regulations (LDRs) changes meant to rein in the impacts of big downtown projects, especially building bulk, traffic and workforce housing tradeoffs, according to the workshop agenda and staff write-up Town Council Workshop Meeting Agenda.

The staff packet lays out a menu of options Council can mix and match. On the 2:1 workforce housing bonus, staff is asking whether to replace today’s flat bonus with a sliding scale and put tighter limits on where and how much bonus floor area can be used. Staff also proposes increasing the third-story stepback beyond the current 10 feet, exploring a 30% cap on short-term rentals within new Lodging Overlay projects, and ending the loophole that lets habitable basements dodge the Town’s 40,000 sq ft and 50,000 sq ft maximum building-size limits. This is a workshop item, so Council is not expected to adopt ordinance language June 15, it is giving marching orders for drafting amendments.