Sherman Park Workforce Housing Project

In 2018, discussions began between the City of Victor and the Teton County Joint Housing Authority (TCJHA) to bring an AFFORDABLE housing project to Victor.

New Links and Hearing Dates: Will update as more info becomes available

The Value of VARD

The Sherman Park Administrative Appeal filed by VARD and 4 neighbors to the project was granted during the Victor City Council meeting on Wednesday night. The Sherman Park project was remanded to Planning & Zoning Commissioners (PZC) for further review and deliberation. The developer's attorney submitted a letter to Council, just before the meeting, requesting that Council approve our appeal request and remand the project to the PZC to rehear the Site Plan and Design Review applications. The developer's attorney also supported continuing the Development Agreement (DA) hearing. The DA hearing could not be held when there was a pending appeal AND while building size remains unresolved. We'll be busy preparing for next steps and we'll keep you posted!

SHERMAN PARK UPDATE

We filed an Administrative Appeal... Read it HERE

VARD, along with 4 neighbors to the Sherman Park project, have filed an administrative appeal challenging the way the City of Victor (City) processed the Site Plan & Design Review to allow for apartment buildings that far exceed the 120’ length limit for the City’s CX Commercial Mixed Use Zone.

Put very succinctly, at the May 9, 2024 meeting before the Victor Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC), the community saw, for the first time, that 3 of the buildings were proposed to be approximately 143’ long - this is 19% (23 feet) longer than the maximum of what the Code allows for apartment buildings. The 4th building was slated to be 233’ from end to end - a whopping 94% (113 feet) longer than the maximum of what the Code allows.

At the hearing, City staff warned that building size was already approved by City Council as a condition of the original April 26, 2023 zone change. As such, staff strongly emphasized that the PZC was not allowed to consider, or make a determination, on building size. By this action, building size for the Sherman Park project was wrongfully removed from the Victor PZC’s jurisdiction.

OUR ARGUMENTS (in brief)

The City’s claims that the jumbo sized buildings were approved at the 2023 rezone hearing fall flat. A simple review of the record shows that the 2023 City Council rezone did NOT address building size or length whatsoever; Council did NOT implicitly or explicitly approve these jumbo-sized buildings. To the contrary, at the 2023 rezone hearing, the buildings depicted in Snavely Group’s own submittals were all SMALLER or equal to 120 feet.

The City’s secondary argument that the planning administrator alternatively had the authority to modify building length, is also unsupported by the City Code. Building length can ONLY be modified by the PZC via variance; NO variance application or hearing has been completed to date. And finally, Victor City Council had no jurisdiction to conduct the Sherman Park Site Plan & Design Review on March 13, 2024; that action by Council is also VOID.

At the close of our Appeal, we requested proper administration for Site Plan & Design Review. In this case, that requires either changing the size of the building to be compliant with the CX zoning standards or processing a complete variance application for the buildings, to be considered by the PZC, pursuant to Victor Code 14.7.13. If the jumbo buildings cannot meet the criteria for a variance, they must be reduced to comply with the 120’ limit for apartment buildings.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

City Code states that the Victor planning administrator has 30 days to schedule a public meeting before City Council to consider our appeal. The Sherman Park project cannot move forward with any other stages of approval until a decision has been made by the Council regarding the appeal.

Victor City Council Public Hearing

Development Agreement for The Sherman Park 'Workforce Housing' Project

WHEN:

Wednesday June 12 at 6:00 PM

WHERE:

City Council Chambers

138 N Main Street - Unit 201 Victor

New Article from Jeanette Boner/JHNG HERE

Victor City Council Public Hearing

Development Agreement for The Sherman Park 'Workforce Housing' Project

WHEN:

Wednesday April 24 at 7:00 PM

WHERE:

City Council Chambers

138 N Main Street - Unit 201 Victor

Agenda

Zoom Link

Staff Report & Development Agreement

E-mail Comments

The upcoming Development Agreement public hearing is the first time that the community will have a chance to weigh in on this project since the publicly owned parcel was rezoned from Parks & Rec (REC) to Commercial Mixed (CX) (for a childcare center) almost a year ago. Since the rezone approval, there have been several substantive changes to the project.

Read VARD's Letter, Anna's OpEd, Alena's Comment Letter, and Linda's Letter to the Editor.

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't want to see Affordable Housing in our Valley, even in our own Backyards! For Affordable Housing projects to be successful, communities need to be involved throughout the process and provided transparency and truth over optics at every step. Community members care to know how a public/private partnership project such as the Sherman Park Workforce Housing Project will be a long-term solution.

The Development Agreement became available to view (if you knew where to look for it) at approximately 4:30 yesterday. That gave 30 minutes for folks to read, review, write, and submit written comments if they were to be included in the staff packet to Council. Staff confirmed they will accept written comments up until the meeting (however they may not have been reviewed by Council). Verbal comments will be heard during the public comment period of the hearing.

View Materials HERE

*ATTEND the public hearing to provide your comments.

*WRITE to City Council. Ask them to TABLE a Development Agreement decision until there is adequate time to read and review materials and craft comments.

*REMINDER: unscheduled comments are NOT allowed via Zoom at Victor hearings. You must attend in person OR email ahead of time and they can schedule you for online comments if you are UNABLE to attend the hearing in person.

Materials from previous meeting HERE

Zoom from previous meeting HERE.

Our Staff Attorney, Anna Trentadue's OpEd in the TVN 4/16/24

In 2018, discussions began between the City of Victor and the Teton County Joint Housing Authority (TCJHA) to bring an affordable housing project to Victor. In 2021, Sherman Park was identified as the prime location. Specifically, the City identified a roughly 3 acre parcel on the south east side of the park, which, at the time, was zoned REC Parks and Recreation. This parcel is identified as the future home of a Community Center within the Sherman Park Master Plan. In January of 2022, TCJHA and the City signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which formalized the relationship between the two entities. In April 2022, TCJHA issued a Request for Information which identified project outcomes for Sherman Park as 72 one and two bedroom units with a mix of rental and ownership options under 120% Area Median Income (AMI) with a preference for units between 80% and 120% AMI. In October 2022, Snavely Group (Snavely), a for-profit developer, and Northwest Real Estate Capital Corporation (NWRECC), a non-profit developer, both submitted responses to TCJHA Request for Qualifications. At this time, Snavely's proposal included a mix of townhomes and apartments. In January 2023, after much back and forth between the City of Victor and TCJHA, Snavely was selected by TCJHA as the developers of the Sherman Park Affordable Housing Project. Key factors in the decision included the childcare center and targeted AMI. However, at the time of the decision, TCJHA Board Members expressed concern that the AMI level targeted in the proposal would be met by the market. In April of 2023, Victor City Council (VCC) approved a rezone for the Sherman Park parcel from REC Parks and Recreation to CX Commercial Mixed Use - a rezone intended to accommodate the childcare center. The City did not require a traffic study despite ongoing concerns about traffic on Baseline Road and South Agate Ave.

Sherman Park is publicly owned land!

Lease Option Agreement (LOA) FACTS:

Property was valued at $2.2 million
Property lease would extend to Snavely for 99 years with an annual rent of $100
City of Victor agreed to waive permitting fees up to $375,000
Stipulation that Snavely will only pay property taxes on improvements, not the land.
LOA expired on 12/31/23
New LOA will likely be signed in the coming months
Staff Report indicates that the new LOA will be “substantively similar” to the expired LOA.

In May of 2023, Snavely was awarded $4 million in Idaho state funding in the form of a 1% loan from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association to provide Idaho housing at or below 80% AMI. In August of 2023, Snavley came before City Council with concerns that they did not have enough money to build the childcare center. VCC reminded Snavely that they expected the childcare center to be included as it was an essential component of the project from the start. At this point, Snavely was asked to continue moving forward with the 84 unit proposal WITH the childcare center as originally planned. In September of 2023, Staff told VCC that the childcare center would be included in the project. In August of 2023, the initial MOU between the City and TCJHA was replaced by a Restated and Amended MOU. The Restated and Amended MOU expired December 31, 2023 and any formal relationship between TCJHA and the City of Victor in relation to the Sherman Park Project ended. The City has taken full control of the project.

In late January 2024, Snavely produced a Design Review Submission that included 90 rental only units in four 3-story apartment complexes. No childcare center was included. Importantly, the Design Review Submission did not go before the Design Review Committee or the Planning and Zoning Commission for review. It was sent directly to Council, undermining the City of Victor’s Design Review Guidelines (pg 5-6) and Land Development Code (14.6.3).