Crossroads: Park County Planning Board to consider Housing Action Plan
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As most residents of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem know, there is one issue within the laundry list of local challenges that keeps rising to the surface. The issue is housing. While a lucky few either have ample personal wealth and/or good timing in finding suitable shelter, there are many amongst us who simply can’t find adequate, affordable accommodations.
Instead of getting better as time goes on, this issue seems to have become increasing problematic over time.
Solving our housing challenges is like trying to stop the flow of our majestic mountain rivers.
Over the past couple of years, a variety of residents have worked hard on a housing action plan for our county. The plan is just that, a plan. It is not a regulation, but rather offers some guidance and advice for potential next steps.
If you can make time, please join the September 15th meeting of the Park County Planning Board as it discusses and makes a recommendation on the Park County Housing Action Plan.
The plan, which can be viewed here, could really use your support.
Park County Planning Board Meeting
Thursday, September 15, 5 p.m.
Attend in person in the Community Room, City-County Complex or on Zoom at this link.
The Housing Action Plan is intended to look at housing across Park County. The Livingston City Commission unanimously adopted the Housing Action Plan as part of the Livingston Growth Policy in July.
Here’s what’s important for the Planning Board to know:
Adoption benefits the entire community
County adoption of the Park County Housing Action Plan is important to ensuring the goals of the plan become a reality. The plan would help set the priorities of the plan as priorities for the county.
The 12 tools identified by the plan are wide-ranging and identify ways that partners like the city and county can address needs across the entire housing spectrum. The plan spreads out the responsibility among several different partners in order to allow progress to happen on multiple fronts.
Adoption of the plan as a part of the growth policy also opens up funding opportunities for the county.
Housing is a top concern
A recent polling effort that PCEC conducted found that housing is the top concern of Park County residents, with 96% of people showing concern.
The results showed that more than four-in-five residents are worried that the next generation of their family will be unable to afford to live in Park County. More residents point to housing as the community’s top problem than any other issue.
Both the city and county growth policies identified housing as a top priority in the community. In fact, the Park County Growth Policy identified the need for a comprehensive plan for housing across the county.
However, the city and county government have done very little to address the ongoing housing crisis. The Housing Action Plan is a strong step forward, and the plan has already been adopted by the city.
The Park County Housing Coalition has wide-ranging membership and participation.
The mission of the Park County Housing Coalition is to create a community-based collaborative effort to increase opportunities for Park County residents to access housing where they can afford to live and thrive.
The coalition was first convened in 2020 to elevate the discourse around the already tightening housing market and envision possible solutions to these housing challenges.
In 2021, a subcommittee of the PCHC, the “housing working group” volunteered their time for a deeper dive into the housing needs to focus on the development of a housing action plan. The working group represented a wide range of community members, including representatives of the city and county governments.
The Housing Action Plan has had more than a dozen hearings (both formal and informal), and more than 300 people have participated in its development.
The coalition, which now has more than 70 individual and organizational members, has begun implementation of the plan by launching three subcommittees that will work to make the plan a reality. The subcommittees are focusing on workforce housing, a community investment fund, and data and storytelling.
Sign up for the Housing Coalition!
Mountain View Subdivision
The Livingston Planning Board will meet on Wednesday, September 21, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will take place on Zoom at this link.
The Planning Board will discuss the Mountain View Subdivision, near Printing For Less.
Yellowstone Safe Passages Community Meetings
Yellowstone Safe Passages (YSP) will be hosting a community meeting today, Wednesday September 14th, at the Emigrant Hall from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (happy hour at 5 p.m. at the Old Saloon) to provide an opportunity to learn more about the work they are doing and their upcoming Highway 89 Fine-Scale Highway Assessment.
What is a Fine-Scale Highway Assessment? YSP has partnered with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University to develop a fine-scale Wildlife and Transportation Assessment of Highway 89 from Livingston to Gardiner. This assessment will be an interdisciplinary collaborative process that will bring together a diversity of stakeholders, data and information to ultimately identify the areas with the greatest need to address wildlife-vehicle conflict and develop recommendations for potential short- and long-term actions to make Highway 89 safer for people and wildlife.
If you can't make the meeting today, YSP will also be hosting a second meeting to discuss the highway assessment in Gardiner, on Thursday, Sept. 29th from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center.