FWD: Join us at NOON for a discussion of Park County Housing Action Plan
I’m writing today with a reminder that we will be holding a community conversation today at noon about the Park County Housing Action Plan and the Park County Housing Coalition.
We hope that you can join us to learn more about the Housing Action Plan and join us in asking the Park County Planning Board to adopt the plan. We need a commitment from our County to find community-driven solutions to the housing crisis that is impacting everyone.
The Park County Planning Board will be holding its third consecutive public hearing on the Park County Housing Action Plan this Thursday, October 20, at 5 p.m. in the community room of the City-County Complex and via Zoom. The board is expected to make a final vote on its recommendation of the plan at Thursday’s meeting. You can email supportive comments to planning@parkcounty.org.
This will be our fifth listening session over the past month, and fifth community conversation about housing over the past couple of years. We've consistently heard stories of people unable to find a place to live, and of businesses that are unable to hire enough employees (or find places for their current employees to live).
We firmly believe that housing and conservation are inextricably linked.
At PCEC, we work with our community to safeguard the land, water, wildlife, and people of Yellowstone’s Northern Gateway.
I like to think about it this way: We’re fighting for the idea that a place like this should continue to exist – and that it should continue to exist for everyone, not just the ultrawealthy.
PCEC works on housing for two primary reasons.
First, we are very much aware of the interconnectedness of our built and natural environments. How we live as humans affects the health of the world – the land, water and wildlife – around us. That’s why PCEC has worked with the community to update foundational documents such as the Park County Growth Policy, the Livingston Growth Policy and the Gardiner Neighborhood Plan in recent years. To be good stewards of our wildlands, we need to be thoughtful about how and where we live and grow.
Second, PCEC is only as strong as the people that make up our membership, and we need to ensure that those people can live in a safe and stable place that allows them to thrive, that allows them the time to care about this place. Our work relies on volunteers, and it can be more difficult to volunteer when you're working two or three jobs just to pay your rent. A housing market that doesn’t work threatens our work.
Lack of appropriate housing to accommodate the needs of all of our residents has seeped into every aspect of our lives. Whether that means your child’s favorite teacher is struggling to afford to live here, or the city doesn’t have enough employees to maintain parks and trails, or the county can’t hire enough grader-operators to maintain our roads.
We know that housing is a nationwide crisis, which underscores the need for local solutions. We know that we have to do something here in order to help the people who are being impacted right now or else risk losing the community we value so much.
Park County faces extreme pressures for growth and development. It’s easier to get to Montana than ever. More people are visiting Yellowstone every year. There is a lot of money to be made commodifying this place. We need to be prepared as a community with a vision for what we want to become, and be willing to say no to projects that would harm the land, water, wildlife and people.
And we need to say yes to housing people.
In Community,
Johnathan