Planning commissioners Monday narrowly endorsed a controversial proposal to build 500 new homes in South Park.

Just before 11 p.m., the Teton County Planning Commission voted 3-2 to recommend the county commissioners approve the sketch plan application for the Teton Meadows development. Planning Commissioners Larry Hamilton, Joe Palmer and Paul Duncker voted in favor. Chairman Tony Wall and Forrest McCarthy voted against endorsing the plan.

Before they voted, commissioners revised and added a number of conditions, including price and resale restrictions to “gap” homes, deed-restricted homes aimed at people making too much to qualify for traditional affordable housing but not enough to buy into the free market.

“To me, it comes down to the staff recommended it and the housing authority recommended,” Palmer said. “They’re not out to ruin this neighborhood.”

Upon hearing the vote, Anne Hayden Cresswell, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, punctuated the silence with a loud “yeah.”

The project now goes before county commissioners, which have final say over the sketch plan.

Teton Meadows Ranch, a partnership between James Reinert’s Sequoia Development and the Housing Trust, seeks to build 500 homes on 288 acres situated between Rafter J and Melody Ranch using a zoning that lets developers build dense projects if 50 percent of the project is deed-restricted affordable housing.

The 250 deed-restricted homes would be for people making between 80 percent and 175 percent of area median income while 150 would be “gap” housing. One hundred homes would be sold on the free market to subsidize the project.

Read a full report in Wednesday's Jackson Hole News&Guide.