The Blaine County School District continues to move ahead with plans for a teacher housing project.
"It is nice to be a part of an organization that is leading the efforts in community housing," said school board trustee Alex Sundali.
The school board continued to take action to support a teacher housing project at the Tuesday, March 8, school district board meeting. The district has proposed a teacher housing project in conjunction with plans for an elementary school located east of Woodside Boulevard in Hailey.
The board approved the submittal of an 11 lot planned unit development agreement to the City of Hailey. The PUD application was submitted in conjunction with the Woodside Elementary project. During annexation agreements with the city, the district agreed to exchange a portion of the property in lieu of paying a $40,000 fee.
According to the district, the proposal provides nine lots at the north end of the Woodside property designated for housing needs. The preliminary plans call for eight units on the nine lots.
At the board meeting, the board also reviewed a landscape plan for the project.
In order to develop specific housing plans, the district formed a committee to address housing needs. The committee, consisting of a broad cross section of district employees and community members, is working to develop housing specific to the needs expressed by the district's staff.
Specific needs were recently identified through a survey conducted to quantify the district's employee housing needs. A questionnaire found the 78-percent of the employees who did own their own homes desired to live in the community in which they worked. Almost 85-percent of those surveyed stated a need for a two or three bedroom home. The survey also confirmed the majority would not mind deed-restricted homes as long as they were able to own the home.
The district indicated they are working with Advocates for Real Community Housing, Blaine Ketchum Housing Authority, Neighborhood Housing Service and the Blaine County Education Foundation to further housing plans.
