Downtown Truckee Housing Project Gains Traction

Article Written By: Hannah Jones

Workforce housing may be coming to downtown Truckee, as developers have submitted an official application to the town.

The project, at 10002 Jibboom Street, has mainly been used for public parking in the past.

“We want locals building local housing,” said Sean Whelan, a Truckee resident who is developing the project with his partner Kevin Sloane.

The Residences at Jibboom housing project will consist of 83 units in four buildings, with 49 rental apartments, 34 for-sale residential units, a 1,294-square-foot laundromat and a 484-square-foot retail space. For the first 30 days the units are available, only locals may rent or buy them. After that period they are open to anyone. All rental units, however, will require a year lease.

Whelan said they plan to work with the Truckee Downtown Merchants Association to better connect with local employees.

“All of the units are going to be marketed to locals, whether they are for rent or sale,” Whelan said.

Truckee’s inclusionary housing ordinance requires all residential projects to designate 15 percent of their units as affordable. Out of those units he said they will designate one third as very low income units, one third as low income units and the other third as moderate income units.

Affordable housing is defined by the town as units affordable to extremely low-income households up to above moderate income households. Very low income households earn no more than 50% of the median income, low income households earn no more than 80% of the median income and moderate income households earn no more than 120% of the median income. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Truckee is $89,154.

“I developed a lot of property outside of Truckee Tahoe area,” said Whelan. “I locked on to this because most of my friends don’t have places to live.”

TRUCKEE TRANSFORMATION?

If the project is approved, the units will be developed in two phases. The first phase will see the construction of the 49 rental units including the 15 affordable units. The 34 for-sale units will be constructed afterward.

The project includes 66 parking spaces on site with 30 spaces along High Street. Whelan said residents in 15 of the units will also be offered a car sharing program with restrictions that would prevent them from owning a car.

“It’s an innovative way to cut down on parking and offer more amenities,” he said. “I’m hoping Truckee is going through a transformation and people are going to walk to work. People can live downtown and work downtown,” he said.

The project has been in the works for two years. “We’ve been trying to work with the town to come to some general consensus of what the project looks like,” Whelan said.

“Currently they are working on the environmental documents for the project, which should take around four months,” said Whelan. “They will take the project in front of the planning commission sometime after that.”

Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at hjones@sierrasun.com or 503-550-2652.