For years resort communities sought low cost housing for workers, now they may get them right next to ritzy houses

Stanley is one of the towns that is locked in making worker housing difficult. But the new bill by Republicans to sell off public land may put housing right near the expensive homes there.

For years ski resort towns like Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, Park City, McCall, Jackson and Driggs have sought low-cost housing to meet the needs of the workers.

Currently employees live as far away as Shoshone to commute to Ketchum because there isn’t enough housing for them. But now Utah Sen. Mike Lee and the Senate have an answer. Sell off our public lands.

The  proposed budget reconciliation bill includes a proposal to put more than 250 million acres of public lands across 11 western states up for nomination so 3 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands can be sold in the next five years for housing and infrastructure.

In Idaho that’s 21,685,823 acres.

So now if Congress approves this, “any interested party” can buy public land sitting next to Sun Valley’s McMansions and build housing for those workers.  The same for Utah’s Deer Valley. Or maybe Tamarack. They could do it around Boise and other Treasure Valley communities.

Congress approved the Sabtini-Burton Act in 1980 that allowed public lands around Las Vegas to be sold with the proceeds going to conservation. Democrat Sen. Harry Reid expanded the program in 1998 the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.  He wrote protections and extras to make sure the public was taken care of in the law.

This time the bill gives the secretaries of the interior and agriculture broad discretion to choose which places should be sold  and no guidelines to ensure the public gets more than dollars. It would allow major land speculators or foreign companies and governments to buy our national legacy.

But maybe now workers in resort communities will finally get their housing on previously public land right next to the rich homeowners where they work.  Those homeowners will thank Sen. Lee, Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo.

If you don’t like it, call them now.