SUMMIT COUNTY — The quest for affordable housing may require some changes to local master plans, county planning director Jim Curnutte said during a county commissioner work session on Tuesday.
  Some parcels of county land that potentially could be used for housing projects is currently designated as open space. Under that zoning, devel­opment proposals may not be able to conform with master plan guidelines, Curnutte said.
  The commissioners want to ramp up efforts to map housing parcels. But a crucial first step is to update basin master plans.
  “Unless we do something proactively, we could run into problems … If it’s zoned as open space or natural resources, it could be tough to upzone,” Curnutte said.
  There is some flexibility in master plans, since they’re considered adviso­ry documents.
  But when it comes to land-use desig­nation, the plans are fairly tight, said senior planner John Roberts.
  In a memo to the commissioners, planners said the issue already has cropped up during a preliminary review of affordable workforce housing sites, specifically on national forest property in the Snake River Basin that someday could be traded to the county. The review suggested it would be difficult to win approval for housing projects because of “significant incon­sistencies with basin master-plan land­use designations.”
  Curnutte and Roberts outlined a few different scenarios for making the changes, including a community-wide meeting to create more awareness about the need for more affordable housing, followed by work sessions with the var­ious basin planning commissions.
  Other approaches would be to work with town governments to identify suitable locations, to develop a new affordable-housing policy as part of the county’s overall master plan, or even to create a new, stand-alone affordable­housing strategy.
  The commissioners directed staff to pursue a mix of options, with a commu­nity- outreach element tabbed as critical. “We need 3,000 units, and the hous­ing initiative was just the first drop in a very large bucket,” said Commissioner Bob French, referring to the voter­approved referendum that generates housing funds via sales tax and devel­opment- impact fees.
  Curnutte said the general idea is to make sure that housing is seen as a county-wide issue that needs to be addressed comprehensively.
  He used an open-space parcel near the Summit Cove recreation center as an example of a site that could be suitable for affordable housing. But without first cre­ating some leeway in the master plan, it could be all but impossible to get approval for a housing project on that land.