When can a community afford to say no?

Teton County Subdivision Moratorium Leaves Question: Where to Go?

By Lucia Stewart, 6-12-08

A moratorium on all new 20-acres or more development applications in Teton County, Wyoming until Dec. 31, 2008 has left a litigious air in the majestic Jackson Hole Valley.

Teton Meadows Ranch filed a lawsuit last week to reverse the moratorium, which was approved by commissioners one day prior to the development’s scheduled hearing.

The moratorium has essentially killed their 500-unit, 288-acre development in South Park, 4miles south of Jackson, which contained the condition to rezone the rural 50-home zoning allotment — a density 10 times more than is currently allowed. In exchange, they proposed 250 units for affordable housing, those with the annual income of $47,700-$149,000.

But the moratorium also bans the use of up-zoning tools to increase density until the 1994 Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan is updated (completion is projected Fall 2008).

Many residents began “emergency” conversation with the commission in March when two additional projects, both in the South Park area, submitted plans for rezoning to allow 614-units, a total of over 1,000 new residences projected in the area.

Jackson faces a tough challenge of how and where to grow. Overflow from Teton County, Wyoming over Teton Pass into Teton County, Idaho has become rampant.

The joke is often, “the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires” who are moving over the hill to Victor and Driggs, Idaho, driving up land values, leaving these small towns with huge overhead in new infrastructure, while the commuters are not assisting in driving the local economy except in gas and tire sales.

This created the small staff of the Teton County planning board to also become knowledgeable on development moratoriums. In March 2007, after 6 new subdivisions with 4,224 lots were submitted, county commissioners decided to place a 182-day “emergency” moratorium on ALL new development. It made for long public meetings, threats and police protection to commissioners, and a contentious air that has still not settled.

The Sonoran Institute recently put out a report, “Growth Impacts in the Teton Region of Wyoming and Idaho,” which discusses commuter economics, bedroom communities and a working wage in an overpriced market. Dennis Glick, Director of the Northern Rockies Sonoran Institute, expands on this report in an interesting Western Perspectives article on Headwater’s News today, click here.

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