JACKSON HOLE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE

P.O. Box 2728

Jackson, WY 83001

(307) 733-9417

www.jhalliance.org

5/16/07 Jackson Hole News&Guide

It's Time to Evaluate Impacts of Planned Resort District

By Franz Camenzind, Executive Director and Kristy Bruner, Community Planning Director
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance

The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance commends Save Historic Jackson Hole for illuminating the magnitude of development that has been granted within Teton County’s Planned Resort District (PUD-PR). As the report presented to Town and County officials last week shows, the extent of resort development that has been approved, but not yet built, is massive. The process of collecting data for the report also showed that no one had been keeping track of the cumulative scale of these developments, nor complying with a commitment to monitor impacts through time. This is not a criticism of a very hardworking, often understaffed Planning Department, but rather an assertion that monitoring impacts is a critical component of enforcing our Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations [LDRs]. The need to designate a finite number of resorts is clearly articulated in the LDRs. Section 2180 B states: “The intent is that a limited number of Planned Resorts be created and only in locations that are consistent with the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan.”

Now, 13 years after this intent was declared, we need to ask - and answer - some important questions about the utility of the Planned Resort District. As a community, we owe ourselves the time to assess how these resorts influence our community character. Consequently, the Conservation Alliance supports a moratorium on new resort proposals (exempting current applications), and supports capping approved boundaries and densities of existing resorts. These measures will provide an opportunity to conduct the responsible evaluation that our community both deserves and expects under our Comprehensive Plan.

We do not suggest that resorts have failed to provide benefits to our community. We do suggest that the failure to evaluate unintended consequences, or to consider thresholds of acceptable change, simply contributes to a lack of awareness that could bring detrimental, irreversible change to our community and the landscape upon which our vibrancy depends.

Again, we commend Save Historic Jackson Hole for bringing information to the table, and for providing an impetus for further evaluation, so that critical decisions are made with genuine understanding of the Planned Resort District and how it’s related to other issues and development in our community.

Resorts have made positive contributions to our region, but we believe it is better that our community soundly define and shape resorts, rather than have resorts shape our community.

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The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to responsible land stewardship to ensure that human activities are in harmony with the area’s irreplaceable wildlife, scenic and other natural resources. The organization has 2,000 members from Jackson Hole and across the nation.