Nearly a year after the
community weighed in on the first draft
of the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive
Plan, the long-awaited second draft was
released on April 13, 2009.
Since then, hundreds of people have voiced
concerns similar to ours outlined below
that this new draft plan will
not protect
what makes Jackson Hole world-renowned
-- our rural landscape and the irreplaceable
wildlife that it sustains. (Click
here for
our 8-page special report about the draft
Comp Plan.)
Despite concerns that problems with the
draft plan may be beyond the scope of the
public hearing process to fix, officials
are proceeding with a review of the draft.
(Click
here for a rundown of key recent
Comp Plan meetings.) The town and county
planning commissioners resumed public hearings
on July 30, and are meeting
each Thursday, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the
county chambers, 200 S. Willow, through
the winter to work their way through the
plan, making recommendations to improve
it. (Click
here for a link to the list of the
planning commissioners' recommendations
to date, and click
here for this month's
Alliance Action item on the Comp Plan.)
The Conservation Alliance will continue
to work to ensure that both planning commissions
incorporate the majority of public comments
to date to come up with a Comp Plan that
will actually protect Jackson Hole’s
wildlife, open spaces and community character.
Please check back for updates.
Click here for links to all of our comments
regarding the Comp Plan rewrite.
Click
here for the Alliance's detailed
comments on the draft plan's Introduction
and Vision chapters.
Click
here for our detailed comments on Theme
One (Promote Stewardship of Wildlife and
Natural Resources) and Theme Two (Manage
Growth Responsibly).
Click
here for our detailed comments on Theme
Three ( Uphold Jackson as Heart of the Region).
Click
here for our detailed comments on Theme
Four (Meet Our Community's Housing Needs).
Click
here for our detailed comments on Theme
Five (Provide for a Diverse and Balanced
Economy).
MAJOR CONCERNS:
Without fundamental changes, the draft
Comp Plan released on April 13 will
not protect
what makes Jackson Hole world-renowned
-- our rural landscape and the irreplaceable
wildlife that it sustains. The draft does
not represent the will of the community,
and it fails to provide good, predictable
planning in fundamental ways. (Click
here for our special 8-page report that
outlines our concerns and suggestions.)
The draft fails the community's mandate
-- and the original intent of the Comp
Plan update process -- to consider the
implications of buildout and evaluate the
consequences of overall growth in the valley.
Not only that, it appears that much of
the draft plan is based on a misperception
that our community wants more growth than
what's already allowed under our current
Comp Plan. This simply isn't true. Surveys
conducted in 2008 and written public comments
on the first draft of the Comp Plan indicate
strong community support for limiting overall
growth. (Click
here for our April 20 letter to planners
and electeds that gives details.)
The draft plan also:
- Proposes too much development overall
and doesn’t evaluate the consequences
of growth in the valley. The new draft
proposes MORE THAN DOUBLING the amount
of residential and commercial development
that’s already on the ground today.
Yet it does not analyze what effect this
much growth would have on our natural resources
(like wildlife and aquifers) or our built
resources (such as roads and schools).
Look around. Long-term trends show that
the region’s moose and mule deer
populations are already in decline (see
the article at www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=4632 for
state figures). We’re already facing
traffic problems, higher property taxes,
full parking lots at trailheads and a lack
of solitude on crowded trails. It’s
a safe bet that doubling the development
we already have could permanently degrade
what makes Jackson Hole unique.
- Implies that allowing
significantly increased development in
the Town of Jackson, Teton Village, The
Aspens, Wilson and South Park won’t
harm wildlife, but all these areas have
wildlife values. Also, the draft provides
no assurances that we’ll actually
get permanent protection for wildlife and
rural areas in return for increased density
elsewhere.
- Lacks an integrated approach
to land use planning decisions. For example,
it fails to acknowledge that the amount
of commercial development it proposes will
worsen, not relieve, our workforce housing
shortage. The fact is, we can’t grow
our way out of growth-related problems.
- Has dropped critical
language from the 1994 Comp Plan that was
specifically meant to protect our valley’s
rural character and scenic views.
Click
here for the Alliance's other "big
picture" concerns about
the Comp Plan draft, and click
here for
our preliminary comments. Throughout this
process, the Conservation Alliance will
continue to work to bring forward constructive
and specific suggestions to fix it.
Questions? Come to our weekly Comp
Plan discussions, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. each
Tuesday through the winter at the Alliance
office, 685 S. Cache. Or contact
Alliance community planning director
Kristy Bruner at (307) 733-9417 or Kristy@jhalliance.org.
PLEASE HELP:
Jackson Hole needs
your help to get the plan back on track. Please
read the draft plan and then comment
online at www.jacksontetonplan.com to
demand that it will do what our community
has repeatedly said we want it to do
-- protect Jackson Hole's wildlife, natural
resources, scenery and character.
You may also submit comments to:
Jeff Noffsinger, Jackson
principal planner, jnoffsinger@ci.jackson.wy.us
Town of Jackson, P.O. Box 1687, Jackson,
WY 83001
Alex Norton, Teton County
lead planner, anorton@tetonwyo.org
Teton County Planning Department, P.O. Box 1727, Jackson, WY 83001
Click here for a list of other people to
share your comments with.
The complete 157-page draft, as well as
about 480 pages of appendices, are available
as chapter-by-chaper PDF downloads via
the Comp Plan update website, www.jacksontetonplan.com.
Printed copies of the Comp Plan second
draft are for sale at Staples, 520 W. Broadway.
Staples is charging about $18 for a black
and white copy of the draft alone; with
the appendices, the cost is about $65.
Since the draft includes maps that only
make sense in color, Staples is offering
a mostly black and white version of the
157-page draft with just the maps in color
for about $27. A mostly black and white
version of the appendices with key pages
in color costs about $157.
You're also welcome to stop by our office
at 685 S. Cache (click
here for a map) any weekday between
9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to read one of our copies
here. Or, if you bring in a blank CD, we'll
be happy to burn a copy of the whole thing
for you to take home. The Teton County
Library at 125 Virginian Lane also has
a copy at the reference desk that you can
read there.
Meanwhile, please see “A
Comp Plan Update” below for additional
specific concerns. Our
detailed comments on the first draft of
the Comprehensive Plan are available by clicking
here. You might also want to check
out our recent article on the Comp
Plan and sustaining Jackson Hole, and “Balancing
Act,” our publication on growth
and the Comp Plan update. Pick up your copy
at the Conservation
Alliance office, 685 S. Cache, or download
the PDF.
Encouragingly, a number of neighborhood
groups are working to promote citizen involvement
in the Comp Plan, making it easier to stay
informed and providing opportunities to
work together to bring good ideas to the
process. Neighbors are getting together
in South Park, East Jackson, Wilson, Cottonwood
Park, North of Town, the Westbank and other
areas. Given the Conservation Alliance’s
mission to inspire citizens to stay engaged
in this community process, we encourage
you to get involved. If you’d
like to be included in the email list of
any of these groups, just email Kristy
Bruner at kristy@jhalliance.org and
she’ll forward your contact information
to them.
A Comp Plan Update:
Old
Versus the New --
Throughout 2009, the Conservation Alliance will continue to make recommendations
for the new Comp Plan, through both written comments and at stakeholder
group meetings. We'll continue to emphasize the importance of retaining
relevant guidelines and language from the 1994 Comp Plan that still speak accurately
to community input and issues. The 1994 plan is the one under which Jackson
and Teton County are currently operating,
and the revision is supposed to be an
update, not a rewrite. We still want
to see the protection of rural character,
scenery and a small town environment
as central elements of the plan. To date,
the new draft has appeared to shift away
from this underlying goal. For instance,
the 1994 plan specifies that Jackson
Hole's economic sustenance will not be
dependent on population growth; the new
draft states that "...the community recognizes
that ecosystem preservation and protection
does not preclude growth." More specifically,
our 1994 plan is a character-based plan.
Many have criticized it for lacking definition
and specificity. While it certainly could
use clarification in some areas, it actually
provides clear, fundamental direction
on what character means from a land-use
planning approach. Through its focus
on the preservation of rural character,
it intended to promote the preservation
of low-density characteristics throughout
the valley. It clearly linked community
values (preservation of open spaces,
scenery and wildlife habitat) to allowable
development potential. Less development
on the landscape would result in fewer
impacts on those key community values,
which remain of the highest priority
to local citizens. We will work to make
sure that these concepts and language
are not dropped, but rather clarified
and strengthened at finer scales.
Smart Growth – Where are the
Tradeoffs? --
Fundamentally, we will strive to make sure
the revised Comp Plan implements ‘tradeoffs’ that
truly work on the ground, and in action,
rather than in theory. Many proponents
of increased development and density
in Jackson (who tout smart growth) say
that taller buildings, upzones in town,
and increasingly confined development
footprints are good for the environment
because they enable the preservation
of open spaces and wildlife habitat in
the county. However,
a key element of this argument is missing.
THERE IS NO LINK BETWEEN THE INTENSIFICATION
OF TOWN AND THE PRESERVATION OF OPEN
SPACES AND HABITAT IN THE COUNTY. To
date, taller buildings in town do not
have anything to do with open space and
habitat protection. In addition,
impacts, such as the increased demand
for workforce housing generated by commercial
development, extend well beyond the sites
of developments. As a result, this argument
tends to not recognize the numerous indirect
impacts of further population increases
in the valley.
So, what’s the end result? As
larger projects in Jackson are approved,
density is permanently being added in town.
But there's no corresponding protection
happening for the county's
important scenic areas and wildlife habitats. Without
some linkage, we could end up with both
sprawl in the county and congestion
in town -- clearly NOT ‘smart growth’ for
Jackson Hole. It’s important to
understand that what might sound good in
theory, isn’t actually happening
in reality.
Undoubtedly, the Conservation Alliance supports
the application of smart growth principles.
However, we will work to ensure that land-use
decisions, and smart growth principles within
the new Comp Plan, are based on an understanding
of real conditions in Teton County -- not
theories. The public has made it clear
they do not support additional growth (beyond
that already allowed by current zoning) simply
for the sake of additional growth. Upzones
(to accommodate community needs) in one area
should be accompanied by downzones
in other areas. Implying that these linkages
exist, when they do not, is misleading. |
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