Here were my comments at the 12/1/25 Council meeting:
“The Putt Putt trailhead is not an appropriate location for this development. The Forest Service study of the Nelson parcel and its conclusions are vague and inadequate. Town shouldn’t accept it at face value.
Over the past decades the Forest Service promised the neighbors that any housing on the Nelson Parcel would be similar in density to the existing Forest Service housing, and that it would be exclusively for Forest Service employees. This proposed development is double the density of the existing Forest Service housing and only a minority of the new residents will be Forest Service employees.
Federal wildland, far from services and shopping, embedded in quiet neighborhoods is the wrong place for high density. Everyone in these units will have a car and will drive through a quiet neighborhood to get to services and shopping adding to traffic pressure in the neighborhood and throughout Town. Over and over again we make the same mistake of allowing development out on the edge of Town where everyone will have a car and add to our traffic problem.
Your staff report conspicuously fails to consider the planning implications of adding high density on the periphery of Town. Where is the traffic study for this project? The proposal for Town to become an investor in this project should trigger a broader consideration to assure congruence with the Comprehensive Plan. Town may not have a say over what happens on Federal Land, but it also shouldn’t be investing in projects governed by other jurisdictions that violate the principles of good planning.
The proper location for dense development is in the urban core of Jackson along the highway commercial corridor – where the Forest Service happens to already own land.
The slippery slope of using federally protected wildland to expand the urban boundary of Jackson in order to subsidize the housing of under paid private sector employees is terrifying. As stated explicitly in our Comprehensive Plan, our protected federal wildlands are the #1 reason that Jackson Hole is the amazing ecological treasure that it is. We shouldn’t be sacrificing public wildland so that private businesses can increase their profit margins and continue to expand. This is a land grab to serve corporations and rich people that is hiding behind a thin fig leaf of housing a few public servants.
Town investing in this development creates a huge bias that prevents the Town from watching out for the concerns of the neighborhood. Town Council would become the prosecutor, judge and jury for yet another instance of inappropriate development. Who is watching out for east Jackson’s stable neighborhoods if the Town is an investor in this project? Who is watching out for the Crystal Butte wilderness? Who is protecting our public lands from development?
Town should leverage any investment, annexation or sewer and water hook ups for a reduction in the density of this project and assurances that private sector employees won’t be housed on this public land.
Thank you.”