Dear Commissioners,
The County shouldn’t become an investor in the Nelson Drive Housing development.
The Putt Putt trailhead is not an appropriate location for dense development. The Forest Service study of the Nelson Parcel and its conclusions are vague and inadequate. We 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 a majority of the new residents will not 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 work, 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.
Where is the traffic study for this project? The proposal for the County to become an investor in this project should trigger a broader consideration to assure congruence with the Comprehensive Plan. The County 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 expanding the urban boundary of Jackson onto federally protected wildland is a red line we shouldn’t cross. 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 for any reason. Unfortunately, we all agree that protecting our wildlands is a top priority until preservation gets in the way of our financial or political interests and then it’s full speed ahead with the bulldozers. Sad.
You should be fighting against inappropriate development not becoming complicit in it. The County investing in this development compromises your role as a watchdog for the public interest. Who is watching out for east Jackson’s stable neighborhoods. Who is watching out for the Crystal Butte wilderness? Who is standing up to protect our public lands from development?
Regards,
Judd
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Judd Grossman