Category: Uncategorized

On February 5th the Town Council is expected to reconsider the text amendment it recently passed that would allow 4-story buildings and increased development potential throughout the Town’s NH-1 zone. The Council should reverse its previous decision and reject this text amendment. If Town’s intention is to facilitate intense development of housing on the former site of the Virginian RV Park, then changing the zone of that single parcel to CR-3 (a zone that already allows four stories) is a much better solution.

The text amendment is too broad. Higher density and taller buildings that might be appropriate for the Virginian project are not appropriate for the West Kelly Ave. or Rancher St. NH-1 neighborhoods. The predominantly single family West Kelly neighborhood is already struggling to assimilate the large apartment building at 440 West Kelly. The proposed text amendment would allow a developer to combine lots and build a massive building that is even taller. Is this text amendment a foreshadowing of the kind of development the Town has in mind for the Fairgrounds next door?

On the east side of town there is a dense node of NH-1 zoning at Rancher and Hansen embedded within quiet neighborhoods with limited access to services or arterial roads. Doubling down on this already thorny planning problem would force even more traffic to filter through the single family neighborhoods that surround the Pioneer Homestead. This text amendment opens the door to the development of a huge 4-story apartment complex on the far edge of Town adjacent to the Putt Putt Trailhead. Rational land use planning requires that high density should be focused into the commercial corridor of Town where large/tall buildings won’t loom over single family homes, and where residents won’t have to drive in order to get to work, services, and shopping. Far east Jackson is not the place for 4-story buildings.

This hastily conceived text amendment undermines the laborious planning and public input that went into creating our Comprehensive Plan and LDRs. Town Council should reject the NH-1 text amendment and instead implement CR-3 zoning to get the desired result for the Virginian project. There is no reason to put the character of the entire Town at risk when there is a more appropriate and targeted solution available.

Dear Town Council,

Here are some thoughts regarding the proposal to update the Residential and Short Term Rental Definitions and Requirements by changing the definition of short term rental to include any rental of less than 90 days:

1) The Status Quo should have significant weight. In contemplating changing the status quo regulatory environment that homeowners depend on there is a heavy burden on Council to make the case for why removing a long held right from property owners is justified and that adverse consequences have been thoroughly examined. Without clear evidence that this change will preserve worker housing it seems like a purely punitive move. The ability to rent month to month is a convention that has existed in Jackson Hole and throughout the country since our founding. Removing that right is a radical proposition. 

2) A Local worker exemption is a good idea. Skyrocketing property taxes are putting local working class homeowners in a bind, and they may need to rent out their houses periodically to avoid being forced to sell, so accommodating that in updated regulations is good. But I’m concerned this would necessitate the intervention of a government bureaucracy designed to determine who is a remote worker, who is a working local, or who is retired. This would be invasive and put this class of formerly unencumbered, free market homeowners into the “system” as if they were government subsidized homeowners. Is this a glimpse of our future? The Town taking control of our property, and then allowing us some of our rights back via an appointed board that decides if we are working or retired, or allowed to leave on vacation, in order to determine if we are eligible to rent out our house or not? Will older residents be incentivized to leave the workforce in order to qualify for the exemption?

3) What is the limiting principle? If the Town can claim the power to remove the traditional norm of month to month rental, can the Town go beyond the 90 days proposed and raise the minimum to 180 days or eliminate the ability to rent completely? Can the Town dictate who free market homeowners can rent to or sell to? This could be the continuation of a dangerous trend of overreach by the Town. Middle class homeowners seem to be targeted by the Town to have their property rights limited and their property values suppressed for the benefit of the wealthy employer class. Is this a slippery slope?

4) Tenants and landlords in the working class housing market need the option of month to month leases. Month to month leasing is a very useful option for landlords with working class tenants. Removing that option will cause the working class rental market to function less efficiently, and will undermine Town’s efforts to provide more worker housing.

5) This is government mandated wealth transfer from the less affluent to the more affluent.

In general there is already a dramatic economic divide between property owners in the non-Lodging Overlay parts of Town, and those who own properties in the Lodging Overlay and out in the County. Singling out the already restricted property owners of Town for further restriction while property owners in the Overlay and in the rest of the County are allowed to continue to rent short term without interference is a further transfer of wealth from an area of Town that has the highest density of working class homeowners to the Lodging Overlay and the County where the property owners are the most affluent. You are building a deeper moat around the property values of the wealthy at the expense of the less affluent. Is that your intention?

Any restriction on the ability to rent housing in the working class neighborhoods of Town should be accompanied by a reduction in the ability to rent in the Lodging Overlay and in the County at large. I support restricting growth and limiting the commercialization of Jackson Hole across the board. If you only target radical restrictions on the one area of the valley with the highest density of working class homeowners you will be complicit in a government decreed wealth transfer from the less affluent to the most affluent.

Best Regards,

Judd Grossman

50 Rancher St.

New houses maxing out F.A.R. on small lots look like cruise ships going through ship locks. They  are changing the character of our neighborhoods. The LDRs should encourage structures that are more congruent with neighborhood character. 

The addition of ARUs to our quiet residential neighborhoods is a problem. This practice violates the explicit intent of the Comp plan to maintain the status quo density level within stable neighborhoods. ARUs add the potential for double or triple density. They should be confined to high density areas, and they absolutely should count against the valley-wide build out cap.

I vehemently oppose the suggestion that we should eliminate single family zoning altogether. This would totally undermine the Comp Plan’s character districts, and radically subvert our Town Periphery neighborhoods which are specifically designated to provide a less dense interface with the wildlands that we border.

Spreading density throughout Town’s residential neighborhoods is also bad planning from a transportation perspective. Development in the periphery is car-centric. The smart place to increase density is in the urban, commercial corridor of Jackson on investment properties through mixed use development. Density in this corridor could provide new residents with the opportunity to easily walk to work, services, and transit – eliminating the necessity of owning a car. The worker shortage is a problem for employers that should be solved by employers either on site or in the commercial district.

Lasty, I’m extremely concerned about a particularly neglected demographic – Working Class Free Market Homeowners. These are people who have invested their life savings in their homes. They have made innumerable sacrifices to pay their mortgages and maintain their homes. Most have supported and worked in our community for decades. Reengineering their residential neighborhoods in contravention of the Comp Plan is pulling the rug out from under these residents – all in the name of providing new workers for the insatiable commercial machine that is devouring Jackson Hole. Providing more workers for high end restaurants and 5 star hotels, providing public housing subsidies for lawyers, PHDs, and other elites should not be done at the expense of the quality of life of long time working class property owners. There is no moral high ground in destroying quiet neighborhoods or using taxpayer subsidies in order to bring in new workers to suppress wages so that rich people can have less expensive servants. 

It’s also important to note that the proposals to increase the minimum rental period from 30 days to 60, 90, or 180 days will put further pressure on working class homeowners. Given the skyrocketing, highly regressive property tax bills we face, increasingly the only way to stay in our homes may be to move in with family for a month while we rent out our houses to help pay the tax burden. Proposals to put additional restrictions on the ability of working class homeowners to rent their property is particularly infuriating given that in the rest of the county the wealthy class flaunts the short term rental laws, earning thousands of dollars per night.

You should be protecting our beloved residential neighborhoods, not urbanizing them. You should be honoring the Comp Plan character districts, not undermining them. You shouldn’t be placing undue burdens on working class homeowners in order to cater to the wealthy class’ desires.

The huge new clear cut in what was once pristine forest coming down from the peak of Snow King Mountain is probably the largest environmental scar I’ve seen created in our Town. The selective concern we have for the environment in this community is stunning. The damage caused by ski areas and subdivisions is similar to that of drilling, mining and logging – but more permanent. Our environmentalism is performative and hypocritical. We wring our hands over idling cars, light bulbs and recycling, meanwhile the industrialization of our wild lands, and paving over of our open spaces is encouraged if it advances our selfish desires. With all the thrilling beauty Jackson Hole has provided us you would think we would be motivated to be better stewards of this magic valley.

Dear Parks and Rec Board Members,
I’m writing to comment on the May Park Master Plan.

The plan calls for quite a bit of development, and 73 parking spaces. It seems like that number of parking spaces is wildly inappropriate for a neighborhood park that one would expect would be mostly accessed by walking or biking. That number of parking spaces seems to anticipate May Park becoming some sort of destination park that will generate a massive amount of car traffic. I don’t think that vision is appropriate for a park that is embedded in a low density neighborhood, and runs counter to the community’s intention of reducing vehicle trips and encouraging less impactful modes of transportation. You should drastically reduce parking on Rancher St., and the design of the Hansen Ave. parking area should have much less parking, and better accommodation for vehicles that are dropping off and picking up people. It should be designed to be big enough to comfortably accommodate a micro-transit van, or a circulator bus, and to allow those vehicles to easily return to Hansen Ave. where they can take either a left or right turn.
I also think P&R should scale back some of your “improvements” on May Park. The park is very nice as it is. A passive, peaceful place for neighbors to gather, picnic, and recreate in a natural setting.  Any amenities added to May Park should also be added to other parks in Town, so that residents have access to those amenities in their own neighborhood and don’t need to drive to another neighborhood adding to our traffic problems. If P&R wants to add something unique to the May Park Plan I think the character of the park would be better served by continuing the equestrian component rather than replacing it with dog park / pickleball / tennis courts, etc.
Sometimes less is more.

Welcome to another summer at the National Elk Refuge Road Go-kart Track. Side-by-side off-road vehicles are destroying the solitude of the Elk Refuge Road and the forest beyond. It’s only getting worse. Our peaceful neighborhoods and wild places continue to be sacrificed to feed the commercial machine.

Vote against the 1% General Revenue Sales and Use Tax increase. If the government wants more money let them propose a SPET project, so that the public has more control over the spending. Government has a responsibility to provide first responders, a court system, basic infrastructure (roads, sewer and water), land use planning, and beyond that please leave us alone. Unfortunately, our electeds and their supporting bureaucracy are very ambitious, and confident that they can spend our money more wisely than we can. Increasing the general revenue tax will allow electeds carte blanche for more invasive and expensive ideological mischief. Keep the government circumscribed within a budget that requires hard choices, just like the rest of us have to make. Adding 1% in additional tax is actually a 16.66% increase in the amount collected. If they get their 7% will that be enough? Probably not. I suspect they will keep trying to raise taxes as long as we keep giving in to them. You work hard for your money vote to keep it in your pocket. 

Here are some comments about the latest draft of the Comprehensive Plan update:
Growth: Growth isn’t making Jackson Hole better. The only growth that makes any sense is workforce deed restricted housing in the commercial corridor. Please stick to the 1994 cap numbers for residential development.Climate change provisions: These are unnecessary government intrusions into individual freedom that will have infinitesimally small effect on the problem of climate change while costing enormous amounts of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Conservation as a bi-product of other planning goals (reduced development, preservation of open space, energy use cost savings) is fine. Otherwise, build us a Gen IV nuclear reactor to cost effectively reduce our carbon footprint, or just stop with the virtue signalling about climate change.
Affordable housing: Workforce deed restrictions are the only ones that are fair. Income based dees restrictions provide a perverse incentive for workers and employers. The worse you do the better deal you get on housing. This damages the morale of the middle-class who are trying to benefit from working hard and making good decisions – when people are rewarded for the opposite, why bother? Workforce based deed restricted housing should be available to anyone to buy or rent, but only full-time local workers should be able to live there. Prices should be whatever the market will bear with the deed restriction. In the commercial corridor there should be large bonuses in FAR for 100% workforce deed restricted housing. Housing should not be subsidized by anyone other than employers. Density bonuses in exchange for workforce deed restricted housing are the “free money” that the government can offer to get more housing stock.
“Policy 5.3.b: Preserve existing workforce housing stock” – Should be removed. This provision seems suspiciously leaning towards restricting the sale of homes by retiring workers. These kinds of restrictions along with taxpayer subsidies for affordable housing force parts of the middle class to subsidize other parts of the middle class so that rich people can have less expensive servants. It’s better to let the market set the cost of land and the cost of labor. Government should build housing for its own employees on land that it already owns (Like the project on Snow King). Encourage workforce deed restricted units in the commercial corridor (near Broadway and Cache from Smith’s to Dairy Queen). This is the appropriate place for density. Leave our beloved neighborhoods and open space alone.Don’t try to restrict the price of the homes of local workers who are retiring and ready to sell. Government regulations already prevent these middle-class people from renting short term while wealthy people in the County have free reign. Government regulations seem designed to crush the middle-class while subsidizing everyone else – including the wealthy. 
Jobs should pay well enough that people can afford to live here or commute here without government subsidies. We need to stop creating, promoting and subsidizing low paying jobs.

Minimum wage laws are an unwise intrusion into the free market. Wages should be a private agreement between workers and employers. 

Government should stay out of the daycare business. Most government interventions into the “needs” of workers pass through as subsidies to employers and promote growth.

Alternative modes of transportation are generally unrealistic, relatively unpopular, and often unpleasant. Residents should have a choice as to their mode of transportation. Automobiles are obviously the most efficient and useful means of transportation for our residents. Working people that need to carry tools have no other choice. We need to limit population growth, and expand and connect our roads so they can function properly for car traffic.

Stop raising taxes. Local government is already too big, too expensive and too intrusive. I don’t appreciate being asked to give more of my money to the government where electeds then use it to pander for votes. Government employees get better pay and better benefits than the private sector workers who support them involuntarily through their taxes. Not good.

Sidewalks are inappropriate in the Town periphery. Street lights are disruptive of dark skies and rural character in the Town Periphery. These Town Periphery neighborhoods are recognized in the Plan as low intensity interfaces with the surrounding wildlands. Stop imposing urbanization on this character district.
3.4: May Park Area – This is the wrong place to add density, because it’s on the edge of town and much of the traffic generated by development in this area has to filter through Town Periphery neighborhoods. Planning 101: don’t put density on the quiet edge of Town.

The Comprehensive Plan has become breathtaking in its scope and invasiveness. While I support protecting neighborhoods and open space the all encompassing control over the freedom of individuals in our town contained in this document is troubling. Elected officials and unelected bureaucrats have entirely too much control over the daily lives of our citizens.
I have over the decades been a big supporter of the Comp Plan – mostly in an effort to keep Jackson Hole from being over developed, and hopped up into small pieces with sprawling suburbs. But now I’m having serious concerns about whether the Comp Plan monster has gotten completely out of hand. Not only has it become a neighborhood destroyer rather than preserver, it has also become a vehicle for controlling huge swaths of our lives, and allows those who wish to rule over us free reign to mold us according to their utopian imagination. Climate change, subsidized housing, tax increases, and whether we can drive our cars are all baked into the behemoth. When push comes to shove I’ll take freedom over conservation, and I think it’s a wise choice. Why are you making me choose?
The middle class is getting crushed between the rich and the subsidized classes. There will soon no longer be a middle class, only the subsidized and the subsidizers. The demoralized middle class is burdened by this plan with higher taxes, suppressed wages and ever more restrictions on what we can do with the assets we have painstakingly accumulated. Restrictions that the rich can weather with relatively little pain, but the middle class finds crushing. Why make good decisions and be prudent with our money when the reward is subsidizing others who weren’t.
Please do some trimming of this overgrown document, before it gets even more out of hand.