Discussion on the Teton County – Town of Jackson Comprehensive plan changes that would allow residential development of land in northern South Park will move forward to allow public input thanks to a vote by the Town Council and County Commission on Monday.
After two hours of conversation about joint planning and which board had jurisdiction over the zoning of the land, all commissioners and a 3 to 2 majority of the town council voted to begin public comment on the proposed developments.
During the meeting, some on the town council argued that the Town of Jackson officials should have an equal say on the planning of the property, all of which is located outside the city limits.
Commissioner Mark Baron said the county wanted to move forward expeditiously on getting the land zoned and said the town has a different motivation than the county does saying, “I frankly, don’t have a lot of confidence that we’re able to work together on this.”
Barron said that the county wanted to get workforce housing on the ground.
Councilman Jim Stanford asked commissioners for Teton County, “Do you support continuing with joint planning or are you going to turn your backs on 30 years of that?”
Mayor Pete Muldoon told commissioners that he wasn’t even interested in a discussion of northern South Park saying, “I don’t think it is the right time.”
Commissioner Mark Newcomb said he was committed to joint planning, but the fundamental fact was that the land was not in the town. Newcomb stated that this vote was not the final plan for development saying, “We are just trying to get it out to the public for comment.”
Councilman Arne Jorgensen stressed that his concern was that the combined town and county planning efforts should continue. “In the next 45 days I would be looking to the commissioners to engage with us in a discussion about what the plan looks like”
Jorgensen indicated that the town could gain jurisdiction of the land by annexing it. He said state statute allows for annexation, but he said, “I’m certainly not putting that out there as a threat or putting it out there as something we want to do.”
