Achieving Our Policy Goals

April 2020 - March 2021

Held the line for good planning in Northern South Park

The Gill family applied for a 300-unit subdivision of mostly agricultural land in Northern South Park. Such a subdivision and rezone would have likely increased land values by hundreds of millions of dollars. We advocated for requiring a fair amount of community benefit in exchange for this windfall – specifically, making most of the new homes permanently affordable to the full range of local incomes. Local realtors estimated the proposed “workforce” homes would cost between $1.2-1.9M. The landowners did not agree to this condition, and we applaud Commissioners Propst, Barron, Macker, and Epstein for denying the request and instead starting the ongoing “neighborhood plan.” The landowners then pushed ahead with a previously-zoned plan to subdivide 83 new parcels for mansions near the high school. We hope the neighborhood plan will lead to new options that meet community goals for affordability and conservation and landowner goals for profit.

Achieved Ecosystem Stewardship Staffing

Despite the Comprehensive Plan’s vision statement “Preserve and protect the area's ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community and economy for current and future generations,” local government had no measurable goals, action plans, or staff that addressed our ecosystem stewardship vision—until now. We and our partners in the Systems of Conservation group asked the Town of Jackson to create an Ecosystem Stewardship Department. Led by Councilor Jonathan Schechter, the town answered the call and proposed funding its first Ecosystem Stewardship Administrator position. We led a grassroots campaign to support this position and as of July 1, 2021, the Town of Jackson officially funded this new position and department! Next, we’ll ask the County to join in.

Codified the Commercial Growth Cap

In 2015, the growth lobby tried to get Town Council to add millions of square feet of commercial / lodging development potential to downtown Jackson. This backfired: the community rose up and spoke up for “Housing, not hotels,” and the Council and County Commission jointly agreed to not increase commercial development potential in town or county zoning. Five years later, a new Council and Commission officially wrote the cap into the Comprehensive Plan Policy 3.1.a: “we will adhere to our Vision by ensuring there is no net increase in overall development potential. Beginning in 2012, increases and decreases in allowed residential and nonresidential development have been annually tracked and reported.” This is a major win for the long-time Alliance campaign to “Grow Smart – Grow Slow”!

Stopped some of the worst ideas at Snow King

The Forest Service approved many of the Snow King investors’ harmful proposals over very wide and clear community opposition, and we have been sad to watch large clearcuts all over our Town Hill this summer. On the bright side, we stopped some of the worst ideas, like a yurt camp way out in the backcountry, two more ziplines, ebikes on trails, and a gondola/zipline landing in the middle of Phil Baux Park. We hope new staff at the Forest Service will reconsider approving a "Phase 2" that would bring an additional 15,000sf of ridgetop development, a mountain bike park in elk calving range, and more ski runs in core northern goshawk territory. Overall, we are grateful to everyone who showed up – without you, the outcome would have certainly been much worse!

Published Accountability Checks and Conservation Vote Round-up

By tracking and sharing conservation and community votes throughout the year via Accountability Checks and the annual Conservation Vote Round-up, we help our members stay up to date with important decisions. This allows people to easily hold our elected representatives accountable – the backbone of a healthy democracy.

Campaigned for Heli-No Resolutions

After a year of ignoring overwhelming community sentiment against intrusive heli-tours over public lands including Grand Teton National Park, Tony Chambers applied for another permit in early 2021. Unfortunately, the Federal Aviation Administration is ignoring clear evidence of the danger of the Robinson R-44 helicopter (both to passengers and with potential wildfires from a crash on public lands). The JH Airport Board scolded Chambers for violating his operating agreement over the Park but ultimately granted the permit due to FAA requirements. In response, both the Teton County Commission and Town of Jackson passed unanimous resolutions calling for a congressional ban on all helicopter tours out of Jackson Hole Airport. With our partners at the National Parks Conservation Association we continue to raise people power to fight this dangerous nuisance.

Photographs for this article generously provided by T.L. Wilson, ChangingFocusPhotography.com