Officials eye aggressive Plan timeline

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-County and town officials have proposed an aggressive schedule for completing a major overhaul of the Comprehensive Plan, and planners say they will have a new draft ready before the New Year.

At a meeting between Teton County Commissioners and the Jackson Town Council Monday, electeds were debriefed on community concerns submitted via emails and through an online survey during the last public comment period, ending in July.
About 60 people submitted comments, the overwhelming majority of them saying wildlife should be the community’s top priority and form the basis for the Comp Plan, county planner Jeff Daugherty said. A substantial number of respondents said planning staff is overly influenced by the development community. Others said the plan should reduce projected build-out numbers.

County commission chairman Andy Schwartz observed the responses were “consistent” with the bulk of public comment, noting 60 people in a community with an estimated 20,000 residents “were not truly significant numbers.” Schwartz asked planners how to consider the input.

Daugherty said the relatively low number shouldn’t be interpreted as a fringe of proactive residents, but might instead indicate the community so far, by and large, is satisfied with the plan’s direction.

“If I would have proposed six-story buildings in town, we would have heard from these folks,” Daugherty said, alluding to many residents’ desire to keep new buildings low. “There’s an argument to be made that we’re close.”
Commissioner Paul Vogelheim and town councilmember Bob Lenz were in favor of floating the public comment to the community in an accessible way.
“Ask the public,” Lenz said. “Do they see any major aberrations?”

Schwartz and others said it was important to show clearly how public comments were incorporated in the next draft, expected to be ready in December.
Planners are currently eyeing a 12-chapter plan revision that will aim to interconnect themes; hash out future land use planning maps; address community values, including stewardship of wildlife, responsible growth, transportation and housing; and provide regulations to implement the plan. Officials have disagreed on the length and amount of detail to go into a summary document, the everyman’s guide to understanding a dense planning document they said could clock-in easily over 100 pages.

Some electeds, including Vogelheim, said planners should enlist a professional writer – a “storyteller” even – to help write the summary.  
Commissioner Hank Phibbs said he was not clear if officials are actually creating a new plan from scratch, or if they were reworking the ’94 plan, which electeds said was the goal at the outset of the process last year.

Daugherty reinforced the new plan is in fact a revision, and that planners are currently working to draw links between the ’94 plan and the updated one.

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Officials eye aggressive Plan timeline | Planet JH News Article: Development

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