Hole diggers and alcohol sales

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

By Jake Nichols

Bygone days
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Once was the time when the ‘fearless five’ tried to apply the handbrakes to runaway development. It seemed like only yesterday when the Council was merrily amending amendments.

The new year is off in a different direction. Bulldozers are parked, banks are foreclosing and developers have hightailed it back to the coasts. A town government formerly concerned with capping the height of buildings is now faced with filling the holes buildings were supposed to grow in.

“For example, the Eden Group project is a hole-in-the-ground right now,” began principal planner Jeff Noffsinger, explaining an ill-defined amendment that would clear up even more ill-defined timeframe deadlines for developers who have suspended their wrecking balls while they argue with bankers. “Rather than pull their permit, they could come to you with extenuating circumstances and get reconsideration because ultimately we don’t want to see a hole in the ground.”
Mayor Mark Barron agreed, essentially, with allowing ‘hole diggers’ a maximum six years from approval to raise their shadow-casters.

“It’s tough when you have a very serious economic downturn and ... halt in construction,” he said. “I don’t know to what degree, as a town council, we can fix the rules of financing which is causing the holes in the ground, and I don’t think we want to penalize the developer.”

Mark Obringer, a builder by trade, wondered why it would take an applicant so long anyway. “Anyone who takes longer than three years to build a [by-right] building is losing money. Six years seems like a long time to me.”

Councilman Greg Miles thought six years seemed plenty long enough and Melissa Turley was content with following staff advice allowing applicants to dawdle for up to six years as long as they were showing some kind of earnest progress.

Last call for alcohol
The Town Council is interested in stimulating the local economy by adding new businesses. When those new businesses want a liquor license, well, the Council isn’t that interested.

Mr. and Mrs. Weiss explained Vom FOSS to the esteemed panel. The German-based chain is essentially a sweet shop for grown-ups. The Weiss’s desired to open one of these European snake oil shops in Jackson but headquarters stipulate each franchise have a retail liquor license. In Jackson, such a commodity trades for about $350,000 on the open market. The Weiss’s wanted one of the Town’s for $1,500.

“It’s been my experience that when we open the discussion about liquor licenses, it is a lengthy process. It’s a long and complicated and a pretty big deal,” Obringer said. “And I think we have enough liquor licenses floating around out there.”
Barron, also, was reluctant to bang the gavel on the process that would sell off the town’s two available booze passes. “Because it is purely subjective, it tends to make for a lot of disgruntled people. It is just not a pretty process.”

 “I don’t think it’s our place to tell an applicant we don’t want to go down that road because it’s a pain in the butt,” objected newcomer Miles.

The Council put off deciding on whether to sell off the two remaining liquor licenses until legal staff could make sure the granting of such licenses were conditioned tight enough to disallow businesses to eBay their license for zillions after they went Chapter 11. JHW
PERMALINK:
Hole diggers and alcohol sales | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

Leave a Comment