Held up on the Square

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Excuse the double-negative but nobody wants nothin’ next door. Not those affordable housing kids; not that behemoth RV; not the Grand-obscuring two-story condo. Public comment sessions at Council meetings are usually filled with cranky citizens complaining about how their neighbor is cramping their lifestyle.

NIMBY’s ugly cousin is NIMBI (Not in My Business Infrastructure). Buffalo Trail Gallery played the ‘NIMBI’ card, looking to get out from under the crush of warm bodies, sometimes known as customers, created by the Shootout on the Town Square.

“We are not against the Shootout. I grew up with the Shootout, though I preferred it with the stagecoach and all that,” Pam Winter said. Winter peddles art in the Buffalo Trail Gallery, where Shootout crowds press against their front door and sit on their railings despite signs that say not to. “We are very concerned about safety issues,” she told the town council.

Last year, the Town moved the Shootout from the southeast corner of the Square to the northeast corner, where Gallery owner Leslie Still says her business has been negatively affected and so has Hines Goldsmiths. Winters and Still wondered if the gunplay couldn’t be moved to inside the Square on the grass.
The Mayor directed staff to look into the women’s concerns.

Don’t fence me in
With just the trickle of building applications coming in, the Town used the downtime to address pressing issues that had been put on the backburner during boom time.
“This has been on my radar for quite a while because there is little in the Land Development Regulations on fence regulations,” Town planner Jeff Noffsinger said.“I believe I have come up with something that is not overly restrictive but will tighten things up a bit.”

Since 1994, the Town of Jackson has defined a fence as something six-feet tall that didn’t fall over. That would make it a sidewalk. Noffsinger’s proposed amendment would add language requiring fences within the Town of Jackson be “attractive” and in good enough repair so as not to be “peeling, fading, or streaking.”

Even Constantine wire was addressed as Town code would outlaw the use of that razorblade, loop-d-loop security wire made fashionable by state penitentiaries.
“What about sharpened top spikes?”wondered Melissa Turley.
“What about electrified fence?” asked Mark Barron.

Mark Obringer finally put an end to the madness. “I don’t know why we would want any of this,” he said.

Mayor Barron thought the maintenance part of Noffsinger’s ‘fence-to-nowhere’ smelled a little like CC&R regulation. “I’m not comfortable with the town getting involved in the painting and upkeep of people’s fences,” he said. “It is a little vague and gives us too much power.”

The Council eventually passed some of Noffsinger’s LDR adds, opting out of acting HOA’s “paint police.” Only Turley and Greg Miles thought fence-builders should be babysat.


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Held up on the Square | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

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