Teton County residents say state suit risks public safety but still seek cooperation

JACKSON — Teton County’s fight to maintain some oversight on state land will be in the hands of the District Court in Cheyenne.
Deputy Attorney General Brandi Monger signed a Dec. 21 legal complaint asking Judge Steven K. Sharpe of the 1st Judicial District to decide if the state has to follow Teton County’s land use and development regulations. The complaint also asks for “injunctive relief,” which, if granted, would prohibit the county from enforcing development regulations on state trust lands in Teton County.
County Commission Vice Chair Luther Propst said he was “perplexed” by the state’s move.
“We’re just trying to enforce our electrical standards and our wastewater treatment standards,” Propst said.
In November, the county started the process of abatement — or forced compliance — with Wilson Investments LLC and Basecamp Hospitality LLC. Basecamp has started, but not completed, construction on 11 “glamping” geodesic domes, and Wilson Investments has permits to put up 800 rental storage units nearby.
The county planning and building office found Basecamp to be in violation of seven regulations, including a failure to identify wetlands and starting electrical work without a permit. The county also found electrical work that county officials said didn’t look professionally done.
The work was permitted, though, by the State Board of Land Commissioners, the top five elected officials in Wyoming who are asking for the court in Cheyenne to stop Teton County from enforcing its regulations on the two developments.
Though the state has granted counties the right to enforce zoning to promote “public health, safety morals and general welfare,” Monger wrote in the state’s legal complaint, local government cannot override state law “and policies supporting it.”
Monger did not return a request for comment Tuesday to respond to questions about which safety inspections the state would require.
This is the third lawsuit since June regarding the 23-acre parcel near Teton Village.
The Teton County attorney’s office filed suit against the state in June, asserting that the state gave out less restrictive permits to skirt county regulations. 
Still, one condition of even the temporary use permits states that tenants are required to follow “all state, federal and local laws and regulations.”
Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens dismissed the case in October. The board couldn’t sue the state because it isn’t a person, she wrote, and therefore did not have the authority to request judicial review of a state agency’s actions. 
The second suit, filed by Protect our Water Jackson Hole against the state water quality oversight agency, spurred state water regulators to admit that they had incorrectly issued a septic permit.
The state’s most recent legal action has left some locals scratching their heads and searching for help.
“One would hope that the state’s response would focus on partnering with counties,” Jared Smith, a neighbor of the Basecamp development, said in a text. “Basecamp is in clear violation of numerous safety and health regulations including a non-compliant sewage treatment system and building without any required electrical or fire marshal permits.”
Teton Conservation District Executive Director Carlin Girard said he’s been following the land-use issues closely but is not sure how his organization could help. The Conservation District works with private landowners and government agencies on projects like water quality monitoring or irrigation and doesn’t typically get involved in whether development can happen. Usually the agencies come to the district for help.
The implications of the state’s lawsuit could be a game changer for Teton County.
“We’re starting to kind of envision what could be out there,” Girard said. “Full-scale development that’s under state control with no local regulation ... that’s a different scenario than we’re currently experiencing.”
The Teton Conservation District is open to public input on conservation priorities on state lands, he said, as the fate of those lands grows increasingly controversial and contentious.
State and county officials say they want to raise money for schools. The Wyoming Constitution and state laws require that state trust lands be managed to create a long-term growth in value and produce optimum, sustainable revenue.
“We want to generate revenue for the schools,” Commissioner Propst said, “We want to do so in a way that upholds Teton County’s approach to land development.”
But the state’s latest legal filing argues that if counties are able to control what happens on state land, the counties could jeopardize the state’s ability to fund public schools.
Other state agencies have taken a markedly different approach, voluntarily working with the county.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation, for example, subjected itself to a courtesy rezone to build deed-restricted housing for its employees in the Hog Island neighborhood. 

Eyes from the county Planning Department, Planning Commission and county commissioners slightly reduced the project’s footprint and gave neighbors a heads-up, though many were still unhappy.
Letting the county look under the hood of state work was to “make sure we don’t miss something,” said WYDOT Resident Engineer Bob Hammond.
Hammond said the housing project — the agency’s first — was not far enough along to know if the county would do fire and electrical inspections.
“There are building codes that need to be met that are universal,” he said. “We have a really good and close working relationship with the county.”
This is not the first time Teton County has stared down the barrel of top-down land-use decisions.
The 2019 Legislative Session saw several bills drafted out of local zoning disputes. One in response to the Jackson Hole Classical Academy’s school passed and stripped county authority to zone private schools. Another bill, which failed for the second session in a row, sought to prevent counties and towns from making developers pay for or build affordable housing to offset the community impacts of new development.
Though the state’s legal action concerns only about 23 acres in Teton County, the court’s decision could have implications for all school trust lands in Wyoming. 
That’s 3.5 million acres above ground and 3.9 million subsurface, which can be leased for mineral extraction.
Of Teton County’s approximately 2.7 million total acres, state trust lands account for 4,655 acres. That’s less than 0.2%. But in a county with some of the highest land values in the world, every bit is up for fierce debate.
Rising fears over local control slipping away spurred a 2022 ballot item to raise $8 million for competitive bids on state land that offer conservation, not development.
 
This story was published on Dec. 28, 2022.