The deadline for online comments on the first draft of the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan was July 31, but general comments are still being accepted throughout the update process, and we urge you to stay involved. For a list of people to share your comments with, please click here.

While the Conservation Alliance appreciates the complexity of the Comp Plan update and the hard work by planning staff, we have significant concerns with the plan and process to date.

We're concerned that it pays lip service to community goals without laying the groundwork to accomplish them. Making the transition from broad goals, such as managing growth responsibly and protecting wildlife, to lines on the map is challenging. And granted, this is just a first draft of the plan. But it needs to start on the right track if it’s going to help sustain our unique community.(Click here for our full comments on the draft Comp Plan. You might also want to check out our “Big Picture” concerns about the Comp Plan update.)

Here are our major concerns:

1. Even though the Comp Plan’s framework and outcomes are entirely based on strong cooperation and coordination between the town and county, it’s unclear to what extent this is happening.

2. We believe the plan must address community issues much more holistically than it has so far. The draft plan provides no direction in the case of conflicting priorities, and undervalues the role of Jackson Hole as a unique gateway community with a critical role in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Recent surveys all showed that our community holds two common core values -- protecting wildlife and managing growth responsibly. But the draft plan fails to provide a way for these goals to be realized. The draft lacks a comprehensible and unique foundation for future planning in Jackson Hole.

3. The Comp Plan needs to address smart growth in a much more comprehensive way. The draft plan does a good job of outlining why a minimized development footprint is important for wildlife. But it doesn’t identify or analyze overall potential for residential and commercial development (e.g., potential numbers of additional dwelling units, residents and commercial square footage), or responsible rates of growth. From an ecological perspective, the draft plan appears to be based on inaccurate and incomplete assumptions. Overall reduced development potential must be a top priority in the Comp Plan -- both community input and planning principles support this approach.

4. The future land-use plan maps need significant refinement and clarity to determine to what extent the development footprint will be lessened, and whether the footprint is configured in a way that will protect both ecologically valuable areas and the community’s quality of life. The maps have caused confusion since it’s not apparent what they actually propose regarding specific locations, densities, proportion of development types and so on. Without clear representation, the rest of the Comp Plan is undermined. The maps are supposed to bring predictability to the plan, so a clear, detailed analysis of what they propose is essential.

5. It was our understanding that this process was an “update,” and not a complete rewrite or revision of our existing Comp Plan. We hope that significant language from our current plan will still be included, such as the importance of the relationship between the built and natural environments in protecting community character. Much of our community’s vision and perspective about what makes Jackson Hole so rare and valued still holds. We need to make sure we don’t lose sight of that.

6. The next stage of the update process must take a much closer look at what sustainability should mean for Jackson Hole. A key aspect of sustainability is the recognition of capacity, limitations and thresholds. How many more people, cars and buildings can Jackson Hole bear without permanent damage to the valley’s resources? To be sustainable, we must be willing to acknowledge the very real limitations in meeting different community goals within the context of the community’s top priorities -- to protect wildlife and to manage growth responsibly.

A strong, more predictable plan will be based on asking and answering the tough questions now, so that our community doesn’t have to keep dealing with them on a development-by-development basis in the future. What are the consequences of drastically increased residential and commercial development? What does increased development mean in terms of wildlife protection, workforce housing, scenic character, quality of life and fiscal impacts? What does the draft Comp Plan really propose and what are the potential consequences?

Answers about the next stage of the Comp Plan process are likely to unfold at the next joint meeting between the Jackson Town Council and Teton Board of County Commissioners, Aug. 4, 3 to 5 p.m., County commissioners’ chambers, 200 S. Willow. (UPDATE: At the Aug. 4 meeting, the electeds decided to schedule a joint workshop on the Comp Plan for Aug. 25, same time and location. Plan revisions that were expected in mid-August will now likely be postponed till fall, pending the outcomes of this workshop.)

Meanwhile, please check out “Balancing Act,” our publication on growth and the Comp Plan update. Look for it around town, pick up a copy at the Conservation Alliance office, 685 S. Cache, or download the PDF.