A draft bill to restrict development moratoriums repeats guidelines already established by the Wyoming Supreme Court and undermines community values and self-determination, critics of the measure told lawmakers Tuesday.
Representatives of town and county governments criticized the Construction moratoriums-limitations bill in a Zoom meeting of the Legislature’s Regulatory Reduction Task Force. No action was taken because the panel failed to assemble a quorum.
Nonetheless, lawmakers discussed the bill, which would limit development moratoriums to instances when local governments demonstrate compelling needs to protect or provide essential public services. It also would have limited a moratorium’s length.
The bill is unnecessary because the Wyoming Supreme Court has said that a county “has the power to impose a temporary land freeze,” said Jerimiah Rieman, executive director of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association. The court also outlined limits to moratoriums, he said, including that counties cannot “act so lethargically as to effectively confiscate private property.”
“Other people basically used an arm of the government to be a weapon against that project.”
Cindy DeLancey
Task force members had called for the bill after learning that Teton County, Wyoming’s only blue county and a target for state regulatory critics, had imposed a temporary moratorium this summer. The Jackson pause on buildings larger than 35,000 square feet allowed the town government to address a zoning loophole that would have allowed a 339,239 square-foot hotel complex at the town’s north entrance.
The Jackson Town Council resolved the issue Monday by passing ordinances to limit the size of individual buildings. Mogul Capital can still develop its property, just not with a single megastructure.
The task force’s moratorium-limit bill doesn’t give a community “the protection it deserves,” Jackson liaison Andy Schwartz told the threadbare group assembled Monday. The mega-hotel proposed by Utah-based Mogul Capital would have been “twice the size of the [Wyoming] Capitol,” he said.
Task force co-chairman Rep. Bob Nicholas (R-Cheyenne), the only member to appear in person at the hearing in Cheyenne, sought to rescue the group’s agenda as its charter runs out this year. Unable to take action on the moratorium measure and other bills, he scheduled another online meeting for Dec. 4 and suggested regulatory reduction be a permanent legislative initiative.
Last of the Old West
Schwartz operated a retail business on Jackson’s Town Square and said Jackson Hole’s image as the “Last of the Old West” is an important driver of tourism. Although the day of the lone cowboy may be gone, visitors still flock to boardwalks scuffed by Tony Lamas; Teton County generated more than 50% of the state’s mandatory 3% lodging tax in FY 2024.
Allowing a building the size of the Wyoming Capitol at a town gateway, “that’s not the impact that the community wants,” Schwartz said. “I don’t think [the bill] gives the community the protection it deserves.”
Cheyenne attorney Cindy DeLancey, former head of the Wyoming Business Alliance, Wyoming Heritage Foundation and the first woman elected as Carbon county and prosecuting attorney, questioned whether protecting community values was coming at the expense of property rights. Mogul Capital bought property “only to basically find it devalued … because people in the community [didn’t] like whatever that proposed idea was,” she said.
“Other people … basically used an arm of the government to be a weapon against that project,” she told the committee.
Jackson Town councilors imposed the expiring temporary moratorium on large buildings in response to public outcry and for “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, and welfare.” Large buildings are fundamentally altering the character of the town, the temporary moratorium ordinance states.
“Changes to that culture and character should be debated and discussed thoughtfully,” the Jackson Town Council unanimously agreed in the June temporary moratorium ordinance.
Schwartz’s testimony didn’t move DeLancey
“It just makes it even more egregious to me to hear that this moratorium was used to basically single out one individual,” she said. “I’m more convinced than ever that we do need to move forward with this bill.”
Moratoriums are a necessary tool for local communities as they organize their development, Melissa Ruth, a Wyoming Planning Association board member, told the committee. For example, Carbon County enacted a moratorium in 2009 to limit new strip clubs, thereby allowing commissioners to draft “sexually oriented business regulations.”
DeLancey served as the Carbon County attorney from January 2007 to December 2010. She advised commissioners on the legal time limits of a moratorium, according to meeting minutes.
Moratoriums can aid communities facing more than strip clubs or Capitol-sized hotels, Ruth said. Some towns and cities are seeing an influx of large data centers and warehouses, she said.
“There’s a lot of communities that do not have regulations or standards relating to what are commonly called large load electric users, things like data centers, data mining, cryptocurrency mining, things like that that have a significant impact on water, sewer, electricity and community character,” Ruth said. “There are communities that have put moratoriums in place in other states in order to draft specific regulations to address things like that.”
The task force has criticized Teton County and Jackson land use and zoning regulations, seen by some as a misuse of power to achieve a no-growth agenda while stepping on private property rights.
Where are the construction workers going to live while they’re building this monstrosity? Where are the motel maids, butlers, cooks, servers, desk clerks etc. who will number in the hundreds live while working for this huge place? Those lessons have been learned here in Carbon County with the Brush Creek luxury ranch employees taking up most all available rentals in a 40 mile radius.
The problem with this bill and concept of unlimited “private property rights”, it that it eliminates any accountability of the owners from damage to surrounding communities and custom and culture. Truly, tyranny of the minority. In the case of Jackson, a development group from out of state is going to level a whole city block to build their hotel/condo complex. Unquestionably, this would fundamentally change the character of the community. The other 15,000 souls that live in Teton County would have no say in the matter. Crazy thing is, the development group has spent untold millions of dollars to buy up the properties on that land. All to make more millions. How much money do these people actually need? They all have enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, so what’s the point? Also, look at the case of Mr. Ricketts wanting to develop his ranch near Bondurant. This development would change and destroy the fundamental character of this area. Nearly, all his neighbors and Wyomingites in general were/are strongly opposed to his plans. Why was he so hell bent on this project, especially with so much local opposition? The guy is 80 years old and has more money than he could ever spend. Objectively, no need or justification for it, one man shouldn’t get to make these kind of decisions just because he is rich and “owns the land”. Data centers are especially egregious. The waste of energy and resources are enormous, and are not vital for essential needs of civilization. This waste and associated hazards to local residents for a non-essential, industrial development, is objectively and morally wrong. No amount of property taxes generated for local government from these projects is worth allowing it to occur. There is very minimal benefit to Wyoming and Wyoming residents from any of these type of projects. They are only to enrich out of state investors or satisfy the ego of oligarchs. No one loves government intervention on private property, but there needs to be limits on what kind of activities can occur. Especially when development dramatically affects the local community, it’s custom, culture, quality of life, resources, and health. This bill takes away mechanisms for the community to shape how development happens.
Uncontrolled growth, as they say, is the ideology a cancer cell.
I don’t know much about the agenda of the regulatory reduction task force, other than the implication in its title. I did hear a presentation by two advisors from the Harvard Growth Lab in summer 2023. Their bottom line appeared to be that little to no regulation is the best economic growth model for affordable housing. They cited Houston as an exemplar. A version of that HGL presentation was given to the task force in Sept 2023. It is worth reading.
I would appreciate more reporting on the task force and its whisperers.
As an aside, since the article mentions data centers, the Republic of Ireland now houses approximately 82 such centers. It has an open economy, a bit like Wyoming’s. As of 2023, data centers consumed one-fifth of the country’s electricity. The figure is expected to reach 27% by 2028. It seems reasonable that local and national authorities have a decisive say about whether this should continue unabated, and to place a moratorium on them until a fix is in place. A free market does not fix everything.
Anyone who thinks Jackson Land Development Regulations have prevented growth must be blind. Try to find a local contractor who is not booked up weeks in advance. It sounds like some of your legislators need to get out and see the real world, not the fantasy they live in.
I have copied a quote directly from Mogul Capital’s website:
“Since its founding in 2005 Mogul Capital has focused on seizing opportunistic development and investment opportunities, particularly in the hospitality sector, to provide compelling returns on investment”….”Notably, the company has achieved a significant milestone by creating the largest fully volumetric built Marriot property, showcasing its determination to push design and construction boundaries.”
These statements illustrate exactly where Mogul Capital is coming from and what its interests are. And don’t forget about the proposed development plans in Jackson for The Loop; 194 luxury apartments. Perhaps they could be convinced to create affordable housing units instead. Ha ha.
Protecting those with a right to their legacies, heritages, communities, character, honest living, those are some things worth protecting in America & are what make America great. Protecting a company who wants to abuse their freedom & step into a town to take all they can is not OK. Not sure how anyone who isint from here or lived & worked here most of their life can have any say on this situation. You have no right just as we have no right to decide for you. Capital Mogul should have thought of these things before purchasing the land. How ignorant for them to not consider the situation they were stepping into. I have no empathy for them because they knew exactly what they were doing. I’m tired of these kinds of people constantly taking from us & we just have to take it. How more un-American can you be to do this to your fellow neighbors? Money isint God & it isint the mayor or governor. Just because that company has the $ to buy that land doesn’t mean they have the freedom to screw over people. It’s so similar to a country with more power being able to take from a humble country just because they can. I’m so disappointed our state officials who are supposed to represent us don’t see this.
Every community, in my opinion, has the right to regulate proposed commercial development. The nation’s economy is highly fluid, meaning that in a few years, it could shift in the opposite direction, as it has many times in the past. A downturn could lead to decreased visitation, leaving many developments underutilized and potentially harming the town’s economy.
Moreover, the current lack of affordable housing has already resulted in a shortage of workers to support existing businesses. Large-scale developments like this would only exacerbate these challenges, along with other issues.
Who are these people in public office in Wyoming? I’ve seen firsthand how these big companies think they can buy up whatever in Jackson & Teton County then take advantage of our situation here and exploit the f*** out of it. How can any public servant in the government be ok with that? These companies do not care about the people in this community. They care about taking as much as they can. Anyone who thinks these type of people should be able to do whatever they want are terrible people and shouldn’t be in our government.
Jackson today is a far cry from what it was in the 60s when I would spend the summers. Development has ruined the charm of Jackson. Leave Jackson along. No more monster motels/hotels… And remember the wildlife owns the mountains and we are intruder humans. Keep it safe for them.
In the culture of Capitalism, “progress “ has always been defined by growth and development at the expense of all else. Big money and the attendant attorneys will almost always prevail, so good luck to the unique qualities that have defined Jackson Hole.
Well put.
I remember when Jackson was a nice place.
No growth agenda my foot.
There has been exponential growth rate of visitors and building in the past 30 years in Jackson. So much so that my friends from other nearby WY counties, who do not commute for employment, won’t even come to town anymore. Many of the older hotels have upgraded, expanded and extended. With so little private land available and so much demand, reasonable development restraints and esthetic controls have to prevail in order to get it right.
If the gateway to Jackson doesn’t blend with the surrounding environment Jackson will become the gateway to nothing! Essentially its a common tourist town with an uncommon number of people passing through. The ” build it and they shall come” period has long since passed.