Wyoming public land housing project spurs debate over land use

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A western Wyoming housing project’s public-private partnership between the Bridger-Teton National Forest and nonprofit Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust has sparked debate over whether housing development supports or undermines land stewardship. Operating under what advocates are calling a “first of its kind” 30-year Forest Service special-use permit, the project aims to provide essential worker housing on public land.

“It’s not a lease. It’s not a sale,” Jackson Mayor Arne Jorgensen told WyoFile, comparing it to agreements ski resorts have to build infrastructure on national forest land. “It’s an agreement between the Forest Service and other entities that say, ‘you can use this property under these conditions.’”

The Jackson Town Council voted unanimously last week to initiate the annexation of the 3.15-acre forest parcel. The council will need to vote three more times to make the annexation official.

The property abuts the Cache Creek trail system, where residents and visitors hike, bike and walk their dogs. Project plans call for building 36 affordable homes, with 13 set aside for Forest Service employees and the remaining 23 designated for local workers who meet income qualifications through the Housing Trust. While annexing the land does not guarantee development, it would make it possible to connect the homes to the town’s established municipal water and septic systems.

The lack of essential housing 

Employee housing is critical for maintaining public lands, according to Scott Fitzwilliams, who retired from the Forest Service after 35 years and served as supervisor of the White River National Forest in the Colorado Rockies. Federal employees are needed to take care of public lands, which include wildlife habitat conservation, trail rehabilitation and fire prevention, he said. 

“What we’re looking at is the future without workers,” Fitzwilliams said, if there’s not a solution to house workers on or near the lands they manage. 

The affordable housing crisis has only worsened in mountain towns across the West in the three decades since Fitzwilliams worked for the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Jackson earlier in his career. Seeking to address the issue in 2023 on White River National Forest, Fitzwilliams authorized the lease of 11 acres of Forest Service land in Dillon, Colorado, for affordable housing under the 2018 Farm Bill.

“We should have been thinking about this 30 years ago,” Fitzwilliams said. “We have a county like Teton County where 98% of the land is federal land. If we’re going to have employees that work for the land agencies or doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters, we’ve got to do something about this affordability issue.”

Like Fitzwilliams, Phil Hocker has watched the problem play out over the decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hocker lived on Nelson Drive, which borders the forest administrative land where the 36 new units are planned. A longtime conservationist, Forest Service watchdog and former Jackson resident, Hocker sent an open letter in October to Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor Chad Hudson. In the letter, Hocker details his support for the Nelson Drive housing project. When he lived on Nelson Drive decades ago, many of his neighbors were federal employees. Living in Jackson Hole has shaped the attitudes and spirit of many local wildlife biologists, recreation managers and forest planners, he told WyoFile. Nelson Drive was initially built to access Forest Service housing, he recalled. 

“The guy who lived next door to us was a range conservation expert,” Hocker said. “Now, the Forest Service is caught in this housing bind. If you move employees to outside communities, it will be an immense loss. Loss to the town. Loss to the conservation around the town and a loss to all of Wyoming. And I think to all of the country.” 

While Hocker remains neutral on incorporating private-sector units on the Nelson parcel, he conceded that compromises must be made to help finance federal housing projects. 

But housing private-sector employees on public lands is a no-go for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. While voicing support for federal housing on public lands, the group’s conservation director, Catherine Hughes, told WyoFile that private residential use on federally owned land would set a troubling precedent for the community, state and nation. The project’s special-use permit could provide a blueprint to other communities and slowly chip away at public lands.

Fitzwilliams doesn’t see it that way. When responding to the possibility that this special-use permit could open the floodgates for development sprawl on public land, the retired supervisor described the alliance as “chasing ghosts.” Building housing on “administrative sites” is not going to create a public land “free for all,” he said. 

Only administrative sites — underutilized federal lands with already existing housing structures, offices or warehouses — are designated for housing, he said. Leasing federal lands should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, he added, noting that the Nelson Drive project would access a “tiny piece of already developed administrative land that could demonstrate a real benefit for the community.” 

The Forest Service isn’t the only federal agency looking to federal land to house staff. Just down the street, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken steps to bump back elk exclusionary fencing to make room for worker housing at the agency’s East Broadway headquarters. Last fall, National Park Service staff staked out a location for 12 proposed employee housing units on Grand Teton National Park land bordering the unincorporated hamlet of Kelly on the park’s eastern edge, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported. 

Greased skid or slippery slope?

The federal government designated the Nelson Drive parcel as an administrative site decades ago, Mayor Jorgensen said. The town has heard public concerns about the potential privatization of federal land and worries that this project creates a “slippery slope.” While understanding people’s concerns, Jorgensen supported the addition of private units to create a sustainable funding stream for federal housing. As for precedent, Jorgensen didn’t want to speculate on what other communities might do.

“I can’t speak to other places,” Jorgensen said. “I can’t speak to how this gets applied nationally. This is a solution that works for us in a very complex housing market. If we choose not to find ways to support our public land managers, then we’re going to degrade their ability to manage our public land.”

The fear surrounding the potential loss of public lands is understandable, Fitzwilliams said. He noted Sen. Mike Lee’s, R-Utah, push to add a provision to President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill to authorize the widespread sale or transfer of public lands.

“I don’t trust this administration when it comes to public lands one bit,” Fitzwilliams said. “We’re watching the deliberate dismantling of public lands across the board.”

But the Nelson Drive housing project is about protecting public lands, not dismantling them, he said, calling it a great example of public-private collaboration to solve a critical problem. Since the Forest Service lacks the needed resources to construct its own housing, Fitzwilliams said that a partnership is needed to generate the necessary funding. 

The Nelson Drive project will be funded through a combination of private and public funds, including local Specific Purpose Excise Tax money (a voter-approved 1% sales tax), the sale of “first-right-of-rental” options, philanthropy, commercial financing and a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust Executive Director Anne Cresswell. All of the rental revenue will be used to service debt or pay for operating costs, such as insurance and snow removal, she said.

“What the [Forest Service] does have is the land,” Fitzwilliams said. “So the agency says, we’ll provide the land, if you provide the building. So, it’s just a great opportunity.”

Drew McConville, a senior fellow focused on land conservation at the Center for American Progress, drew a distinct line between massive land sell-offs and regional land acquisitions that can help serve communities and benefit adjacent open space. 

“When it comes to smaller, isolated transfers,” McConville said, “most conservation organizations are not opposed in principle to all public land transfer sales because, at the end of the day, it can lead to net benefits for public lands and conservation.”

No matter how large or small the acreage, McConville recommended a reversionary clause to allow property to return to federal ownership if public needs are not met or if public lands are not improved. The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance has called for the special-use permit to include a provision that restricts housing units exclusively for publicly employed individuals. If private-sector units are offered, Hughes said that housing should be prioritized for federal, state, town and county workers.