JACKSON, Wyo — Teton County Board of County Commissioners approved a conditional use permit for the Stilson Transit Center, along with four staff-recommended conditions at their July 16 meeting. Teton County is both the regulator and property owner for this project.
The four conditions relate to wildlife concerns: timing and workflow should consider wildlife permeability and impact it as little as possible, outdoor construction will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. October through March and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. April through September, lighting will avoid “skylining” which means “[Light from] physical development shall not penetrate the Skyline on buttes and hillsides, as viewed from State highways, Spring Gulch Road, South Park Loop Road and Alta County,” according to the County’s Land Development Regulations (LDRs). Landscaping inside the parking lot will be plants that are less palatable to ungulates and tree limbs will be at least 10 feet off the ground.
The new Transit Center will be built where the current gravel parking area is located and include six bus bays, covered bike parking, EV charging and a paved and lit parking lot with 385 spaces. Beckley Park Way will also be rerouted around the northwest side of the new Transit Center, aimed at creating better traffic flow.
Heather Overholser, Teton County Public Works Director, described the new Stilson Transit Center as “the cornerstone of the BUILD Grant,” which the county was awarded in September 2020 by the Federal Highway Administration.
The award totals $25 million and is funding the Teton Mobility Corridor Improvements project, which encompasses 13 projects on both sides of the Tetons. It is the largest federal transportation grant ever awarded to the county. Aside from Stilson, the project includes an updated park-n-ride facility at Driggs Transit Center, pathway and underpass projects along the Greater Yellowstone Trail to connect Wilson and Victor and new electric buses.
The BUILD Grant projects coincide with the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s (WYDOT) Snake River Bridge replacement project, which includes a new pedestrian underpass on the west side of the river and four wildlife crossings. WYDOT is also working on the WY22 Corridor project. They released a transportation study on the corridor in February.
Public comment on the Conditional Use Permit went on for over an hour with residents in the area speaking out against the development, partners sharing their support and wildlife advocates asking the commissioners to strike a balance for the wildlife in the area and the need for the updated Center.
Neighbors in the area shared that they found the new Center to be too big and too bright, and said it would bring too many people to the area. Some argued that the pavement could deter wildlife from moving across the area. Many called for a pause in the project and to reconsider previous steps before moving forward.
Conservation Director at Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Kevin Krasnow, Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation Executive Director Renee Seidler and Greater Yellowstone Coalition Wyoming Conservation Manager Jared Baecker spoke as well; all supporting the Transit Center, but advocating for stipulations to protect wildlife in the area from impact.
Seidler said that research shows that it can take five years for mule deer to start using a wildlife crossing and pointed out that it is still unknown how wildlife will use the underpass adjacent to Stilson on WY390/WY22. “In general moose and elk prefer overpasses, and we are sending them through underpasses,” Seidler said.
Baecker suggested the Commissioners “slow-roll future development’ to allow animals to have time to adjust to the new area.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Jackson Region staff weighed in on the development in a letter sent to the County’s planning department dated Sept. 23, 2023, warning of the impacts of cumulative development in key wildlife corridors such as this one and recommended an alternative site design location be assessed, to allow for a wider corridor between WY390 and any development so wildlife can use the underpass.
“We strongly encourage Teton County to consider a more holistic approach to planning efforts for the multiple projects slated to occur in the future near the Highway 22/390 intersection,” the letter stated.
The County did implement some of their suggestions surrounding the timing of the project, limiting working hours to daylight only and placing construction staging areas as far from the underpass as possible.
START Transit Director Bruce Abel, Teton Village Association Executive Director Meghan Quinn, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) CEO Mary Kate Buckley, Friends of Pathways Communications & Advocacy Director Sam Petri, Town of Jackson Public Works Director Floren Poliseo and Wilson Advocacy Steering Committee Member and local pathway advocate Tim Young all shared sentiments of support for the Transit Center.
Wilson resident Bill Schreiber, former Director of Planning and Engineering at JHMR, said he has been involved with the Stilson project since 1997.
“It’s a balance, I think most people in this room certainly care about wildlife and of course, traffic is a big issue,” Shriver said. “There has been a lot of work done to balance the different needs for the site. I would like to say that the issue of this being something that has all of the sudden come up because of the BUILD Grant is really a little misleading, we’ve been talking about modifying the design at Stilson for 10 to 15 years.”
In 1999, the Kemmerer family, who owned JHMR at the time, purchased the 99-acre Stilson property to create more parking for the growing resort. Then the Stilson Ranch subdivision was segmented off, with the Kemmerers retaining 43 acres. They later transferred 8.5 acres to the County in 2018 and in February, transferred 5.4 acres to Teton County, which will become the site of the new 2,900-square-foot Transit Center. The land transfer was applied as the local match requirement for the grant.
The Commissioners agreed that a balance for wildlife and getting the Transit Center built was their top priority.
“To me, the number one issue by far is simply creating redundancy for wildlife, because however we configure it, all of this is going to be there no matter what,” Newcomb said. “In my mind, putting a conservation easement on our county land and embarking in vigorous restoration to get more redundancy to the west is critical.”
Commission Chair Luther Propst agreed with Newcomb, saying, “In my estimation, we need a new version of the [current] Transit Center… At the same time, I think it’s equally or more important that we protect wildlife on the site.”
“Let’s think outside of the box about how to restore the ecological value on that site,” Propst said.
Commissioner Natalia Macker addressed the public’s concerns about lighting, clarifying with county staff that the lighting, spread across five circuits, can be dimmed and programmed individually. She said she wanted to see how the lighting impacts could be mitigated, to which staff said it could be changed day to day if desired.
Deputy County Attorney Abigail Moore pointed out that the county is the applicant and property owner so they can always decide to turn down the lights at any time. Moore noted that the Town will be involved in future decisions on the property because it will be operated by START, a jointly funded department, but the county can outline the aspects of the property they want to control.
The commissioners also spent time discussing the future development of their 8.5 acres with an interest in exploring an easement on that land, or on other county-owned land to mitigate impacts on wildlife. A proposal to build a softball field on the land was considered in November and was met with strong pushback from wildlife advocates for its proximity to the new wildlife crossings on WY390 and WY22.
With support from the Board, Chair Propst directed Public Works staff to compile a list of areas they could explore related to wildlife monitoring on the property, the pros and cons for a conservation easement on the county-owned 8.5 acres through an analysis of land and water, a vegetation restoration plan and an annual update on the ecological status of the property. Overholser said they could present that to the Commissioners on July 29.
JHMR retains nearly 37 acres of the Stilson property, with about 26.5 acres under the Teton County Scenic Preserve Trust easement. JHMR may develop its remaining acreage collaboratively or independently and asked the public for input, most recently in October.
