JACKSON, Wyo. — Mogul Hospitality Partners LLC was sent back to the drawing board on Monday, June 17, for their hotel and condominium development planned to encompass nearly the entire North Cache Street block — excluding the Cache Creek Motel and the property at 303 N. Cache — following the Town of Jackson’s denial of a request for a partial alley vacation.
The original sketch plan proposed a 290,000-square-foot three-story development, which includes 141 hotel rooms, 36 market-rate residential condominiums and underground parking. The property is located within the Town’s Lodging Overlay zone, which would allow the condos to be rented short-term.
Mogul adjusted the sketch plan after the Town Council denied its request to privatize a 20-foot by 360-foot portion of the alley from Mercill Avenue to Perry Street. In exchange for the alley, Mogul offered to create 30 affordable deed-restricted units in the building and pay for the Town’s portion of the center turn-off lane on South Park Loop Road, but the council didn’t bite.
Following the alley vacation denial, the Utah-based developer submitted a redesigned sketch plan, splitting the project into two structures, separated by the alley, similar to one of the design schemes initially proposed during the conceptual phase. But the Planning Department withdrew the application ahead of the June 17 Town Council meeting, taking it off the Council’s agenda based on LDR section 8.2.4.F, which states: “If at any point during the review of an application the Community Development Director along with the Planning Director deems that revisions to the application are significant enough to render previous reviews incomplete or obsolete, the Community Development Director along with the Planning Director may declare that the revision is a resubmittal or a new application and declare the original application withdrawn.”
“Such a declaration resets all review deadlines and processes, and the Community Development Director along with the Planning Director may assess a new application fee,” the LDR states.
Now Mogul will need to submit a new application, starting over with the process, with a review by the Planning Department and Planning Commission, before heading back to the Town Council for approval. If approved, a development plan can be submitted and would follow a similar process, again appearing before the Council for a vote before building permits are issued.
At the May 6 Town Council meeting, community members spoke out opposing the development, prompting Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson to make a motion to postpone the vote on the sketch plan. Following the continuation of the item, the Council passed a 180-day emergency moratorium on large-scale commercial building developments during a June 3 meeting, pausing all developments larger than 35,000 square feet.
The Utah-based developer’s project now falls under that moratorium, further delaying the project.
Community members voiced concerns about the scale of the building and its impact on the town’s character at the May 6 meeting. Concerns about the parking garage impacting the Town’s hydrology were also voiced at that meeting, with Protect Our Water Jackson Hole Law and Policy Advisor Kevin Regan pointing out that the groundwater in that area is between two and eight feet deep, but the garage is proposed to be 20 feet deep and could require permanent de-watering, estimated by Regan at four million gallons per day.
