JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Snow King Mountain Resort presented two additional draft base area maps to the Town of Jackson on Monday for submittal. Both maps are the result of a wide variety of community feedback Snow King Mountain to the resort’s Base Area Master Plan Amendment to the Town several weeks ago.
Snow King leaders said they heard a few concerns from locals, user groups, and Parks and Rec advisory board. Rather than all grass, people wanted to keep some sort of a small, pull-thru parking lot at the base for Phil Baux day-users and People’s Market vendors. Keeping the baseball/kickball field was also important as is maintaining the east-west ‘flow’ within the park between the ball field and the other amenities like the climbing rocks, picnic pavilion, and playground.
“We’re glad the Parks & Rec board stood up for our community and said no to the investors’ proposal to take over the ballpark,” said Skye Schell, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Executive Director. “It’s clear that the investors at Snow King didn’t listen to community input – it took a hard no from Parks & Rec for them to change their proposal. We hope the Town Council and Forest Service will stand up for our community too when they’re judging the boundary expansions, new lifts in wildlife habitat, zipline, and hundreds of condos at the base.”
“Community feedback continues to shape this process and we are listening to ideas and responses from locals and user groups,” said Snow King Mountain general manager Ryan Stanley. “We are presenting these revised maps based on Parks & Rec feedback as well as public comments. We will continue to listen and remain flexible in our proposal to the community and town based on public comments.”
The dual-concept maps show two different layout plans for the ball field/parking lot configuration. In Concept A, the field is pulled in off S. Cache St. and Snow King Ave a bit to allow for a parking lot along S. Cache and green space buffer on Snow King Ave.
In Concept B, the base area as it pertains to the ball field and current parking area is essentially unchanged. In both proposals, the new gondola falls side-by-side with the existing Cougar lift.
Other base area improvements are a second sheet of ice, Ski Club expansion, and a new Climbing Gym and Mountain Sports Training Center.
Youth Hockey and the Figure Skating Club are passionate about a second rink. Ski Club needs to expand its facilities, and the training center is something that would allow mountain athletes including the public to use to tune up for outdoor sports.
Stanley stressed nothing is set in stone. In fact, to save money, he himself is doing the “admittedly rudimentary” renderings as sort of a back of the napkin sketch so the public can see what SKM is thinking about.
Snow King will be hosting two “Coffee and Conversations” in the next several weeks for those desiring to learn about the new maps and provide feedback.
