JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Town Council on Monday evening voted 3-to-2 in favor of restructuring the downtown parklet program fee schedule after in-person public comment from eight community members.
As defined by Town of Jackson, a parklet is a “small public gathering space, utilizing one or more on-street parking spaces that combine elements such as seating, landscaping, shade and/or lighting.” Ultimately, Council voted in favor of preserving the parklet program with a $2,000 price tag per parking spot and an annual payment requirement. Councilors Devon Viehman and Alyson Spery opposed the measure. The parklet program began in 2020 as a free opportunity for businesses to respond to COVID-19’s social distancing practices. From 2023 to 2025, each parklet cost a flat fee of $3,500 per season.
Council stated that multiple emailed comments were received ahead of the meeting. Five of the in-person comments came from representatives of businesses that utilize parklets in the downtown commercial core, who were grateful for the chance to host a parklet but asked for more notice when discussing major changes, especially to pricing. One comment was related to the compounding parking woes of the Town Square area; one commenter asked for permission to apply for a parklet as a commercial kitchen owner; and one comment came from a restaurant owner who sees parklets as an unfair expansion of capacity. The Councilmembers’ conversations touched on parking issues, the value of a parking space, and the value of the vibrant touch the parklets bring.
“I think we can all really appreciate the ingenuity and responsiveness of our community during COVID,” said Spery. “The pandemic brought out some of the best amongst us to rally and support one another going through a really difficult and uncertain time.”
While all of the Councilors more or less agreed that the parklets liven up the downtown corridor and strengthen the pedestrian experience, they disagreed on how to continue the program. A major part of the discussion was the decision to make changes this close to the program’s April 30 start date. Councilors Kevin Regan and Viehman suggested holding off on a more serious conversation until more data could be gathered, but were in support of raising the cost somewhat this season. Spery took the comments about unfair restaurant advantage seriously and suggested charging $94 per day per parking space — the same as the fee charged for using a space during construction. Councilor Jonathan Schechter and Mayor Arne Jorgensen had high praise for the vitality added to the downtown experience, though they were both in support of raising the cost to Town staff’s recommendation of $2,000 per parking space for the season.
“I am comfortable with parklets,” said Jorgensen. “The right of way is a public amenity, and we’ve all acknowledged that. And it’s limited to a range of uses, whether it’s pedestrian, whether it’s parklets, whether it’s bicycles, whether it’s parking, they all have that. I think we narrow our vision of what we can be downtown if we think about it just as parking. To me — many of you have heard me talk about thriving as a community — this is what that looks like. … Range of eating opportunities matters.”
Town Council decided to forego a limit of total parking spaces available for the program this summer. There was also talk of diving deeper into determining the value of a parking spot on Town Square before next parklet season.
“You can look at parklets about parking spaces, but you can also look at it as a policy decision about aesthetics and feel of the community,” Schechter said. “Basically what we are doing, by allowing the parklet program to go on or to get rid of it, is saying what we as a body believe that this brings to the community, in terms of the feel, the aesthetics, the enlivening, … we are ranking that value higher than we value 18 parking places, because we think that this adds something. That’s a fundamental public policy decision.”
