Various events will be held this fall, many of which will take place on Jackson's Town Square. Photo: Nick Sulzer // Buckrail

JACKSON, Wyo. — The Town Council of Jackson will consider updates to the Land and Development Regulations in order to establish a new historic preservation program, updated town square zoning standards, and create a new town center design overlay protecting the western character. 

A town council workshop will be held on Oct. 19 from 1-3 p.m. 

The meeting will be used to identify historic resources valued by the community and to gauge community interest in historic preservation. The workshop will also help to define what “Western Character” means to the community and how that relates to the town’s design guidelines. Updates to town square zoning boundaries will also be discussed. 

Specifically, some key proposed changes include a historic preservation register that would provide a list of historic structures in town, incentives to protect sites so that historic structures are not torn down, and western character design guidelines for the Town Square area. Gill Avenue, Willow Avenue, Pearl Street, and Millward Street are defined as the downtown zoning boundaries. 

In an introductory video explaining the project, planning director, Paul Anthony said, “The standards for the town square zones are not that different from the current standards. There is not a desire to make any major changes to the town square, we don’t think the town square is broken, therefore we are keeping most of the same standards in terms of height and setbacks, but there are some exterior architectural changes mostly through those design guidelines that we do hope the public will focus on.” 

The Teton County Historic Preservation Board and the Town of Jackson have joined together to complete this project. They have hired the Winter & Company consulting team to lead the efforts. 

The public is asked to review the proposed changes at the project’s webpage and to take a short survey. The deadline for the survey is October 1. Comments can be submitted at any time to Tiffany Stolte.  The town’s goal is to adopt the updated regulations and design guidelines by the end of 2020. 

Lindsay is a contributing reporter covering a little bit of everything; with an interest in local policies and politics, the environment and amplifying community voices. She's curious about uncovering the "whys" of our region and aims to inform the community about the issues that matter. In her free time, you can find her snowboarding, cooking or planning the next surf trip.