Industrial Rezone and an Event Barn

Newly posted agendas put two contested land-use decisions on the county calendar. On Monday, July 13, the county commission opens a 10 a.m. hearing on an industrial rezone of 14 acres north of Victor, a change the county's own planning commission recommended denying. The next evening the planning commission takes up a permit for a 383-person event barn off Highway 33. Monday is also the federal deadline to object to the Grand Targhee expansion, and the county's objection is on the agenda too.

Monday, July 13 — an industrial rezone, the county budget, and the Targhee deadline

The Teton County Commission meets in Driggs, with a public hearing set for 10 a.m. on the Corner Fox comprehensive-plan amendment. The applicant asks the county to redesignate 14.25 acres about three and a half miles north of Victor on Highway 33, from a mixed agricultural and rural-neighborhood designation to industrial and research, with a companion zone change from RN-5 to Industrial-Research. The county planning commission recommended denial in a 3-2 vote in May, and the City of Driggs filed written opposition calling the proposal commercial sprawl inconsistent with policy that directs commercial development toward existing population centers. The commission makes the final call.

The same meeting carries the draft FY27 budget and a schedule of new and increased fees, along with the county's formal objection to the Grand Targhee expansion. That objection meets a hard deadline: July 13 is the last day to file with the Forest Service against its draft decision on the resort's plan to expand onto national forest land. The county's objection rests on the argument that it bears the service and emergency-response costs of more visitors while much of the tax benefit flows across the state line to Wyoming.

The Teton School District 401 board meets at 6 p.m. at the district office, with the district's two-year supplemental levy headed to voters in November.

Tuesday, July 14 — an event barn, Tetonia's wastewater study, and Victor code

The Teton County Planning and Zoning Commission opens at 5 p.m. with a public hearing on the Smallwood Ridgeline Ranch event barn, a special-use permit for a facility for up to 383 people on an 80-acre parcel about half a mile west of Highway 33 on 2500 North. A priority-wetland overlay covers part of the property, and the county received written comments from neighbors opposing the permit; staff recommends approval with conditions on hours, lighting, and buffers. A second hearing at 5:20 p.m. takes up a proposed Agricultural Protection Areas ordinance, and the commission continues its rewrite of the county's natural-resource-protection code.

The Tetonia City Council meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall on Perry Avenue. The agenda carries a draft review of the city's wastewater facility planning study, a professional-services contract tied to state environmental-quality funding, and adoption of the city's preliminary FY27 budget.

The Victor Planning and Zoning Commission holds a 7 p.m. public hearing on two items: a code-text amendment creating exemptions for water connections under certain conditions, and a short plat dividing a 0.75-acre parcel at 96 W. Birch Street into five lots. The commission recommends on both; the City Council decides.

Thursday, July 16 — Music on Main

Music on Main returns to Victor City Park with Family Worship Center and Easy Chair. Gates open at 5 p.m.

The week of July 20 — the councils return, and Victor's open seat

The Driggs City Council meets July 21 at 6 p.m., and the Victor City Council meets July 22 at 6 p.m. Victor's is the one to mark: the council is expected to begin filling the seat that opened when it appointed Councilor Sue Muncaster interim mayor on July 8. Music on Main returns July 23 with Deltaphonic.

Calendar

Date	Event
Mon, Jul 13, 10 a.m.	Teton County Commission, public hearing on the Corner Fox comprehensive-plan amendment (14.25 acres north of Victor, industrial-research); also draft FY27 budget and signing of the county's Grand Targhee objection
Mon, Jul 13	Federal deadline to object to the Grand Targhee expansion (Forest Service draft decision)
Mon, Jul 13, 6 p.m.	Teton School District 401 board meeting, district office
Tue, Jul 14, 5 p.m.	Teton County P&Z: Smallwood Ridgeline Ranch event barn permit (383 people); Agricultural Protection Areas ordinance hearing at 5:20 p.m.; natural-resource-protection code rewrite
Tue, Jul 14, 7 p.m.	Tetonia City Council: wastewater facility planning study, a state environmental-quality funding contract, and FY27 preliminary budget adoption
Tue, Jul 14, 7 p.m.	Victor P&Z: water-connection code amendment and five-lot short plat at 96 W. Birch St.
Thu, Jul 16, 5 p.m.	Music on Main, Victor (Family Worship Center with Easy Chair)
Tue, Jul 21, 6 p.m.	Driggs City Council
Wed, Jul 22, 6 p.m.	Victor City Council, expected to begin filling the vacant council seat
Thu, Jul 23, 5 p.m.	Music on Main, Victor (Deltaphonic)

What We're Watching

The Corner Fox hearing asks the commission to write an industrial designation onto the Highway 33 corridor north of Victor, on land now set aside for agriculture and rural neighborhoods. The next evening, the Smallwood event barn tests how the county handles a large-assembly use on a parcel with a wetland overlay, the same week the commission works on the natural-resource-protection code that governs such sites. Both land-use decisions arrive as the county sets its FY27 budget, where the cost of sheriff's patrol has become a public question, with one commissioner proposing the cities help pay for deputies.

What to watch: whether the commission adopts the industrial rezone its planning commission recommended against, and that Driggs opposed.

The Two-Week Ahead: An Industrial Rezone Hearing and a 383-Person Event Barn