Growth & Land Use

DRIGGS — Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative wants to build its Midway Substation on residential land it already owns, the same site Teton County denied three months ago, and told county commissioners on June 23 that it passed on an industrial parcel nearby over a price it called too high.

The commissioners denied Fall River's special use permit for the residential site 2-1 on March 23. The cooperative then withdrew a reconsideration in May, after concluding its application was missing a county-required wildlife study, and has signaled it will file a new application. At a June 23 conference with the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Fall River reviewed the alternative sites it had evaluated and explained why it kept returning to the parcel it had been denied for.

Teton County is preparing a formal objection to the U.S. Forest Service's approval of the Grand Targhee Resort expansion. The resort sits on the Wyoming side of the state line, while the workers who staff it live in Idaho and strain its housing and services. Roughly 65% of the tax revenue the resort generates accrues to Wyoming, the county's draft objection states, and Idaho sales tax is pooled in Boise and returned to counties by formula, so a busier Targhee does little to change what Teton County collects. The Forest Service, the county contends, counted the project's benefits and dismissed the local costs as "outside the scope" of its decision.

ZOOM — More than 20 officials on a June 10 planning call converged on how to scope the interstate workshop the two Teton Counties are co-funding. They treat the U.S. Forest Service's May 28 draft Record of Decision on Grand Targhee Resort's expansion as the workshop's catalyst, not its subject, and sort regional responsibility across four axes: federal, state, county and municipal, and the resort itself.

VICTOR — The Victor City Council will decide Wednesday whether to reconsider its April 8 denial of the Market Street rezone, after the property owner's attorney filed a May 6 letter arguing that the council's written Order denies an application its Conclusions of Law say meets every applicable Victor Municipal Code standard.

VICTOR — The Victor City Council voted 2-1 on May 27 to annex the Birch Crossing parcel, a 13.38-acre county island east of downtown, and zone it for single-family houses, closing off the 158-unit workforce-apartment project D&B Partners, LLC had spent three months trying to build there.

ALTA — The Caribou-Targhee National Forest signed a draft Record of Decision (ROD) on May 28 approving a 694-acre Grand Targhee expansion, extending the resort's special-use permit boundary. The agency opened parallel 45- and 60-day objection windows on May 29, when the Idaho Falls Post Register published the legal notice.

DRIGGS — Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative withdrew its reconsideration of the denied Midway Substation special use permit on May 27, citing a wildlife study that was missing from its original application. The county added the wildlife requirement to its Land Development Code in 2024, but the requirement is not explicit on the permit application form.

DRIGGS — Teton County commissioners tabled their vote Tuesday on the Centennial Estates settlement, a proposed agreement that would approve a 14-lot subdivision near South 2000 East, which the county denied in 2023. Chairman Brad Wolfe said he had "a lot more questions now than I did before the public hearing," and the board sent the matter to executive session with its attorneys rather than vote.

DRIGGS — Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative has asked Teton County to reconsider its denial of the Midway Substation, setting a June 8 hearing on a project the county commissioners rejected 2-1 in March. Update, May 29: Fall River has withdrawn its request for reconsideration.

DRIGGS — Teton County commissioners voted 3-0 on Monday to deny the Sweetwater reconsideration petition on standing grounds, affirming the March 9 approval of the Sweetwater Subdivision Phase 1 preliminary plat amendment.

DRIGGS — Advocates for a Teton Valley YMCA presented an exploratory discussion to the Teton 401 school board on April 13, asking trustees to consider whether about 18 acres of district-owned land along Ski Hill Road, near Teton High School, Teton Middle School, and Driggs Elementary, might host a future YMCA campus. The item carried no motion or vote.

DRIGGS — Teton County commissioners on Monday tabled the Sweetwater reconsideration petition to May 11, holding off on a ruling until they receive further legal counsel on whether the 12 people who filed it qualify to be heard. The petition challenges the board's March 9 approval of an expansion of the Sweetwater Subdivision from 18 to 44 lots on the parcel adjacent to the Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport.

DRIGGS — Teton County commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to adopt Ordinance No. 2026-04-27, creating a "Drive-In Theater" land use category in the county's Land Development Code (LDC) and giving the long-stalled rebuild of the Spud Drive-In Theatre a clear regulatory path forward.

The Birch Crossing zoning decision landed on April 16 when the Victor Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the annexation but assigned RS-7 single-family to all 13.38 acres, closing off the 172-unit rental project D&B Partners LLC had scaled down and resubmitted over the previous month. The recommendation now goes to City Council, which has final authority on both the annexation and the initial zoning.

VICTOR - The Victor City Council voted 3-0 on April 8 to deny the Market Street rezone, a proposed mixed-use rental development on 7.4 acres between Highway 33 and Grand Teton Brewing, overriding a staff recommendation and Planning and Zoning Commission approval. Councilmembers cited unresolved questions about wastewater infrastructure and a comprehensive plan they say needs updating before the city approves more density.

DRIGGS — Idaho spends $51 per resident on state and federal housing programs, compared with $107 in Montana, $217 in Wyoming, and $1,150 in Colorado, Teton Valley Housing executive director Jarod Pfeffer told the Driggs City Council on Tuesday.

HB 583 rewrites Idaho Code § 67-6539 to limit the authority of cities and counties to regulate short-term rentals. The bill prohibits local governments from requiring licenses, permits, fees, inspections, or registrations to operate an STR, while preserving basic fire-safety provisions and existing tax collection authority. It passed the Idaho Senate 23-12 on March 10. Gov. Little signed it March 16, and it takes effect July 1, 2026. The legislature tried twice before, with failed measures in 2024 and 2025, to settle the tension between local regulation and property-owner rights in Idaho's growing STR market.

DRIGGS, Idaho — The Teton Creek Resort settlement approved Monday will cost Teton County $3 million. The county faced a $19 million judgment. The current Board of County Commissioners negotiated it down.

DRIGGS — The Teton County Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 on Monday to deny Fall River Electric Cooperative's application for a special use permit to build the Midway Substation, a new electrical substation between Driggs and Victor. The cooperative argued the valley's growth rate, roughly 2.3 percent per year, requires new infrastructure to prevent outages. The commission disagreed.

DRIGGS — The Corona Valley subdivision, a proposed 180-unit residential development, is moving through the Driggs planning process, with the development site located directly east of Teton High School.

ALTA — The U.S. Forest Service has delayed the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Grand Targhee Resort's proposed expansion, pushing the timeline back by four months.

VICTOR — The Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the proposed density for Birch Crossing, a 172-unit rental housing development on 10 acres near Birch Street and Baseline Road, at the March 19 hearing. Commissioners voted unanimously to continue the application and directed the developer to return with lower-density zoning, a requirement that would force a redesign from apartments to duplexes.