Fall River Refiles Midway Substation

DRIGGS — Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative has filed a second application for the Midway Substation, returning to the parcel Teton County commissioners denied in March, with the wildlife study it concluded its first application had lacked. The county's Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hear it September 8.

Nine documents went up on the county's public hearing page on August 19, in a folder the county labeled "Fall River Sub Station 2nd Application." The application form is dated August 5.

Commissioners denied the first Midway Substation permit 2-1 on March 23, over the dissent of Commissioner Brad Wolfe, and adopted their written findings on April 13. The denial rested on two standards in the county's Land Development Code (LDC), both printed on the county's application form itself.

The first asks whether a use "is compatible with adjacent uses in terms of location, scale, site design, hours of operation and operating characteristics." The board found it was not.

The second asks whether adverse impacts "will be effectively mitigated or offset." On that standard, the written decision says the board "could not condition approval or otherwise effectively mitigate or offset" the impacts, and that "although buffering would be helpful, it would not be enough to mitigate all the adverse impacts."

Wolfe "expressed that he felt he could support approval of the application if there was a way to adequately mitigate visual impacts and noise," the decision records, while Commissioners Ron James and Dan Powers "did not believe other likely impacts such as visual impacts and potentially lower property values, could be mitigated."

Announcing in May that it was withdrawing its reconsideration, the cooperative said that "after carefully reviewing the commissioners' written denial, it became apparent that an additional study is needed that was not included with the original special use permit application." County staff then supplied the scope.

The commissioners' denial rested on two criteria. The planning commission, recommending denial in November 2025, had cited three; the extra one was for "LDC Chap 5 General Development standards not being met specifically, Section E about wildlife mitigation studies." The commissioners did not include it in their findings, and the special use permit application form still does not require a wildlife study, even though the county's development code has required habitat mitigation since 2022.

Chief executive Bryan Case asked the commissioners for direction in June. The last denial had brought "the addition of a wildlife mitigation study, and we just need to know what the expectation of the county is," he said. "We're going to reapply, but we want a complete application."

Fall River's second application answers the mitigation finding with more mitigation.

The wildlife study

The document at the center of the filing is a Wildlife Habitat Analysis prepared by Booker Grey Environmental in Tetonia. "A meeting with Mr. Joshua Chase, Teton County Planning Administrator, established the parameters for this study, emphasizing avoidance and minimization," the analysis states.

The study concludes that the substation would disturb about 1.75 acres of native grassland, which it characterizes as "the least valuable habitat" on the site, and would preserve the forested riparian ground along a seasonal fork of Darby Creek. Fall River offers 4.25 acres of permanent open space, against a county requirement of 3.5.

The narrative points to "the landscape buffering, the submitted EMF study, the submitted acoustics study, and the substation's unmanned operation." It adds the wildlife analysis and the open space, which it says will "offset potential wildlife impacts and create additional separation and buffering between the substation and neighboring residential uses."

Case reviewed the alternatives the cooperative had considered at the June meeting, including an industrial property on Log Cabin Lane he said had been priced beyond reach, but none of that is in the written file the commission will read.

Asked for its response to the finding that the impacts could not be mitigated, Fall River said in a written statement that the second application "addresses all the concerns previously brought to our attention," and that the parcel "remains the best site suitable for a residential substation that can provide electrical service to the growing needs of Teton Valley."

"There are many examples of other substations in the region that are in much more densely populated residential areas than what is being proposed by us in Teton County," the statement said.

It did not address the board's finding that mitigation would not be enough, nor did it say whether Fall River has asked what the subdivided Log Cabin lots would cost.

Hearing September 8

Chase previewed the September 8 agenda at a work session on August 25, before it was posted. "We do have four public hearings prior to that," he told commissioners, naming Fall River among them. "And we've got Fall River. So, I know that's a big one," he said, describing it as "same location, new application, but... sort of the same ask and some additional information."

The county has posted the agenda. Fall River's permit is set for 6:20 p.m., the last of four public hearings that evening. Neither a staff report nor a staff recommendation appeared at the time of publication.

Fall River Refiles the Midway Substation on the Parcel It Was Denied

The wildlife study

Hearing September 8

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