Spud Drive-In Permit Approved by County

DRIGGS — Teton County commissioners approved a special use permit for the Spud Drive-In on September 14, and the Driggs City Council voted the next night to extend the sewer will-serve letter. Together, the two votes were the last the project needed.

The permit the county granted carries 14 conditions, and the second one bars the drive-in from operating until its owners give the county "evidence of connection to, and service from, a public wastewater treatment facility owned and controlled by a municipality or a public utility provider." That's a very legal way to say Driggs, which has the only suitable plant near the property. On the morning commissioners voted, the city's will-serve letter for the Spud had expired on February 6, and two Driggs council meetings had taken place without renewing it.

The letter "had unfortunately expired," Jennifer Zung of Harmony Design & Engineering told county commissioners, and "we've been continued a couple times. The next meeting is tomorrow, so hopefully everyone shows up so we have a quorum."

When the city council reached the item on September 15, Sarah Johnston recused herself for the third time. She's previously cited a conflict of interest because she works for a company the applicant employs, and left the room at Mayor August Christensen's request. "Council, we have a quorum, so third time's a charm potentially," Public Works Director Jay Mazalewski told them. "This was approved back in 2024 and then expired, and they are continuing to move ahead. We're asking for an extension or reissuance." The motion extended the letter Driggs issued on August 14, 2024, setting a new expiration of February 6, 2028. All three voted for it.

Under the county permit, hours run from 8 a.m. to midnight. Events that fit within the site's own parking are allowed under the permit itself. Anything expected to draw more cars than the lot holds counts as a large special event, and each one needs its own temporary county permit, with a limit of 12 days a year and no more than three consecutive days. Amplified sound at those events, including sound checks, must stop at 10 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Zung had described the same split to the board: events "that don't exceed the onsite parking capacity" fall under the permit, while larger ones "would be permitted separately through a temporary use permit," capped at "the 12 total days per year or 3 consecutive days."

"A drive-in movie theater is one thing; a concert venue is something entirely different," residents in the Mountain Meadows subdivision wrote to the county in August, asking that live concerts end by 10 p.m.

County planning staff recommended in August that the commission keep the application open because it requested an unlimited number of special events. Senior Planner Dan Leemon told commissioners the concern was "how larger special events will affect the surrounding neighborhoods, traffic, noise, and emergency services." Staff and the applicant met on August 21 and agreed on the numbers now in the conditions.

The Idaho Transportation Department asked for a turn lane analysis that found a southbound left-turn and a northbound right-turn lane warranted at the entrance, and the applicant has agreed to build them. A single ticket booth, the memo warned, would let arriving cars "spill back onto SH-33"; the owners took its fix of two booths at the entrance.

The Spud has been closed since a 2022 windstorm took down its screen tower. The county wrote drive-in theaters into its code in April at the owners' request, and no county or city body has voted against the project at any point since, though the expired sewer letter stalled it through the summer. The rebuild is a 55-foot screen tower, about 148 stalls, a 3,300-square-foot restaurant and concession building, and the ten-site campground permitted in 2017.

Harmony applied to connect the property to the Driggs sewer system in October 2024 and got the city's comments the following March, then reapplied on July 16 of this year. The staff report commissioners read on September 14 says that the application is "awaiting a response from the city."

The Spud Drive-In Has Its Permit, and Its Sewer Letter Back

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