PINEDALE — After more than three hours of presentations and public comments, and with the Lovatt Room packed full of their constituents, Sublette County Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the controversial conditional use permit (CUP) requested by Jackson Fork Ranch (JFR) for an industrial parking facility to service the luxury Homestead Resort in the remote Hoback Basin. The CUP includes conditions that there be no construction activity before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. and that there be dust mitigation during the construction of the road and the parking facility. Commissioners Dave Stephens and Doug Vickrey cast the two dissenting votes while Chairman Sam White, and Commissioners Tom Noble and Mack Bradley supported the CUP. Some folks called for Bradley to recuse himself after learning about his daughter’s upcoming wedding plans at Jackson Fork Ranch. Instead of abstaining from the vote, Bradley eventually made the motion to approve the CUP, first saying, “If it comes down to a conflict, that wedding won’t be there because I feel this vote is more important to this county than that wedding is to be there (at JFR).”

Prior to the vote, Chairman White said, “There’s a lot of wisdom in this room. Thank you for that. I’m going to try to make the best decision I can with the information we’ve been presented.” 

Of his intention to vote against JFR’s proposal, commissioner Vickrey said, “Where is the integrity of some of these individuals with big wallets? … I just cannot support, as a commissioner, this endeavor you’re asking.”

“My denial is because this has gone way beyond what we were thrown at first,” Commissioner Stephens said before voting against JFR’s requests. 

With the board’s majority approval, however, construction on the Upper Hoback Road is set to begin in less than a month, on May 1.

A parking garage by any other name

Speaking to the commissioners on April 2, Sublette County Planner Dennis Fornstrom explained that JFR’s goal was twofold: to obtain a determination of similar use in regards to its industrial parking facility and to obtain a conditional use permit for the facility. 

Fornstrom concluded, “It is the opinion of the Planning and Zoning office that the proposed parking facility by JFR which is to be operated in conjunction with the Jackson Fork Resort and Jackson Fork Ranch is similar in function as defined in zoning and development regulations as an industrial transportation parking facility … Each is a location where employees or guests park their vehicles and are shuttled from there.”

The Planning and Zoning Board did not unanimously share the office’s opinion, with the five-person board voting 2-2 on the issue when it came before that body on Jan. 18. 

On April 2, Fornstrom misrepresented the 2-2 vote to the commissioners as “basically a split vote. No formal determination coming to your board one way or the other.”

Commissioner Vickrey called him out, questioning why the matter had even come before the commissioners since a tie vote is equivalent to a negative recommendation. “A tie vote is a no vote, so I'm reading this as a ‘no’ vote on both issues. 2-2 means ‘no’,” Vickrey reaffirmed. 

“Correct,” Fornstrom said and yielded the meeting to the JFR’s representative, Steve Christensen, who presented a 20-minute slideshow about why the parking garage deserves a similar use determination and a CUP. 

Christensen began by reminding folks that JFR received the necessary permit from Sublette County to build The Homestead Resort — a 20-unit resort with an attached underground day spa and a 90-seat fine dining restaurant — on March 13. “We’d like to build a welcome center and parking center as a complement to the Homestead and to represent a central location for guests and employees to arrive and transition to the homestead,” Christensen said.

“There will be a road that will be built from Highway 191/189 to the welcome center and then from the welcome center to The Homestead so consequently we expect no guest, employee or delivery traffic on the Upper Hoback River Road.” 

Christensen presented numerous architectural designs and renderings of the subterranean garage, pointing out a ridge running along and behind the welcome center and parking facility “designed to minimize the visual impression for the local community.”

He pulled up slides depicting a dissection of the county’s planning and zoning regulations and definitions side-by-side as he argued that JFR’s proposal fits within Sublette County’s definition of an industrial transportation parking facility. “But for the operation of The Homestead, neither the parking garage nor the shuttle service would be necessary,” Christensen emphasized. 

‘Precautionary steps’ away from the sludge pit

Christensen said JFR hired Myra Peak, a certified professional soil scientist from Peak Environmental Management, to review documents provided by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and conduct soil sample tests at the old Chevron disposal pit. Peak found there is no cause for concern about the pit where JFR’s underground parking facility was originally planned. Peak explained when Chevron took ownership of the pit, they introduced a stabilizing agent used to dry poor soils called kiln dust into the sludge. “It’s intended to solidify the mud so that it doesn’t move if under pressure or vibration. It’s standard practice to do that. It’s still intact and still solidified,” Peak said. 

“The case was closed on Aug. 11, 1999,” Christensen added. 

Still, JFR “decided to take some additional precautionary steps.” Christensen explained, “We’ve moved the parking garage out from being on top of the mud pit so that it’s now adjacent to the mud pit” as another colorful slide came across the screen. 

‘Creating an experience’

The Homestead Resort is still slated to feature a 33-stall subterranean parking facility beneath it in addition to the 100-stall industrial parking garage and welcome center. Attempting to justify JFR’s need for the 220,200-square-foot parking facility in Bondurant, Christensen said, “The 100 stalls is valet parking, nose to tail. If it were striped for traditional parking, it could fit 67 stalls. So as far as parking garages go, this is small. We’re required to have 100 stalls under the zoning regulations based on the size and use of The Homestead.” Christensen noted that The Homestead will have 140 full-time employees, not all working at once, who would need to leave their vehicles in the garage throughout their shifts. Employees would not live on site, Christensen told commissioners. Exactly where they would live remains unclear. 

“JFR respectfully requests that the board find that the JFR’s proposed parking garage/welcome center is use of a similar character to a permitted industrial transportation parking facility, one, and two, grant a conditional use permit to JFR to be able to operate an industrial transportation parking facility at the site set forth in the application,” Christensen concluded. 

Questioned by Chairman White about why JFR “stepped away from the original plan,” presented for The Homestead Resort which called for far less parking and employees, Christensen said, “a combination of the need for as many parking stalls that are required in the code and second, the desire to create an experience, a separation between parking and arriving at the facility and then going into the resort itself. For those of us who have been to Disneyland or Disney World, you jump on those shuttles and it's this exciting, anticipating ride going into Disneyland and I think it’s that same kind of feeling.”

Putting the parking garage before the road

But before anyone shuttles into Joe Ricketts’ Disneyland at Little Jackson Hole, there must be a road and pinning down plans and a timeline to bring one to fruition has been difficult. Commissioner Stephens questioned Christensen, “So you’re positive JFR is going to build a road from (Highway) 191?” 

“We’re working through that process, yeah,” Christensen replied.

Commissioner Stephens pressed, “So what’s the percentage that building a road is going to happen?” 

Christensen offered a noncommittal response. “If we get the parking garage, very high, I would say, you know, 70 or 80 percent,” he said. “There is, you know, not county permitting but another permitting process that we need to go through in order to build the road and we’re working through that. So assuming all the permitting clears — and this has been in the works for a long time — the road is a very, very high probability assuming we get the appropriate permits.”
He added, “I would suggest that the access to The Homestead will be through the welcome center and the parking garage and access to the welcome center and parking garage will be on the private road to the highway.”

“We want to create a parking garage that’s as small as possible to still satisfy the regulations,” Christensen emphasized to a skeptical Stephens. 

Show and tell it like it is

Mixed emotions filled the Lovatt Room as impassioned folks from around the area fought for their interpretation of the best interests of Bondurant and the rest of Sublette County for the next three hours. 

Standing, Commissioner Vickrey pulled a small tube of toothpaste from his pocket and showed it to the crowd. “We’ve been sitting here as this commission for some time being asked to give a CUP, so we squeeze out a CUP, but we still don’t know what’s in the tube of toothpaste. We’re going to be asked for another CUP. We still don’t know what’s in this toothpaste … I have a constituency who have lived here their whole lives. We deserve the whole truth of what this project entails. Until we know what’s in this full tube, I don’t think we should go any further. This community deserves to know what’s going to happen in Bondurant.” 

Before Vickrey could take his seat, the room erupted in applause. 

“Is there a master plan for this whole project?” Chairman White asked, “Do you anticipate more CUPs coming before us?”

“No, there is no master plan. Yes, there will be more CUPs but they’re (for) a workers’ camp and a concrete batch plant, CUPs that directly support the construction of The Homestead on resort-zoned property,” Christensen replied. 

Christensen suggested meeting with the commissioners at an “informal meeting,” because he is not authorized to publicly share Ricketts’ “current plans” for his so-called “Little Jackson Hole.” He was quickly shut down by attorneys from both sides for suggesting an off-record meeting with the representatives elected to conduct the people’s business. 

Chris Lacinak, Chairman of the county’s Planning and Zoning Board but at the meeting to represent himself, offered up a presentation of his own, featuring slide after slide with powerful visual comparisons of how Ricketts’ plans and requests have changed over time. Speaking to the commissioners, Lacinak continued, “In the 2021 resolution, you approved ‘a small destination resort with approximately 15-20 rooms and guest cabins.’” 

In 2021, Ricketts and his agents said the Homestead Resort would have up to 44 total rooms, including eight cabins, to house 88 guests at a time. Those figures have since increased by 45 percent to include 64 rooms and 128 guests at a time. In 2021, JFR estimated that 33 total staff were needed, including housekeepers, culinary chefs and landscapers. Now, JFR says it needs up to 140 full-time staff, an increase of more than 324 percent. In 2021, JFR estimated a total of 10 cars would come through the facility a day, with 80 percent of guests assumed to use a shuttle and the rest using personal transportation. Now, JFR anticipates more than 100 cars in a day, an increase of 900 percent over the 2021 vehicle projections. 

Lacinak reminded the commissioners that Ricketts, his agents and paid experts “really stood firm on the reliability of their information at that time.” 

“(The proposal) is not an industrial project. The garage is to transport patrons and employees to the site, it’s not mass transportation — a family arrives, a family is shuttled — it’s micro transportation. It’s permanent and not temporary. The JFR application does not meet the definition of an industrial transportation parking facility in Sublette County,” Lacinak concluded. 

Like Vickrey’s, Lacinak’s presentation also garnered a round of applause from members of the crowd.

Christensen disagreed with Lacinak’s interpretation, reaffirming JFR’s position that the county’s “similar use determination” is the mechanism or “pressure release valve built into the regulations for things that are not clearly within the permitted uses.” Christensen asked and answered his own question, “Is the parking garage that JFR is proposing similar to an industrial parking facility? Yes.” 

Addressing the commissioners during public comment, Bondurant resident Lisi Krall said, “What JFR wanted is a blanket CUP, which they didn’t get. So now they’re going about it CUP after CUP, bit by bit. I think the whole purpose here is so that we don’t see the whole plan.” Krall continued, “Ricketts has got a vision for what he wants up there (in Bondurant) but we’re not privy to it and the planning process requires that we be privy to it so that we know how (the project) will change the character of our community and our county.”

Bondurant resident Pat Burroughs said, “The original plan was to put the parking facility at the resort. That’s what most of the commissioners who are here today approved. Anything that’s going on with the resort needs to be on the 56 acres, that’s what the resolution was for.”

Bill Tanner, of Big Piney, voiced support for Ricketts’ project. “This is going to be great for the future of our county … Whether we like it or not, Sublette County is the fastest-growing county in the state. JFR could be in the top 5 employers in the county.” 

Marilyn Filkins, a property owner in Bondurant said, “I understand he’s going to put in his own road. However, when I look at these plans, what I see is that he’s going to be utilizing the Upper Hoback Road, which goes right through the grazing allotment, for all of the equipment going up there to build this parking garage, etc. I believe he needs to put his road in before he starts this whole project.”

Big Piney’s David Burnett, a former county commissioner, said Ricketts’ changes to his plans over the years have been efforts to mitigate impacts on his neighbors in the Hoback Basin. “The opportunity for significant economic development and job opportunities with competitive benefits is very important to our county and I think that ought to be taken into consideration for our future, our children and our grandchildren.” 

Bondurant’s Rick Melby, who recently had to track down a missing package because it was misdirected to “Little Jackson Hole” rather than his address in Bondurant shouted into the mic, “I had to run down to the post office to get my mail because this guy thinks he’s going to call us something other than Bondurant.”

Jonah Energy Vice President Paul Ulrich, speaking as a Sublette County resident, added, “One-hundred-thirty-four jobs versus 18, how fantastic is that? How good is that? There’s a lot of people in our communities who need jobs.” 

Big Piney’s Mack Rawhouser, a former county commissioner himself, said “As a county commissioner, you have to think of what is best for all of us (in Sublette County), not just Bondurant.”

Dan Bailey, from Bondurant, said, “I live on the Upper Hoback Road. I don’t why it’s necessary for me to sacrifice my neighborhood and my quality of life for the benefit of Joe Ricketts and the debatable benefit of Sublette County.” Holding up a bolt as a prop and comparing it to Ricketts’ pieced-together public plans, Bailey asked, “How do you like my new truck? Or maybe it’s my new tractor, or my new backhoe, or my new excavator. Can anybody tell me what this is? You can’t because it’s just a piece of something. That’s what he’s showing us, a piece of something.”

Mike Crosson, former Sublette County prosecutor questioned, “Who seriously thinks 150 hospitality jobs are going to be good for our community? The pay in the hospitality industry is minimum wage.”

Additional comments from area residents may be found on page A6 of the Pinedale Roundup’s opinion section. 

Squeezing out more toothpaste

JFR’s other two requested CUPs are scheduled to come before the Sublette County Planning and Zoning Board later this month on April 18. One is for a 3.9-acre aggregate processing and concrete plant operation. The other requested CUP is for a 6.0-acre temporary workers’ camp. Both requests are scheduled to come before the Sublette County Planning and Zoning Board at 6 p.m. on April 18. The matters will then go to the Board of Sublette County Commissioners for a final decision on May 7. Both meetings are open to the public.