June 4, 2024 – At its regular meeting yesterday evening, Jackson’s Town Council unanimously voted to place an emergency, temporary moratorium on development of commercial buildings larger than 35,000 square feet. The Ordinance reads, “A moratorium is imposed on the submission and acceptance of applications to create, add, or change the use of the habitable floor area for non-residential buildings.” The moratorium will include potential commercial buildings in the Downtown Core and Commercial Residential Zones and will not apply to development applications already under review, vested under current LDR standards, or that already have zoning or building permit approval.
Council is enacting this moratorium to allow sufficient time to review and amend the Town’s Land Development Regulations (LDRs). The Town seeks to address issues related to the size and scale of buildings and impacts on the environment, infrastructure, and traffic generation. In 2016, the Town removed the maximum limit of square footage for buildings to incentivize higher density workforce housing, which has also resulted in larger than expected commercial buildings. These larger buildings are the result of the aggregation of lots by well-financed developers, which was not anticipated with the prior update. Mayor Morton Levinson said, “I was on Town Council when that decision was made. It can take years to see both the anticipated and unexpected results of changes to Land Development Regulations.” In recent weeks, many community members have requested a moratorium to carve out time to consider, discuss, and debate potential amendments to the LDRs that could prevent large buildings from fundamentally altering the character and unique attributes of our Town.
The moratorium will be in effect for one hundred and twenty days from now until October 1, 2024. It is intended to be brief enough to minimize negative impacts on landowners but long enough to give the Town time to thoughtfully consider necessary LDR amendments and include genuine community engagement. Between now and the end of September, Town staff will be working on creating new regulations to address this issue. Once staff has developed viable alternatives to amend the LDRs, they will present them to the Town’s Design Review Committee and Planning Commission for input and ideas before taking them before Town Council. The public process will provide time for interested community members and ultimately Council to consider, review, and debate proposed amendments. As Council considered and debated this item last night, Councilmember Jim Rooks shared, “I recognize the seriousness of what’s taking place tonight. I’m convinced this is our best path forward at this time.”
Please contact Town Planning & Building Director, Paul Anthony (planning@jacksonwy.gov or 307-733-0440 ext. 1304) with questions related to implementing the moratorium for current or proposed development applications. For questions related to the moratorium’s adoption or legal matters related to the moratorium, contact Town Manager, Tyler Sinclair, or Town Attorney, Lea Colasuonno, respectively.