RE: Teton County Land Development Code Joint Work Session Held Tuesday Dec 7th

As promised from our last note, here we are to keep you posted from the joint Commissioners meeting last week, to tonight’s meeting - purportedly to decide whether or not to pass the Draft Land Use Code off to the Board of County Commissioners.

Remember when you were a kid and you were about to open a present, all wrapped up?  As you pull the gift out of the box and you’re all fired up (because it’s just what you’ve waited for), you see that ominous message:  “Batteries Not Included.”  Yes, your parents will get the batteries and the toy will work, but, for the moment, you are disappointed, annoyed, and probably grumpy. The anticipation of powering up the toy and getting it to function was there... but now, you have to wait.

That's how we were feeling tonight at the Planning and Zoning meeting. The County Land Use Code was on the agenda, an action item, but at around 8:00, the agenda item was pushed to a special meeting this coming Friday, December 17th at 1 pm. So, now we wait to hear about next steps - even though at the meeting last week, this action was set to take place today. 

Planning and Zoning Commissioners agreed to come together to hammer out any remaining specific recommended revisions to the current draft Land Use Code - and then pass them on in an accompanying list to the Board of County Commissioners. Like the way the House and Senate hammer out differences in legislation during a conference (here we are again, back to the sausage making) with any remaining issues that may be “unresolved.” This is the same way we expected P&Z's deliberations over their draft, and the remaining “sticking” points, would be reconciled tonight at the meeting, and the draft Land Use Code to be passed on to County Commissioners for their review and another round of public comment. Instead, we now hope the Code can be one step closer to getting batteries this Friday!

Instead of a meeting of resolution, it was a meeting of next steps. We are hopeful, as we listen to deliberation, that P&Z Commissioners don’t downplay the work they have done on the Draft Code. We watched as they worked through each line of the Code, incorporated public comments, and came up with a solid draft. Technical review = done, and done well. Is it perfect? No. Will it be? No. Will it provide long overdue protections for the Valley? YES! 

County Commissioners have promised to read every comment and listen to every concern that has been raised throughout the draft process. We understand this is a process, and we know we will get there. It's only that our expectations were sidetracked.. so we’ll look at it as a little break right now.. we’re running to the store to get the batteries. See you Friday!