Transportation and Community and System Preservation Program
in Teton County, Wyoming

Session: Small Town and Rural Transportation Initiatives

April 14, 2:30 PM

William E. Collins, AICP

Also from this session:

Transportation and Community and System Preservation Program

Introduction

Teton County, known by many as Jackson Hole, is located in northwest Wyoming and is a gateway community to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It is famous for its stunning scenic beauty, abundant wildlife and western heritage

Teton County is small by western standards and 97% of the land in the County is publicly owned, most of which is national park or national forest. The 3% of privately owned area makes up about 80,000 acres of extremely expensive land that is under intense development pressure. While Teton County has only 18,250 year round residents, it is home to many part-time residents and receives about 3,000,000 tourists each year.

Planning and development issues are intensely debated in Jackson Hole. The community through its planning efforts has struggled to preserve a natural treasure in the face of intense pressures that are forcing change. Planning discussions talk about preserving our community character. The Comprehensive Plan strives to maintain a small town and a natural, scenic area. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent preserving open space and local residents stake out battle positions on issues that highlight the loss of their small town to development pressures.

Transportation Planning

Traffic growth is one of the consequences of a steady rate of development and a road network that lacks redundancy due to our mountainous terrain and natural environment compounds this problem. The Wyoming Department of Transportation maintains the major roads in the Valley and is pursuing an aggressive program to reconstruct these state highways. If left to their own procedures WyDOT seems to always build five-lane road sections, which are viewed by the local community as inconsistent with the existing character of Jackson Hole.

The TCSP program came along at just the right time for Teton County. Its goals were nearly identical to the goals of our newly adopted Transportation Plan, which seeks to:

• Delay and reduce the need for highway expansions;
• Make more efficient use of existing infrastructure, and;
• Preserve the environment and existing community.

The TCSP grant from the Federal Highways Administration came on the heels of a recently adopted Transportation Plan in Teton County. This plan attempts to slow traffic growth by promoting alternative modes of travel, namely by transit, bikes and pedestrian paths, and by recommending land use policies that support these alternative modes. This Transportation Plan calls for road widening as a last resort, only after alternative travel modes and better land use patterns are considered.

Transportation planning in the past focused on traffic growth as something separate from land use planning. This more recent Plan dealt with the relationship between transportation and land use by establishing land use goals that help implement the Transportation Plan. These goals call for redirecting our development pattern by steering growth into mixed-use nodes that can be served by transit. While transportation is not the only factor suggesting a different land use patterns it is a key one.

I frequently describe the existing development pattern as a thin veneer of development across the Valley floor, too sparse to avoid automobile dependency, and too sparse to provide enough density to help with our affordable housing problem, which is another critical issue. This existing pattern also extends development into scenic areas, crucial wildlife habitats and other locations that are character-defining areas for Jackson Hole.

With help from the TCSP program we have begun preparing special area plans for existing villages that can serve as mixed-use nodes of development consistent with our stated vision. And we have studied two such areas and are preparing for a third. All three of these areas also are slated for highway reconstruction by the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and we are using these planning opportunities to forge a new more productive relationship with WyDOT.

The multi-lane highways are intensely opposed in Jackson Hole due to their radical break with the existing character of the area. This has strained the community’s relationship with WyDOT to the point that the Transportation Department temporarily removed all of the County’s state roads from their Transportation Improvement Plan. While there were a few extreme parts of the County’s population who thought this was a good thing, most people realized that the roads will eventually need reconstruction and a pro-active approach with the State would produce a far better result. A key to accomplishing the goals of preserving the community character is a good working relationship with the Wyoming Department of Transportation. By maintaining all of the major roads through the Valley they play a substantial part in determining the future character of Jackson Hole.

We have included WyDOT in the first two planning efforts and are working with them to organize the next project. The Transportation Department is not accustomed to the opposition they face in Jackson Hole and they are reluctant participants in these special area plans. Their projects are celebrated in most other parts of Wyoming, but in Teton County they view their road projects as political battles. It also is a learning experience for the community, as the local residents have to understand the consequences of their own travel behavior and land use decisions. This working relationship with the State is evolving and growing as we move through our special area plans.

Wilson

The first special area plan was in Wilson, a small unincorporated village of 1,300 residents, 700 housing units, a small commercial core of a dozen businesses and a post office. A two-lane state highway bisects this commercial core. Wilson epitomizes the emphasis on community character as the residents there cherish mightily the funky buildings and their close-knit community. They prefer that nothing change, but they know this is not possible. They are very active in decisions that direct the changes.

The highway passing through the center of Wilson is one of the entranceways into Jackson Hole and the traffic volume on this roadway will eventually reach a point where it will become impossible for pedestrians to cross the highway. The County is planning to extend sewer service into the area, which will eventually lead to redevelopment of the tiny rural community. WyDOT has plans to reconstruct the two-lane highway into a five-lane cross section with curb and gutter and storm water piped to the edge of a creek that flows through the community with Class One waters.

The TCSP funds allowed us to pull together a team of designers, town planners and transportation engineers. This team conducted a five-day design charrette with representatives from WyDOT, Federal Highways Administration, County planners and the local residents. The purpose of the design charrette was to maximize public involvement in the planning process, consider land use and transportation objectives concurrently, conduct a detailed discussion about the highway design and, to prepare a better plan to guide future development of the community.

More specifically, the charrette was to study the proposed highway plan against other community values, particularly community character, pedestrian and bicycle needs, and circulation in and out of the commercial businesses along the highway. The charrette projected the build out of the area and prepared a new zoning concept for the community that is designed to maintain the existing character. An important objective of the planning session was to achieve traffic calming through this little village. The discussions were intense with the highway designers but led to a new conceptual layout of the highway plans that included a three-lane cross section instead of five, separated pathways, and pedestrian underpass, grassed center medians and a more rural road shoulder and drainage plan instead of curb and gutter.

The charrette consisted of working sessions during the day and public events in the evening. The local community attended in large numbers; with between 80 and 100 each evening, and in a survey afterwards the local residents were very complimentary of the planning process and supportive of the results.

We thought we had an agreement among the highway engineers on the new road design. Federal Highways was going to amend the construction plans for the highway. But WyDOT a few weeks later backed away from key parts of the charrette plan. They rejected the center medians, which were to provide center refuge for pedestrians crossing the busy road, a desired visual appearance and to slow traffic.

WyDOT became critical of the charrette afterwards despite participating and being well represented throughout the five days. They talked about the deviations from AASHTO standards they believed were required by the charrette results and the increased maintenance costs that would accrue to the Department from maintaining the center medians. This segment of highway is slated for construction this summer without the center grassed medians.

In discussions after the charrette, the Department took issue with the process because the opening night presentation introduced local residents to design ideas that would require deviations from AASHTO standards. WyDOT representatives said that deviating AASHTO standards should be entertained only after considering all other options that would avoid the need for deviations, including the condemnation of land. They also complained that their internal decision-making process was too involved and did not allow them to make commitments in a single five-day planning session. Their planning process required time for more deliberate study of ideas and plans.

I think WyDOT may not have expected the type of discussions and decisions the charrette pursued. In part that may have been our fault for not preparing them more fully in the pre-charrette planning. Even though we spent a lot of time talking to them before hand, these discussions were more like interviews rather than joint planning sessions. WyDOT may have thought of themselves more as spectators than joint decision-makers.

This highway plan is getting built this summer with many of the charrette features, but excluding the center medians, and with the County and WyDOT knowing better what to expect when approaching the next special area plan.

Hoback Junction

The second special area plan focused on another rural community in Teton County called Hoback Junction, consisting of a population of about 1,000 and six to eight commercial businesses clustered around an intersection of two highways. WyDOT has entered the EIS process to reconstruct the highway and the intersection in this area.

We again pulled together a consulting team of designers and transportation engineers to conduct a design charrette with the local residents and WyDOT. We were more fortunate with the timing of this project as it came at the stage in the EIS process where WyDOT was forming alternatives. WyDOT agreed to use the charrette results as an alternative to be evaluated with other alternatives may develop during their planning process.

The discussions with the State before the charrette also took on a different tenor as they aimed at learning what had to happen during the charrette for WyDOT to support the results. These advance discussions also focused more on the EIS process, and how the two efforts could be compatible. With the earlier Wilson experience under our belts, both WyDOT and County planners came to this four-day charrette better prepared. The State was comfortable knowing there will be a deliberate review of the charrette results before a final decision would be made.

The circulation of pedestrians, bicycles and automobiles in this small commercial area was a major focus of the charrette. Special concern was taken to understand wildlife movements through this area and to anticipate where wildlife crossed the highways. The adjoining land uses were studied for their development potential and build out scenarios were drawn and considered during the discussions about the roadways.

We place an emphasis in charrettes on helping the residents envision how the future would look. We would prepare maps of various alternatives and then draw perspective renderings to illustrate how things would look.

Residents in the Hoback Junction area are extremely independent and expressed concerns about the planning process during the weeks leading up to the process. There was very little trust in the process and many of the residents expressed suspicion of the County’s motivations. But the process at least neutralized these concerns and won over some people. While the review comments following the process were not as appreciative as in the Wilson case, the residents of Hoback Junction realized that the purpose was to hear their voices and try to apply their ideas in the planning of their small community.

Highways 22 and 390

We are now turning our attention to a much bigger project. Two very important highways, one of which has been the topic of intense controversy in the past, are scheduled for reconstruction by the State. These two highways intersect and the reconstruction project will include about fourteen miles of highway. WyDOT intends to proceed with a single planning project for these two roads.

The relationship between land use and transportation planning will be even more important in this planning project. The Jackson Hole ski resort is located along one of these highways and there are plans for significant additional development. Thousands of acres of vacant land, some conserved with open space easements and some available for development boarder the roads for much of their length. One of the locations identified for a node of future development is located along these highways

We have entered into discussions with WyDOT to take our working relationship to another level, both of us learning from the two earlier planning efforts. We are negotiating the terms of an MOU that would formalize our working arrangement with the intentions that it will be co-signed by the County Commissioners and the Wyoming Transportation Commission. The MOU attempts to establish the methods by which decisions will be made in the planning of these two highways, focusing specifically on the times when the state and local community disagree. I hope it will also establish a balance between locally held values and goals, and the typical highway design standards, describing the expectations for deviations from AASHTO.

Again we will bring to this project a team of designers, land use planners and transportation engineers. The Transportation Department has already hired an engineering firm who will soon begin gathering the baseline environmental information. The State has invited County representatives to participate in establishing the scope of their consultants’ contract for the purpose of ensuring that their consultant team participates in a design charrette and work with the County’s team. The County will do likewise when we employ our team.

Through this MOU we are looking to merge the State’s EIS process with our local planning process. Instead of the charrette feeding an alternative into the EIS we hope to have the charrette and the EIS become one process. Responding to WyDOT’s concerns about earlier charrettes, we are discussing a longer planning process that contains multiple public events, but still encompasses many of the techniques of a design charrette.

Merging the pre-charrette planning with the EIS scoping meeting would result in a one or two day public event. Later a four to five day design charrette with strong public involvement would be conducted to generate and evaluate alternatives. This stage in the process will be followed by a more detailed review of the alternatives, involving the federal resource agencies that participate in the EIS, to apply a closer test and to evaluate the preferred alternative for viability. We may explore the benefits of having the various resource agencies participate in the charrette. A multi-disciplinary team consisting of local and state representatives would be formed to oversee this detailed analysis. Then, a third public event will be conducted to present to the local residents the results of the review, demonstrate why changes if any occurred to the preferred alternative, and to fine tune the preferred alternative.

Who makes the decision when we disagree is one of the biggest points of discussion. WyDOT correctly states that they own the road and have the final say. We are attempting to reach an agreement that the Transportation Department will not make a decision unless the County agrees.

Lessons Learned and Conclusions

Involving the public to derive a single consensus vision on how their community should develop is very empowering. The residents feel ownership and they can present this vision, in its concise form, at public hearings and other forums. We have found that local residents and elected officials do not understand how strong of a voice they have in the design of the state highways that pass through their community. These design charrettes are demonstrating that the local community can be more of an equal partner in the endeavor.

One of the things we heard many times from the WyDOT was that they represent a constituency who is not otherwise represented. This is the traveling public who drive through Jackson Hole from all parts of the country, heading to and from the national parks. And WyDOT needs to ensure safe and efficient roads for them. This concern can easily override local values and concerns, and in Teton County they have during past decisions. These planning sessions, and the one planned for the near future, elevate local values and concerns to a more equal level. They are producing a more level balance between the goals of the local community and the powerful standards for building highways.

In order for the design charrette to be successful, the officials who typically have the decision-making authority have to give up some of their power. In the discussions with WyDOT about the MOU that will guide the planning process for the two highways, we are talking directly about committing to each other that we will not apply a full court press on the local citizens to convince them that our respective ideas are the best. But rather to allow the information sharing and educational process to occur more objectively, in a more hands off manner, and let the residents of the local community point the way.

The charrette process has highlighted the relationship between land use and transportation planning. Even some of our elected county commissioners believed that the County focuses on land use and WyDOT focuses on designing the highways and these were two different things that occurred parallel but separate from one another.

Understanding the highway design standards is critical. WyDOT actually has some departmental standards that are more stringent than AASHTO. And discussing in advance the expectations for considering design deviations helps the design process. Our WyDOT representatives believed that consideration of design deviations should occur only as a last resort, even after the exploration of condemnation. An agreement on the applicable AASHTO standards is critical to the success of the design charrette.

It is important to provide input at meaningful times in the EIS process. This handicapped us in the first charrette in Wilson. But the timing of the second charrette and the upcoming one will be an advantage.

WyDOT has a reluctance to get down into the trenches with the local residents and work on compromises and consensus. WyDOT, furthermore, does not look forward to coming to Teton County because of the heated debates they encounter, and when they do come their strategy is to rebuild the road to handle an enormous amount of traffic growth so they do not have to come back any time soon. These design charrettes have created a highly public and participatory process. And one of the points we make is that if the local residents participate fully and have an impact on the result, and the highway plans reflect community goals, the County officials can become co-sponsors for the project and deflect much of the criticism.