County wants Forest Service to use its workforce housing mitigation rules at Targhee

Teton County’s Board of County Commissioners is set to press the U.S. Forest Service to treat workforce housing impacts from the Grand Targhee Resort expansion like they would on private land, by evaluating whether the county’s workforce housing mitigation framework should be written into the project’s design criteria or special use permit conditions. In its objection letter, the county argues the Final Environmental Impact Statement acknowledges added workforce housing demand but does not “meaningfully evaluate that coordination framework,” and it asks the Forest Service to analyze incorporating the county’s mitigation standards as enforceable conditions. Grand Targhee Objection Letter

The county’s framework is codified in the Land Development Regulations, Division 6.3, and is typically triggered by employee generating commercial development, with mitigation meant to offset the housing demand that new jobs create. Commissioners will be looking for whether the Forest Service is willing to close what the county calls a regulatory gap where similar resort related development would trigger mitigation on private land, but not when it is authorized through a federal special use permit on National Forest System lands. Grand Targhee Objection Letter