Extra site visitors, extra demand for housing, and a income imbalance. These are three outcomes that might unfold in Teton Valley, Idaho, if Grand Targhee Resort expands, a newly accomplished socioeconomic examine finds.
Teton County, Idaho, Commissioner Cindy Riegel beforehand championed the examine, accomplished by Portland, Oregon-based advisor ECONorthwest, and lobbied Teton County, Wyoming, commissioners to pay about $25,000 for half of it. The Alta Strong Waste District contributed roughly $4,000 of that whole.
Riegel stated the ultimate product, which says Teton County, Idaho, will “expertise solely prices” from Targhee’s enlargement, highlights the “extreme restrictions we have now on income for supporting our county.”
“The query could be, ‘Will we need to assist enlargement? Does enlargement is smart for our county?’” Riegel stated. “I believe the examine says, ‘No, it doesn’t make sense — not with out some sort of help for all the companies that we should present to accommodate that enlargement.’”
However Geordie Gillett, proprietor and basic supervisor of Grand Targhee Resort, stated Teton County, Idaho will face that downside no matter resort enlargement.
“It’s utterly a pink herring,” Gillett stated. “In the event that they’re saying we don’t profit Teton County, Idaho, in any method, then nothing advantages Teton County, Idaho, in any method.”
Though Targhee is positioned in Alta, Wyoming, it’s accessible solely from Driggs, Idaho, and its staff and guests reside in and circulate by western Teton communities like Driggs and Victor, Idaho, to get there. Although Victor and Driggs can levy gross sales and lodging taxes, which seize some income from that site visitors, Teton County, Idaho, can’t levy both and, below state regulation, can improve property tax-funded parts of its funds by solely 3% a 12 months.
So if Targhee expands and visitation will increase, rising demand for county companies, Teton County, Idaho’s prices will doubtless go up.
However the county may wrestle to pay for them, the report discovered.
Gillett stated the county’s income challenges are a legislative situation, slightly than one particularly tied to his resort’s future.
If a theme park was proposed in Tetonia, for instance, Teton County, Idaho, would nonetheless face the identical funds constraints, Gillett stated.
Riegel stated Teton County, Idaho, hasn’t taken a proper place on Targhee’s enlargement however stated the resort’s position in the neighborhood is a double-edged sword.
“Clearly it’s been an superior asset,” Riegel stated. “Nevertheless it additionally has and can trigger us to need to take care of elevated visitation and all the ills that include making an attempt to handle being a well-liked place to go.”
At a excessive degree the examine predicts quite a lot of impacts to Teton County, Idaho, and Driggs: Elevated street upkeep and site visitors congestion, elevated use of the county’s stable waste switch station, and extra calls to Idaho’s Teton County Hearth and Rescue, which already sees about 10% of its calls come from Grand Targhee.
The report additionally estimated that additional growing Grand Targhee’s base space may create demand for wherever from 117 to 958 new housing items on the Tetons’ western slope to accommodate new guests and full-time staff. Victor and Driggs are already bed room communities for Teton County, Wyoming, and the 2021 Teton Area Housing Wants Evaluation stated that Teton County, Idaho, will want between 1,165 to 1,560 new properties by 2027 to catch as much as present shortfalls and future job development within the valley. The ECONorthwest examine estimated that among the new demand a Targhee enlargement would create could be included within the whole, and Targhee has constructed some items for its staff, principally latest 96 dormitory-style items in Driggs.
The report’s conclusion that Teton County, Idaho, will “expertise solely prices” due to Targhee’s proposed enlargement rests on the county’s property tax-driven funds and its incapability to gather gross sales and lodging taxes. ECONorthwest says that Driggs will be capable of generate some income by way of a gross sales and lodging tax however that street wants “far outweigh” collections from its street and bridge levy and lodging tax. And it says Teton County, Wyoming, will largely profit, bringing in as a lot as $860,000 yearly in new property tax income.
Teton County, Idaho, against this, would cap new property tax collections at roughly $140,000 yearly, excluding income from new building. However county officers have recognized roughly $6.4 million in street enhancements that may be vital if Targhee expanded, together with upgrading roads that join with Ski Hill Street and constructing turning lanes on Freeway 33.
The examine makes a number of suggestions for addressing these mismatches: Establishing some type of price sharing between the 2 Teton counties — and making certain Targhee shares the associated fee “equitably” — for street upkeep on the Idaho aspect of the mountains; recalculating charges and charging Targhee extra, if applicable, on the trash switch station; negotiating a brand new cache of emergency automobiles, funded by Teton County, Wyoming, in Alta; and renegotiating the Idaho fireplace stations’ contract with Teton County, Wyoming.
In fiscal 12 months 2021, Teton County, Wyoming, upped how a lot it was paying the Idaho fireplace outfit to $480,000 a 12 months, with a $20,000 escalator over the following 5 years. That compares with the stability of the station’s $3.4 million prices in 2021, which have been lined by Teton County, Idaho, property taxes.
However the report estimated that the $480,000 that Teton County, Wyoming, paid Teton County, Idaho, within the final 12 months fell about $16,500 wanting what it price the japanese Idaho station to serve Wyoming. And, evaluating potential impacts to Wyoming below three situations for development in visitation — 1%, 3.5% and 6% — the report stated that, on the two greater ranges of visitation, Wyoming’s cost would hold falling wanting Idaho’s prices.
For now, Riegel stated she’s deferring on making particular asks to Teton County, Wyoming.
“I don’t assume we’re there but,” Riegel stated.
As a substitute, she scheduled a gathering with Teton County, Wyoming, commissioners on Sept. 14, when the 2 elected our bodies will hear extra in regards to the examine. Gillett, who wasn’t part of negotiations in regards to the socioeconomic examine when it was first conceived, will likely be invited, Riegel stated.
Gillett, nevertheless, stated he gained’t be wanting on the examine as a “supply of something.”
“I believe among the conclusions are simply so clearly biased and meant to create this state of affairs the place we’re an issue and we’re doing one thing incorrect,” Gillett advised the Information&Information. “Their conclusions are so simplistic to me, and blatantly biased, that the report has no credibility in my thoughts.”
Different onlookers, nevertheless, assume Targhee’s enlargement deserves scrutiny.
“The Forest Service enlargement proposed by Grand Targhee is a really substantial enlargement, and it’s very completely different from the enlargement Snow King simply took,” stated Teton County, Wyoming, Commissioner Mark Newcomb. “He ought to settle for applicable scrutiny for that degree of enlargement.”
The excellence between what Targhee’s proposing and what Snow King proposed, Newcomb stated, is that Targhee is looking for to develop into a part of a nationwide forest that’s zoned as a scenic viewshed. Snow King, against this, was increasing into an space of a nationwide forest zoned for recreation.
That, Newcomb stated, “justifies a radical evaluation.”
“And this financial examine is consistent with that want for a radical evaluation,” he stated.
Teton County, Idaho, fireplace and rescue companies get about 10% of their calls from Grand Targhee Resort, positioned throughout the border in Wyoming. A brand new examine predicts that quantity to extend with the resort’s enlargement, together with elevated impacts on Teton County, Idaho, roads and the stable waste switch station.
“Geordie Gillett can’t ignore the monetary and neighborhood impacts that his proposed enlargement may have on us,” stated Anne Callison, a Tetonia, Idaho, resident. “We will’t do a gross sales tax, we are able to’t do a mill levy, so what? That’s life. However his enlargement will completely destroy the agricultural character of Teton County, Idaho.”
Gillett argued that Targhee isn’t solely accountable for Teton County, Idaho’s escalating site visitors and housing issues. The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, despatched folks flocking to the mountains, rising the variety of skiers at Targhee whereas placing extra vehicles on the street and rising demand for housing. In 2018 and 2019, the report says, 75% of properties in Teton County, Idaho price lower than $500,000.
Now, over 70% are bought for greater than that.
Gillett did, nevertheless, say that Targhee could possibly be prepared to pay extra — so long as its “justifiable share” is effectively outlined.
“If there’s an outlined metric that’s received some precise details and figures behind it,” Gillett stated, “the place applicable, I’d be blissful to debate it.”
Newcomb voted to fund the socioeconomic examine, becoming a member of Fee Chairwoman Natalia D. Macker and Commissioner Luther Propst within the affirmative. Commissioners Mark Barron and Greg Epstein voted towards it.
Barron and Epstein, who declined requests to remark for this text, apprehensive on the time that Gillett wasn’t on the desk. However Barron additionally puzzled whether or not spending collectively with Idaho would develop into a runaway practice.
“I don’t know the place this stops,” Barron stated then.
Neither Riegel nor Newcomb dedicated to any of the options recognized within the examine, however Riegel stated it will inform the Teton County, Idaho, fee’s formal feedback on the draft environmental impression assertion. That doc was initially anticipated in spring 2022 however is now anticipated to be launched on the finish of August or early September, stated Jay Pence, the Caribou-Targhee’s Teton Basin District Ranger.
Pence stated the 2 Teton counties’ socioeconomic examine would inform a part of the environmental examine. However he stated it wouldn’t result in a brand new “various” for evaluate below the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act. An “various,” in a nutshell, is an possibility for additional growing the resort that the general public will evaluate when the draft environmental impression assertion is launched.
Somewhat, Pence stated, the socioeconomic examine confirmed a few of Teton County, Idaho’s “intestine emotions and considerations.”