Add the Jackson Town Council to the list of entities that oppose the proposed sale of national forest land on North Cache Street.

On Monday, town staff sent a letter on behalf of the council to Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton, detailing the council’s opposition to the sale of land along North Cache.

“The town council voted unanimously to express our support for maintaining the Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Jackson on its present site,” Mayor Mark Barron said in the letter. “Furthermore, understanding the need for a new administrative office building, we support identifying a funding source other than the sale of public lands for the construction of new facilities.”

Barron also said that keeping employee housing within Jackson would help cut down on carbon emissions.

“We respectfully ask that the Forest Service recognize the critical importance of the town and county’s 10 X 10 initiative towards reducing energy use and carbon footprint by utilizing alternative transportation methods and by housing your work force in Jackson whenever possible,” Barron said in the letter.

The Forest Service is currently considering a plan to sell up to 11 acres on North Cache Street to raise money to pay for a new supervisor’s office.

During a meeting Monday, councilors vacillated between sending a stronger, more specific letter about that proposal and sending one that broadly outlined the council’s concerns.

“Right now we just need to stay in the ball game,” said Councilor Mark Obringer. “And to do that we just need to send a letter that says, ‘Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process.’ Then we enter into the rest of the conversation and see how it goes.”

Obringer said the council should wait to weigh in on the proposal because it has not yet had a chance to address some of the zoning issues related to such a decision.

“The first conversation the planning commission is going to have about these kinds of things is on Thursday,” Obringer said, referring to the town planning commission’s review of the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan. “And it will probably be a year before we’re sitting at the table with the results of that.”

Councilor Bob Lenz pushed in the other direction; saying that the council should be more specific and lay out all of its concerns.

“Every major project around here has been put on hold,” Lenz said. “I haven’t heard any success stories. It’s not fair to the nation to sell public property at the bottom of the market.”

In a personal letter on his own behalf, Lenz outlined a laundry list of concerns about the sale, including the uncertainty of how the land will be zoned in the future, breaking up a centrally-located compound and selling the land at a price that wouldn’t cover the cost of building a new office.

“[Even] if selling the north Cache land to finance the new supervisor’s office was the greatest idea since refrigeration, now is not the time to do it,” Lenz said in the letter.

Mayor Mark Barron fell somewhere in between Lenz and Obringer.

He said he wanted to be sure the council went on the record so that it would have standing in later conversations, but also said he agreed with some of the points raised by Lenz.

“We have consistently said we want to keep [the Bridger-Teton National Forest] office here in Jackson,” Barron said. “But the question is what is the community ready to give up to keep it here.”

Earlier this summer, the town and county both paid about $5,000 to help hire a consultant to help put together a land development plan for the forest service. As part of the sale proposal, the Forest Service would construct worker housing on Forest Service land east of Jackson.

The anticipation is that such construction would eventually become part of the town. Many East Jackson residents have opposed the project.

At the time of the consultation, several elected officials – from the town and the county – said they chose to pay for the consultant to help keep the forest service in Jackson.

Several area residents spoke out against any proposal to sell forest service land during the meeting on Monday, citing worries about wildlife and the health of the real estate market.

“What you can help with is the political part of this,” Jackson resident Charlie Payne said to councilors. “You might be able to help influence both appointed and elected officials to try to help bring some money our way.”