“That would be a taking,” said Brendan Schulte, the Jorgensen Associates planner spearheading Targhee’s push to begin developing its base area surrounded by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

“It would render the resort undevelopable,” Schulte said. “It wouldn’t make sense financially any more.”

Jay Pence, Teton Basin district ranger for the Caribou-Targhee, asked Teton County, Wyoming, to “insist” on the setback from national forest land to protect the 28 cabins Targhee is looking to develop from wildfire. If Targhee and county officials don’t agree, that buffer could be created on national forest unless fire officials find other ways to situate buildings to adequately separate them from flammable vegetation.

Anne Callison, a Tetonia, Idaho, resident and Targhee watchdog, used similar logic as Schulte to argue against the development.

“What we’re going to see here is a taking of public land,” she said. “If the Forest Service acquiesces and they decide to provide the 300-foot setback — I don’t care if it’s a 50-foot setback — that comes at taxpayer expense. And it comes at the viewshed expense of the residents of Teton Valley, Idaho.”

Callison and Schulte’s exchange was only one of the tense back-and-forths Monday evening between Targhee spokespeople and officials and residents of Teton County, Idaho.

Over the course of a three-hour meeting with the Teton County (Wyoming) Planning Commission, Pence, the mayor of Driggs, Idaho, the chair of the Teton County (Idaho) Board of County Commissioners and officials with both east Idaho governments laid out concerns about Grand Targhee’s cabins, which will range from two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot models to a five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home. Developers are still working out how many will be short-term rentals versus long-term residences and how many Targhee will own rather than sell.

Wyoming planning commissioners ultimately voted 3-1 to postpone a decision for at least two weeks, though two planning commissioners doubted the concerns could be addressed that quickly.

Idaho officials questioned whether Targhee’s plans are sufficient for employee housing, transportation, emergency management and compensating Idaho for impacts resort development will cause, like road deterioration, and increased Fire/EMS calls.

The resort is accessible only through Driggs, Idaho, but located in a 120-acre inholding in the national forest on the western edge of the Tetons — and entirely within Wyoming.

“I’m certainly not anti-Geordie Gillett or -Targhee. I am pro-Teton Valley,” Driggs Mayor August Christensen said. “This is about ensuring the public services and infrastructure needed to support resort expansion is paid for by the development rather than the taxpayers in Idaho.”

Pence and others called for having conversations about emergency preparedness sooner rather than later. Prevailing winds would push a fire west of the resort into the base area, fire officials said.

“If there’s a fire below that resort,” Pence said, “residents of the resort would have to shelter in place.”

Aside from expanding its base area, which is on private land, Targhee also is looking to expand on the public land where it operates its lifts — and into nearby areas where it does not yet do so. The Caribou-Targhee is reviewing those proposals, with a draft environmental impact statement expected this spring.

A 2021 study funded by commissioners in Idaho and Wyoming found that Targhee expansion would only benefit Teton County, Wyoming, while Idaho’s Teton County would see only costs. That’s primarily because of there is no mechanism or plan for sharing tax revenue to cover public costs associated with expansion.

Gillett has called the study a “red herring,” arguing that if Targhee’s expansion doesn’t benefit Teton County, Idaho because it’s unable to levy lodging or sales taxes, nothing does.

Wyoming planning commissioners are set to reconsider the development plan Feb. 13. They will make a recommendation to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners, which has final say on approval.

The five-member commission also will have to sign off on subsequent phases of Targhee’s base area development: renovating bars, expanding existing hotels and building a new one.

Under a 2018 master plan the resort has clearance to develop up to 150,000 square feet of new commercial development and 450 new lodging units. This is the first development under that plan.

Schulte, Targhee’s planning consultant, said “this entitlement was approved in 2008,” the year Teton County, Wyoming, commissioners first approved a Grand Targhee master plan.

It was subsequently updated in 2018.

“It wasn’t an easy process,” Schulte said. “It was fully publicly vetted.”

Plans for later developments will, however, be subject to similar public review.

And some Idaho officials would beg to differ about how well the 2018 master plan was vetted.

Cindy Riegel, chair of the Teton County (Idaho) Board of County Commissioners told Wyoming officials Monday evening that Idaho officials were not sufficiently included during the 2018 process.

“It’s kind of an awkward position of having to comment on a specific development application for which we believe the master plan is deficient in some areas,” Riegel said.

Gillett was not present at the meeting Monday. But in an earlier interview with the News&Guide, he said now is not the time to raise questions about the master plan and the two counties’ relationship.

“We all see it every day. And we’re certainly a part of it,” Gillett said of the impacts of growth in Teton Valley. “But we’re not the only part of it or even anywhere close to the majority of it.

“Trying to litigate Teton County, Idaho’s grievances in the context of a 28-cabin building permit process is frustrating and not the appropriate place to do it.”

That language carried over into the commissioners’ chambers Monday.

“Our mandate tonight is not to reopen and renegotiate the master plan,” Teton County (Wyoming) Planning Commission Chair Alex Muromcew said.

But Rob Marin, Teton County, Idaho’s community projects coordinator, said that’s not Idaho officials’ goal.

Rather, he argued they were appropriately reconsidering it as the landscape has changed.

“Our region has undergone dramatic changes since that plan was approved, particularly in terms of housing affordability and attitudes regarding the diminishing returns of ongoing tourism promotion and development,” Marin said. “We don’t wish to relitigate the entire master plan.”

Instead, he called for three things: reexamining how Targhee would provide housing in Idaho in exchange for new development, establishing an “equitable share of revenues between the two Teton Counties,” and how Targhee and Teton County, Wyoming, would cooperate with Idaho service providers.

Teton County, Wyoming, pays Idaho’s Teton County for fire/EMS services in Targhee’s resort area.

Riegel also asked for Wyoming officials to require an emergency plan earlier than currently required. The 2018 master plan doesn’t require one until a year after the first subdivision in the resort.

She asked for that emergency plan to be required sooner.

“It is discouraging that the developer may be able to put off critical emergency planning until after development approvals are granted,” Riegel said.

Pence, the Caribou-Targhee’s district ranger, also said emergency planning needs to happen sooner.

Schulte, however, argued that there’s a “backstop” for the U.S. Forest Service and public: a separate study of the wildland/urban interface that the county plan requires before construction begins. That condition requires Targhee to work with the Forest Service to develop a fire management plan.

“If we submit a building permit without that, it will likely be denied,” Schulte said.

Targhee also is interested in emergency planning and wildfire prevention, he said.

“Grand Targhee Resort in no way minimizes the need to make it happen,” Schulte said. “When the resort builds this infrastructure, builds these homes, it’s all their money, it’s all their people.

“They absolutely care about what happens,” he said. “To insinuate otherwise, it’s a little disingenuous.”

Though planning commissioners didn’t vote on the development, they gave an indication of how they felt. Two commissioners, Sue Lurie and Brad Nielson, the board chair of Protect Our Water Jackson Hole who was recently appointed to the commission, both said Monday that they would be able to vote no.

Muromcew called for the pause, giving commissioners until the end of the week to submit questions.

Planning Commissioner Karen Rockey agreed.

Lurie said she wanted to see the two counties meet to review the 2021 study of how Targhee expansion would impact both valleys and to iron out differences about the larger plan.

She called for postponing a Planning Commission recommendation until that happened.

The other commissioners didn’t back Lurie up. She later said she would be a no vote.

“It is not true that the development does not have impact on public facilities, infrastructure, housing and emergency services,” Lurie said.