Posts by Ryan Dunfee
Fun With Urban Planning
A "use-for-density" swap would be the most significant zoning change if Jackson's rough draft of land use regulations gets approved by voters. The change would allow only residential construction is sections of downtown that have been zoned for mixed uses, and would allow builders to construct a third story. The denser residential zoning could help Teton County's beleaguered workforce, who struggle to find affordable housing. [Jackson Hole Property Guide]
Local Hotelier Revealed As Jackson's Bridger-Teton HQ Buyer
The Jackson Hole Property Guide has revealed that local hotelier Jerry Johnson was the buyer of the last big piece of undeveloped real estate in Jackson. The 10-acre slice of the Bridger-Teton National Forest headquarters that the Forest Service hired Sotheby's to sell off this past June was up for $11.55 million, and only lasted until July before a buyer put a down payment on the property. Johnson, who runs the Rustic Inn property across the street and ran the Best Western at the ski resort before selling it in 2007, made an undisclosed payment to lock up the Forest Service property. Rumors followed that Johnson was not able to come up with the required cash, that he asked for a six-month which was then denied, and that the contract was void, but a Sotheby's agent denied those rumors.
Both Sotheby's, Johnson, and the Forest Service are staying mum on details about the deal until the contract closes on November 1st, at which point we'll expect to know quite a lot more about how the deal went down and what kind of accomodations Johnson actually asked for.
· Bridger-Teton Still Set to Sell Land [Jackson Hole Property Guide]
· Bridger-Teton National Forest Headquarters archives [Curbed Ski]
Accolades
Elevation Outdoors Magazine recently put out their annual "Best Colorado Mountain Towns Contest," and Crested Butte did some serious cleaning up. CB was voted the best bike town, best town for dogs, and the town with the best trail system in Colorado. Take that, Aspen! [Chris Kopf]
Event Watch
The Phat Weekend Funduro mountain bike race at the Whistler Bike Park has been cancelled for this weekend. Why, you might ask? It's because of a little something that's been unusually frequent this September... snow! 10 centimeters is supposed to fall on the upper mountain, with heavy rain in the valley. [Pique]
Feds Drop Proposal For Trail Re-Routing Involving Texas Lobbyist
[Mountain biking near the proposed re-routed trail. Guideloop photo]
A proposal by the Forest Service to swap lands with Texas lobbyist Stan Schlueter in order to build a 6.8 mile loop trail in exchange for closing a public road that accesses his 497 acre property to vehicular traffic and moving part of that road away from the home has been slid off the table. This was due largely to confusion and dissent surrounding a short section of that road, where officials claim Schlueter's vacation home encroached on a 60-foot public easement held for the road in perpetuity. That encroachment set off eleven years of barking between the Forest Service, conservation groups, lawyers, and even politicians back in the Lone Star State, at the end of which Schlueter still maintained his home didn't encroach on Forest Service road 166B.
Whistler Summer Tourism Expected to Boom, Mammoth Names Interim Town Manager
[Mike Crane/Tourism Whistler photo via Pique]
· Based on TP sales, Whistler summer tourism booming [Pique]
· Clark's Market to open in Snowmass Village [Aspen Business Journal]
· Mammoth focuses policy muscle on... chickens! [Mammoth Times]
· Mammoth names interim town manager [Mammoth Times]
· Drunken plane crash destroys Sandpoint nav system [Bonner County Daily Bee]
· Climber finds treasure chest on Mont Blanc [The Local]
Blockbusters
Lo! How the mighty have fallen. Copper Beech Farm, the 50-acre Greenwich estate that roared onto the market in May with a record-setting $190M price tag, has suffered the fate shared by so many of its nine-figure peers: it's been mercilessly slashed, and now asks $140M. Curbed National has the full story. [Curbed National]