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Here we go into November! Here’s your week of November 3rd, 2024 news roundup:
It was a quiet first week of November here at Star Valley Ranch. General Election Day, on Tuesday November 5th, was the big event of the week. You can find complete official Lincoln County election results here on the Clerk’s webpage (use the 2024 General Election dropdown). For now, here’s a quick rundown of outcomes with the greatest impact for Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) residents:
Constitutional Amendment A was approved by TSVR voters (68.31% for and 31.69% against); Constitutional Amendment A also passed statewide with 146,300 state voters for and 100,375 state voters against.
The Specific Purpose Tax, aka 6th Penny, was defeated by TSVR voters (40.11% for and 59.89% against); the 6th Penny also failed county-wide with 35.04% of county voters for and 64.96% of county voters against.
The TSVR Lodging Tax was approved by voters at the Ranch with 54.99% for and 45.01% against.
Katie Toolson is your newly elected Town Councilwoman and TSVR voters also returned incumbent Taylor Ellis to continue serving as a Town Councilman. Congratulations to both Katie and Taylor!
Friday, November 8th, Star Valley Ranch celebrated its 19th year as a municipality! The big two-decade Founder’s Day anniversary will occur in 2025.
Other news and notes from the week:
Last week I forgot to make mention of the new giant bulletin board for community events recently installed at the Town Hall Mail Center. Additionally, a new official notice board was also installed for TSVR use where the smaller community events bulletin board used to be.
The new employee parking signs that arrived rather suddenly in the Town Hall parking lot last week, were removed without ceremony this week.
For those of you who patronize the Pizza Shack at the Ranch you’ll be happy to know they now offer delivery service from 4pm to 9pm, 7 days a week! Yeah!
Lastly—I thought it worthwhile to make note of a petition currently circulating seeking a moratorium on the building of storage units in Lincoln County. The petition was started as a result of a mega-storage complex, the largest one in Lincoln County and one of the largest in the state, that is seeking approval near the elementary school in Etna, Wyoming. The project, identified as file 111-CUP-24 by the Lincoln County Planning & Zoning Commission (LCP&ZC), will go before the Lincoln County Commissioners (LCC) for approval on Wednesday, November 13th, 2024 at 10am.
If you are interested in learning more about this project, to include the written objections submitted to the LCP&ZC by many members of the surrounding community, please visit the following links:
LCC meeting minutes from October 2, 2024 (see pages 2 through 4)
If you are interested in reading and possibly supporting the moratorium petition, you can find it at the following link:
Finally, on this topic, I wanted to make an observation about Lincoln County Land Use Regulations (LC LUR). Zoning is covered in Chapter 1 of the LC LUR; Section 1.2 further identifies overlay zones. One of those overlay zones, the Scenic Corridor Zone (or SC Zone on page 4) caught my eye. Here is how the LUR defines the SC Zone:
“The purpose of this overlay zone is to delineate the identified areas of the county that have high scenic value that is essential to maintaining the character and historical significance of the region. Construction occurring in these areas shall incorporate the surrounding topography and vegetation in screening or blending in of the development.”
The definition goes on to say “No specific policies or delineated areas have been identified as of the adoption date of these Land Use Regulations” [Chapter 1 of the LC LURs were last updated in July 2019].
Historically, as an agrarian and dairy farm community, Star Valley was once known as “America’s Switzerland” or “Little Switzerland”. Today, while we have fewer dairy farms, Star Valley remains a breathtaking and beautiful place to live. With that thought—I’m wondering why Star Valley, or at least portions of it, should not have an SC Zone designation? Sounds to me like a question for the Lincoln County Commissioners!
November starts to gear up with lots of calendar items next week:
Monday, November 11th the Star Valley Ranch Town Hall and Star Valley Ranch Association offices will be closed in observance of Veterans Day.
Tuesday, November 12th has the following schedule of events:
Coffee with the Mayor, 9am at Town Hall
Town Council Work Session, 10am at Town Hall.
TSVR Municipal Court, 2pm, upstairs at Town Hall
Town Council Meeting, 7pm at Town Hall.
Wednesday, November 13th at 5pm the TSVR Planning and Zoning Board will meet at Town Hall.
Final thoughts—I am relieved election season is behind us. I have found all of it to be more than a little stressful and exhausting. No matter where you stood going into the day on November 5th, I can only hope in the months ahead we can all just remember how lucky we are to live in this country. America still is that shining beacon on the hill, let’s try to work together and keep her that way. And, as you enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend remember to say Thank You to our veterans some of whom gave all and all of whom eternally remind us—freedom is not free.
That’s all for today folks—hope you enjoyed the read. And, thank you for being a subscriber! If you have Star Valley Ranch news or photographs to share please drop me an email at close2home307@gmail.com. And, if you find this weekly email useful, please invite your neighbors, family, and friends to check out Close to Home 307. Your support and feedback is very much appreciated!
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