Here’s the news rundown from an event-filled week at the Ranch:
Tuesday, November 14th was a busy day at Star Valley Ranch Town Hall. Coffee with the Mayor got things going at 9am followed by a Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Council Work Session at 2pm (see the agenda here). A couple of notes from the Work Session:
Several ordinance update requests from the TSVR Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Board were presented and discussed by the Council to include limiting the number of driveway approaches per lot, the allowable size for a single-family home (SFH), as well as fencing of residential lots.
The latter fencing topic was part of a broader discussion about fencing of lots that do not have an existing SFH. As written TSVR ordinances do not appear to exclude this, however, there also seem to be competing Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) architectural controls at issue. I will make a note to look into this subject further and try to obtain more clarity.
The Town Council discussed an upcoming opportunity to place a Special Purpose (6th Penny) Tax on the 2024 ballot. Several towns in Lincoln County are also interested in working this effort; however, the key is that all towns and the county must participate otherwise the 6th Penny cannot go on the ballot. Each community must identify specific projects (the Council discussed various road projects the 6th Penny could resource). The 6th Penny Tax is a special purpose sales tax and is temporary. I’ll keep you posted as this topic develops.
Also on Tuesday, November 14th, the TSVR Natural Resources Board (NRB) met at 2pm at the upstairs meeting room of the Public Works building. You can find the agenda from this meeting here. I was not able to attend as the Town Council Work Session was taking place at the same time. The agenda indicates Rusty’s Tree Service provided a presentation on aspen tree diseases at the Ranch.
Continuing into the evening on Tuesday, at 6pm the Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) Board of Directors (BoD) held a workshop at Cedar Creek Center. Read the workshop agenda here.
Finally, at 7pm on Tuesday, November 14th, the TSVR conducted their regular Town Council meeting at Town Hall. You can find the complete Council packet at this link and also find the video of the entire meeting’s proceedings here. A couple of highlights:
Two P&Z Board recommended lot combinations were approved by the Town Council.
The Town Council heard an appeal from a resident regarding the P&Z Board tabling the resident’s permit to build a single continuous fence around their SFH and adjacent empty lot. The Town Council voted to return the appeal to the P&Z Board for further action. As noted earlier in this post, this was a very murky subject and warrants more review and consideration in my opinion.
The 3rd reading of the ordinance to establish a new Travel & Tourism (T&T) Board for TSVR was approved by the Town Council. The T&T Board ordinance will become effective 10-days after approval; the new board is not expected to hold their first meeting until after the New Year. If you are interested in serving on the T&T Board, please email me! Thanks!
The Town Council provided a brief update on the emerging water system requirements proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as discussed during the prior week’s Public Meeting (see sub-bullet below). The Council stated the TSVR Corrective Action Plan was submitted to the EPA earlier in the day and the Town is now waiting for the EPA’s response. The Mayor advised she would keep residents informed as information becomes available.
In last week’s SVR News Round-up I neglected to include the video link for the November 9th Public Meeting on the water system and EPA; you can view the entire Public Meeting video at this link.
Thursday, November 16th at 7pm the SVRA BoD held their monthly meeting at Cedar Creek Center. Here’s a link to the agenda along with a couple of notes from the meeting:
The BoD approved the SVRA 2024 Annual Budget after some late-breaking debate and dissension regarding the new fee schedule. Read the approved budget here.
The SVRA General Manager (GM) took a few minutes at the end of the meeting to address some negative feedback she recently received from some members regarding her performance and value to the organization.
The latter was a bit of a surprise to hear as ever since the current GM took over (less than a year ago now I believe), there has been a decided positive shift in the overall direction of the SVRA. My opinion, of course, but I think it’s hard to miss the energy and positivity at SVRA these days. My two cents for what that’s worth.
Other news notes for the week:
In case you missed it—read my latest “Around the 307” post with some news nuggets from around the Cowboy State to include local football state champs, an animal migration documentary, and alas, no good news on property tax reform.
A quick update on the Middle Branch Bridge replacement project—the Town Engineer is waiting on some final design modeling, however, a response from the Army Corps of Engineers is anticipated in January which would enable the bidding process to commence in the spring.
With the Thanksgiving holiday, there are no calendar items for next week.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone and thank you for reading! As ever, I appreciate you sharing the Close to Home 307 website with your Ranch family and friends. Email me anytime at: close2home307@gmail.com