Debate over rodeo grounds future heats up

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A lease between the town and county to use the fairgrounds for the annual county fair and local rodeo does not expire until 2026. Rodeo contractor Phil Wilson just signed on to produce the Jackson Hole Rodeo for another four years.

So why is everyone in the community talking about the fairgrounds moving?

Short answer: Electeds keep introducing the notion in an effort to assure voters they are trying to create more affordable housing opportunities. Keystone to that discussion is the juicy 12-acre parcel smack in the middle of town that has housing proponents drooling over the possibilities and some elected officials believing the property is underperforming as is.

Fairgrounds future unclear

Scrapping a local rodeo entirely after 2026 is probably off the table, although Teton County’s changing demographics and insatiable hunger for housing may paint a different picture four years from now. Will Teton County still be a place where we ‘Let ‘er Buck’ in 2027? Also germane to the discussion is finding a landing place somewhere in the county for the rodeo and fairgrounds. That, so far, has been a fruitless ambition.

Then there is a significant and vocal group opposed to moving the rodeo on the grounds that it just might be one last bastion of a valley that was once western in nature and still proports to be (at least in its marketing materials).

But none of these concerns has prevented members of the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners from at least preliminary salvos into potential rezoning of the town-owned property with the goal of using the parcel for housing.

During long-range planning efforts like the joint information meeting back in June, the topic keeps coming up. Town and county long-range planners say they will begin taking a closer look at rezoning as part of the Fairgrounds Neighborhood Plan—a subset of the FY22 Implementation Work Plan—beginning in January 2022.

Monday’s discussions

The issue was again brought to the surface Monday when Rachel Grimes, Teton County Fair and fairgrounds manager, submitted her Capital Improvement Plan to the BCC. Before Grimes began her itemized wishlist to commissioners, she prefaced her presentation with the elephant in the room.

“At the top of my list is the expiration of the lease in 2026,” Grimes began. “We need to start discussing what the need for the future is. With that being said, a lot of the capital improvement items on my list may be contingent upon that decision. Maybe the best option for some items would be to push them off until we know what the future of the fairgrounds is.”

Uncertainty about where the fairground will be in 2027 was unavoidable in nearly every capital improvement the fairboard wants to explore. From replacing all the dirt in the arena, to reclaiming the pavilion when Fire Station 1 moves back into its permanent home, to improving ADA access…will any of it matter if the grounds are going away?

BCC chair Natalia Macker and commissioner Mark Barron tried to steer Grimes during her presentation at Monday’s CIP meeting toward identifying which items might be transferable to a new location, and what improvements were fixed to the property.

Barron pointed out the $1.55M price tag of rehabbing the pavilion to fairground use as one place money could be saved if the fairgrounds were on the move in 2026.

“Does it make sense to do a full replacement of ground materials if the rodeo arena were to relocate?” Barron also wondered aloud.

Barron also stated for the record he is opposed to seeing the fairgrounds move

“Believe me, I support leaving the rodeo grounds and arena right where they are for another 50 years, but I don’t think that is the will of the board. But I’m open to that and will continue to work toward that,” he said during Monday’s meeting.

Heavy lift

Other commissioners and councilmembers have been noncommittal to date, though some have expressed varying degrees of desire to see housing come to the 12-acre parcel. Before a dime could be spent developing housing on the current site of the fairgrounds, an estimated $30,000,000 may have to be found in the budget just to secure land for a relocation.

The FY2027 capital improvement plan includes the eye-popping $30M price tag as an estimate for what it would take to purchase land in Teton County for a future rodeo/fairgrounds site…at today’s real estate dollars. That kind of number would require the town/county to carry a bond or try to implement special tax in order to raise funds.

More than money

Once proponents of a ‘Town as Heart’ concept, electeds navigate that precept carefully these days. Is the soul of Jackson its people, and are those people leaving in droves due to the high cost of housing? Or is the heart and soul of Jackson being lost incrementally with each decision made by town and county officials who continually prioritize hotels, condos, and other big money development over pillars of small-town character like a local, walkable rodeo grounds?

Leading the opposition to a rodeo grounds relocation is Rebecca Bextel and Blair Maus, cofounders of Eyes on Teton County which encompasses the grassroots, ‘Save the Rodeo Grounds’ movement. The group opposes relocating the rodeo and fairgrounds, and developing housing or anything else in its place, based on a community character and preserving historic tradition argument.

The campaign has collected more than 1,300 signatures petitioning the town and county to hold a special referendum allowing citizens the opportunity to vote on whether or not they want the current fairgrounds turned into affordable housing, or anything other than its current use.

“Our historic rodeo and fairgrounds serve an integral purpose in safekeeping Jackson Hole as ‘The Last of the Old West,’” Bextel says. “The convenience and profit of a few must not allow the rodeo and fairgrounds to be turned into affordable housing thereby irrevocably destroying the character of the Jackson Hole we know and love.”

For Bextel and Maus, the campaign comes down to historic preservation and not wanting to see the character of town change so dramatically.

A ‘Save the Rodeo Grounds’ town hall is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 14 at 6pm at the Exhibit Hall.