The Policy Frontier: Sustainability Planning in Teton County, Wyoming

After two land use planning cycles over twenty years, Teton County, Wyoming, is still losing its distinctive natural and social amenities to development pressures. There is declining trust that local government can maintain the remaining community character and other values desired by locals. Sustainability planning offers a way to increase the effectiveness of current plans, but it requires substantial community participation to legitimize policy decisions. Our study reveals that the planning process to date has resulted in a drawing down of public trust and increasing frustration between the government and its community. Conflicts among values and a sense that decision making has not been properly inclusive have added to the sense of disaffection. We recommend an alternative policy process to reinvigorate and strengthen civic engagement to produce flexible, effective sustainability policies for the community. The approximately 12,000 residents of the Town of Jackson and Teton County, Wyoming, are beginning to think publicly about sustainability. Current land use practices do not meet citizens’ expectations for maintaining community character and the valley’s unique environment. Although the precise number of citizens who share this view is unknown, evidence suggests it may be the majority. Although the town and county passed concurrent growth management plans in 1994, the joint planning process left many residents feeling that living and environmental conditions were deteriorating. Many were also disaffected and mistrustful of the public policy process, especially government’s ability to provide leadership for sustainability. Continuing pervasive resentment could become a significant obstacle to the future public involvement that is essential for clarifying and securing the common interest. The problem Teton County faces is how to produce a policy process that reinvigorates civic engagement to produce sustainable practices that are workable and adaptable. Our paper describes historical value demands, appraises the decisionmaking process that produced the two plans, and suggests ways to strengthen civic engagement and problem solving so that future processes become genuinely sustainable. We seek to improve community capacity to formulate and realize appropriate policies reflecting broad public support. Our analytic methods are those of the policy sciences (Lasswell and Kaplan 1950; Lasswell 1971; Lasswell and McDougal 1992). Primary research included interviews using eleven open-ended questions about the decision process and its outcomes. Seventeen people who were active in 1990-1992, including both supporters and opponents of the plans, were chosen from public meeting rosters. Additional data about citizen perspectives and the decision process The approximately 12,000 residents of the Town of Jackson and Teton County, Wyoming, are beginning to think publicly about sustainability. Current land use practices do not meet citizens’ expectations for maintaining community character and the valley’s unique environment.