Annual Meeting

Hi. My name is Shawn Hill.

I am the executive director of Fire.

As you are aware, the year is coming to an

end and all of you will be given to the

non profit of your choice.

We wanted to get this message out before Thanksgiving because

we'd like to make you aware of what we accomplished

this year.

We're incredibly proud of what we have done with the

money you gave us about a year ago.

Now when we had our last in person annual meeting

at the Senior Center.

This year we will hold our annual meeting with this

video. We hope to achieve the same level of devotion

that you, our members granted us on that exciting night

of January 2020.

This level of devotion propelled us through a banner year

in 2020 and we hope to have the same level

of success in 2021.

Such will be engaging you between now and the end

of the year to earn your support.

Bar employees, a small but mighty staff of three employees,

and we're proud of our productivity.

Nikki tracks development applications and public lands issues such as

Grand Targhee, Anna's, our staff attorney and keeps our legal

options available to us.

As the executive director, I oversee all of arts programs

and administrative functions.

Now, when we last met, I presented our new aggressive

strategy. You responded with $114,000 in contributions and a 100%

participation rate from all those in the room that funded

our work in 2020 and we had some pretty significant

accomplishments. So I'm going to quickly go over these accomplishments,

and there are four of them that I would like

to highlight.

And then I will tell you what we need to

accomplish in 2021 for 2020 accomplishments.

Specifically, I am going to tell you what our 2020

accomplishments add up Thio in real numbers.

Specifically, the number of potential houses, hotel rooms or other

units were black.

Now, keep in mind that when I say houses, I

mean spec homes to be built.

Un environmentally sensitive land e do not mean affordable homes.

Inappropriate locations, on the contrary, barred aggressively promote a truly

affordable housing where appropriate and supported by the tea Time

Valley Strategic housing housing plan.

So again, when I say houses I mean speculative development

in inappropriate locations.

I am also going to tell you how many acres

of land we saved from irresponsible development.

I will tell you how many acres of critical wildlife

habitat we say from irresponsible development.

And finally, I will tell you how many car trips

we took off the road as a result of stopping

irresponsible development.

We calculate this figure with data provided by the Institute

of Transportation Engineers.

So without further ado, let's talk about what we did

in 2020 Number one, the under canvas development.

This was a proposed a proposal to develop 90 glamping

tents, outbuildings, restaurants, another development on pristine land and Moose

Creek Canyon.

First, we tried to get under canvas to consider another

less sensitive site in the Valley.

However, they refused, so we rallied the public against the

proposal and ultimately convinced the developer to pull out.

As a result, we were able to accomplish the following

numbers. We stopped 90 glamping units and other buildings.

We saved 102 acres of land from this irresponsible development

proposal. We saved 99 acres of critical wildlife habitat and

we eliminated 1209 car trips from Moose Creek Road, Old

Jackson Highway and Teton Pass.

Next, we have the Matthews annexation and reason.

Here, the developer proposed up to 47 apartments on the

corner of Highway 33 South Bates Rub.

Not only is this part of the pristine gateway on

the south end of Driggs, it is also critical Big

Game and wrapped her habitat.

The city of Driggs tried to rush approval of the

project during the pandemic lock down of March and April

2020 but we sued to make them do it right.

As a result, we got the city Thio agree to

require a wildlife study and permanently affordable housing.

The developer has signaled that they'll likely pull out of

the deal.

But here's what we accomplished in terms of numbers up

to 47 ill placed, an unaffordable units were eliminated, 11

acres of prime farmland was saved from irresponsible development, Four

acres of critical wildlife habitat were saved and 207 car

trips were eliminated, at least for now.

Now, if you're keeping track, you'll notice that we've saved

so far are tally is that saving or blocking 137

houses, saving 130 acres of land, 103 acres of wildlife

habitat, and 1416 cars off the road as a result

of stopping irresponsible development onto number three.

And that is Teatime Creek Resort.

In 1993 Teton County approved 163 condos with strict architectural

landscaping requirements.

This summer, the developer tried to sneak in 163 modular

homes instead claiming that they were condos, barred, partnered with

surrounding neighborhoods to convince Teton County to stop the developer

in his tracks and make him do it right.

As a result, we were able to stop 163 hastily

placed an unaffordable modular units.

We saved 49 acres from irresponsible development.

We saved 47 acres of wildlife habitat, and we stopped

1539 car trips generated by the development so on the

Big board were at 300 houses, eliminated 160 acres of

land saved, 152 acres of wildlife habitat saved and 2955

car trips taken off the road.

The next accomplishment I will tell you about increases thes

numbers significantly, and that is the Maytag property.

So, beginning in 2018, Barred worked hard behind the scenes

to help save the Maytag property, a 960 acre in

holding in the Big Hole Mountain.

We worked with partners like the Conservation Fund, the Land

Trust, Caribou Targhee National Forest and the Teton County Commissioners

to get the U.

S. Congress upon the acquisition.

This happened on July 22nd, when the U.

S House past the Great American Outdoors Act, which included

a line item for the property.

This private land is now public, and you are free

to enjoy it with the successful acquisition of the Maytag

property, our numbers look like this.

The potential for 384 homes has been eliminated and eliminated

forever. Now you could double that when you consider that

each home would be entitled for a guesthouse.

960 acres of land have been saved from any development,

and this also means that 960 acres of wildlife habitat

have been protected.

Finally, 6625 car trips have been eliminated.

So what's the grand total?

Well, including the other smaller, irresponsible developments that we have

stopped or stymied.

Also, in 2020 we have blocked the development of 694

speculative, unaffordable and ill placed houses.

Air units.

We have stopped 1147 acres from irresponsible development.

We saved 1109 acres of critical wildlife habitat from irresponsible

development, and we have taken 6674 potential car trips off

of our roads.

Now, keep in mind that this is in 2020 alone

because of our efforts and because of your your support.

The wildlife of this valley can breathe a sigh of

relief, and her human counterparts can continue to enjoy its

special character.

We want to continue implementing our aggressive strategy into 2020

and achieve the same level of success with your support

specifically $125,000 in operating capital.

We can do this and we need barred.

Now, more than ever, development is on the uptick, especially

now with the influx of covert refugees.

We also have two monumental challenges ahead of us.

Those are the Teton County Land use Code and the

Grand Targhee expansion.

For those of you who have been with us for

the last eight years, you know that we have been

trying to get a new zoning ordinance or land use

code, as is the parlance adopted a Teton County.

If we achieve this, we will have ushered in a

new era of planning and zoning in Teton County.

I'd say that around 80% of the planning and zoning

headaches we experience now and barred has been successfully able

to combat in 2020 will be eliminated by the adoption

of the new code.

2020 was supposed to be the year that we got

it done, but Teton County rightfully delay the adoption of

the code until our community made sense of the current

pandemic. Now the Teton County citizenry has elected a unanimous

pro planning pro conservation commission.

The wind is at our backs in 2020 is the

year we might get this done.

Land use code has been stalled since 2012, and now

is the time to get it done.

We're also in the midst of an expansion proposal at

Grand Targhee, the resort seeks to add new lifts, new

on mountain facilities and 600 acres of additional scalable acreage.

In September and October, the Forest Service opened what is

called a scoping period in which they sought public comment

on the depth and breadth of the forthcoming environmental impact

statement, or D.

I. S of the 148 letters that were sent in,

Barnes by far was the longest.

And we requested that the Forest Service study 36 specific

issues such as impacts the wildlife impacts to views, impacts

to traffic impacts the low income households and impacts to

the quality of life we enjoy in Teton Valley.

So with regard to the Grand Targhee expansion, barred is

now serving as a source of information.

When the I s comes out, we will be a

source of opinion.

E. I s will feature several alternatives, including a no

build alternative, a partial build alternative and a full build

alternatives. We will analyze each closely and share our perspective.

So 2021 comes with enormous challenges but also enormous opportunities.

The difference between the two, I humbly submit is your

support of our with an investment of $125,000 we can

fund are small but mighty staff through the first three

quarters of 2021.

Though we are facing an increased workload, your investment in

season staffers allows our team to increase our efficiency and

our effectiveness.

With your support, we are ready to take on 2021.

This is both an urgent and a golden moment.

So between now and the end of the year, we

will be reaching out to you for your support.

We look forward to achieving great things with you.

Thank you.

Annual Meeting

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