This story was produced in collaboration with WyoFile.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest has had so much trouble housing workers that it once considered moving its headquarters out of Jackson to escape the tight, high-priced real estate market.
Now, the Forest Service is partnering with a nonprofit to build affordable rentals on 3.15 acres owned by the forest, an approach supporters say could serve as a national model for how to house federal workers on the lands they manage.
“I think the sense of urgency right now is greater than it’s ever been,” said Chad Hudson, supervisor of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
While many embrace the concept as a way to keep vital workers in the valley with roughly half-priced rent, some worry it opens the door to privatizing cherished public lands.
“The slippery slope of using federally protected wildland to expand the urban boundary of Jackson in order to subsidize housing that includes private sector employees is frankly terrifying for the future of Jackson Hole,” said Judd Grossman, a neighbor to the project, former Jackson Town Council candidate and self-described “no-growth libertarian.”
Grossman shared his concerns with a full room at the Jackson Town Council’s Nov. 30 meeting. But his resistance stood in stark contrast to the council, whose members signaled support for investing a little over $4 million of sales tax funds, earmarked for housing, in exchange for the right to rent six of 36 proposed units to town employees. Teton County has the same offer but has yet to consider the project, which sits next to existing Forest Service housing, the National Elk Refuge and a popular trailhead on the eastern edge of Jackson.
The Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust touts the project as a first of its kind in the nation and much-needed. Of more than 1,500 people on the affordable housing nonprofit’s waitlist, 114 are town or county employees.
Housing Trust Director Anne Cresswell said the project could break ground in April 2026 with modular units delivered by October. That timeline would be more likely if the housing nonprofit secures a combined $8.1 million from the town and county. It’s the last bit of funding needed to push the $33 million development over the finish line, she said.
The project will move forward with or without funds from the town and county, she said, albeit more slowly.
She’s eyeing funds restricted to rentals for town and county employees.
In 2022, Teton County voters passed a record-breaking $166 million in Specific Purpose Excise Tax initiatives to be collected over about 10 years in the tourism-driven county. About half — $80 million — in sales tax revenue is going to housing in some form. For example, St. John’s Health will receive $24 million, with half of that going to a nearly $54 million project to build 72 apartments for employees across from the hospital.
Voters also approved $20 million for town and county employee housing — $10 million for each entity. The request to support the Bridger-Teton project comes as the same pot of money is being mulled for a much larger housing complex, this one from the town and county’s housing department.
“So any money we allocate to this project would not be available to the Virginian Lane project or other projects,” Town Manager Tyler Sinclair said.
But Housing Director April Norton said there’s a good chance that over 200 homes planned for 90 Virginian Lane, which is facing a $17 million funding gap, would not require Specific Purpose Excise Tax funds. And if “The Virg” does need to dip into the same pool, she said the department would ask for a maximum of $5 million each from the town and county. Funding both projects would leave just shy of $1 million in SPET for each.
“It could be ‘both, and,’” Norton said.
Steep cost to stay put
Since at least 2008, the Forest Service has considered building office space and additional employee housing at Nelson Drive next to existing homes for federal workers. Around the same time, the agency was debating whether to keep its main office building in Jackson or move the headquarters to Alpine, Pinedale or Afton where workers would have better odds of securing housing.
In 2012, the Forest Service chose to build its new administrative building in Jackson on the same site where the old building stood, nestled against the National Elk Refuge at the northern entrance into town. It’s locked them into figuring out how to house their workforce in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where real estate prices have only become more extreme.
But Hudson, leading the Bridger-Teton National Forest, said it’s a price they’re willing to pay.
“I think that’s where we belong,” Hudson said.
Hudson said the more than 3-million-acre forest is key to one of the last nearly intact temperate ecosystems in the world.
“We’re a big player,” Hudson said.
Being in Jackson allows managers to form relationships across state and federal agencies in the Greater Yellowstone area.
To pay for a new administrative building, the Forest Service sold 10 acres of its public land to private developers for $12 million. Brothers Jim and Kirk Hansen, of the Idaho Falls company Conrad and Bischoff, bought the land and built Hidden Hollow, Jackson’s largest planned development since Cottonwood Park. Over time, the project morphed from ownership units to rentals, many deed-restricted as workforce or affordable.
“But we did not make much progress when it came to our housing, and we’re in a situation now where we’re struggling to maintain a viable workforce,” Hudson said.
Today, many Bridger-Teton employees continue to commute to Jackson. Others, who should work in Jackson but can’t afford housing, crowd the Pinedale district office.
Proponents see housing on the eastern edge of Jackson as part of the solution.
The Forest Service and Housing Trust unveiled plans for 36 modular rentals at the Nelson Drive trailhead for the first time this fall. The Forest Service issued a 30-year special-use permit for the Housing Trust to construct and manage the modular homes on the federally protected public land.
The permit is an alternative to an outright sale.
“Just like we do for ski resorts,” Hudson said, “they submit an annual operating plan that we approve every year. So we’re still actively engaged in the management of those particular lands.”
Why now?
The Bridger-Teton first approved housing at the Nelson Drive trailhead over a decade ago as part of an environmental review of the sale to Hidden Hollow developers.
It’s taken this long to find the right partners and raise the capital, according to Hudson.
“Any kind of affordable housing project in Jackson is incredibly challenging,” Hudson said, “So it has to be subsidized to a certain extent, in this case quite a bit.”
Political will, at least for the town council’s part, also seems strong.
“This is something novel and exciting,” Councilor Kevin Regan said. “It’s a chance for the Forest Service and Community Housing Trust to serve as thought leaders for this community, this region, and potentially nationally.”
Mayor Arne Jorgensen, a founding board member of the Housing Trust, called the project an innovative solution to leverage local dollars to provide housing for an underfunded Forest Service.
“If we don’t look outside the box, these kinds of housing units won’t get built,” Jorgensen said.
Last chance to weigh in
The federal project is exempt from local development regulations or public comment processes. Recent public reaction has come out in the conversation about financing and it’s been mixed.
This summer’s congressional effort to sell Western federal public lands, which sparked nationwide pushback, has many leery of private influence on public lands.
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance Advocacy Director Catherine Hughes noted the debate at the November meeting, where the town council was poised to vote on spending $4.05 million on the development.
“This project risks paving the way for the same solution just starting at a smaller scale,” Hughes said. “Our community can respond to the need for housing responsibly and protect public lands from a death by a thousand cuts.”
Others have cited traffic, environmental degradation and a potential precedent of sacrificing public lands for development. Grossman said neighbors had long been told the housing would be for federal workers, but the current proposal includes private sector employees too.
If the town and county don’t opt in, the number of private-sector employees could be even greater. One nonprofit, which Cresswell declined to name last week, has committed $3.5 million to the project for its employees. Eligible families still have to meet income and asset limits.
Proponents see the project as a model for housing public employees on the lands they steward. Chris Finlay serves on the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust board and recently retired after a 32-year career with the National Park Service, over half of that time managing facilities in Grand Teton National Park. During his tenure, the Park Service struggled to build new facilities due to a multi-million-dollar maintenance backlog, he said.
“Every time we build a new facility, we typically don’t get enough money to maintain those facilities,” Finlay said. “We’re contributing to this deferred maintenance backlog and that’s really why the Park Service is pretty opposed to developing new facilities.”
With the Housing Trust as the permit holder, the Forest Service wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance costs piling up.
The Jackson Town Council will revisit whether to spend $4.05 million on the project when it meets Dec. 15.
