Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

One nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Alright. Welcome to the April 21 Laramie County Board of Commissioners meeting. If you have a cell phone, I'd ask that you turn it to silent. During a public hearing portion, if you're gonna come forward and speak, please state your name and address for the record. And with that, madam clerk, first item.

Okay. Consideration of the minutes of proceedings for 04/07/2026.

Mister chair, move to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion on minutes? Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingseth? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanisser? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Items two through nine are considered routine county business and will be considered as one item under the consent agenda unless a member of the governing body would like to have one removed.

Mister chair, I move to approve consent agenda items two through nine. Second.

Motion and a second. Any

discussion? Discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingseth? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Mom?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 10, consideration of a resolution proclaiming April 2026 as child abuse awareness and prevention month. Miss Heiler.

Mister chairman, thank you for allowing us to do this great work for children. They're our most vulnerable population, your population, and they deserve us to pull all of our resources together to help them make sure that they are safe. I am gathered today by amazing people. First of all, we have the US attorney with us today, mister Darren Smith. We have his victim advocate. We have the department of family services. We have victim advocacy from the sheriff's office.

Have I missed anybody?

Not. So it takes a team to do this. It really takes a team to protect children and we appreciate you allowing us to do a proclamation. So I'll read that real quick. Proclaiming April 2026 to be child abuse awareness and prevention month. Whereas children are our future and no child should suffer abuse and neglect. And whereas, victims of child abuse and neglect are known to be at higher risk for experiencing

post traumatic stress disorder, depression, low academic achievement, drug use, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and adult criminality. Every child is precious and deserves to grow up

in a healthy, safe, nurturing environment, free from harmful effects of abuse and neglect. And whereas in Laramie County, in the city of Cheyenne, a 144 children received child forensic interviews at safe harbor, seventy five being victims of sexual abuse, forty six of physical abuse, six of neglect, three witnesses to domestic violence, and fourteen exposed to drug usage in the home. And whereas effective child abuse intervention and community prevention programs succeed because of partnerships created among community members, social services, law enforcement agencies, schools, churches, businesses, and civic organizations. And whereas each April, Laramie County along with Safe Harbor, a children's justice center, the Laramie County child protection team, the Laramie County Department of Family Services, Cheyenne Police Department, the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, Laramie County District Attorney's Office, CRMC SANE nurse program, CASA of Laramie County, Wyoming citizen review panel, and parents as teachers, and other partners joined together in an effort to prevent abuse and neglect through outreach, education, and intervention. Now, therefore, the Laramie County Commissioners do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 to be child abuse awareness and prevention month in Laramie County and urge all citizens to work together to help reduce child abuse and neglect significantly in years to come.

Thank you.

Thank you, miss Hyler. Commissioners?

Mister chair, I'd move to approve.

A second.

Motion and second. Discussion by the commission. Commissioner Thompson?

Mister chair, just my appreciation to you and your team. I mean, looking at those numbers, it's kind of a somber discussion. And and so your guys' job is not easy, but we really appreciate you guys and thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

I'd just like to

Mister Hong said?

Add to that. Sitting on the board for numerous years with Lynn and being directly involved in the issue through law enforcement and through safe harbor. My hats off to you. God bless you, and you're always into my heart, you and your staff.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioner Hollingshead. Anyone else? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Zolanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please. Thank you guys very much.

Item 11, consideration of a resolution proclaiming 04/21/2026 as National Service Recognition Day.

Hello, county commissioners. Thank you for letting me be here today. I'm Nancy McKenzie. I'm a nineteen year commissioner with Serve Wyoming, and I'm here for the resolution proclaiming 04/21/2026 as National Service Recognition Day. And I'll read it now.

Whereas services to others is a hallmark of the American character and central to how we meet our challenges. And whereas the nation's counties are increasingly turning to national service and volunteerism as a cost effective strategy to meet their needs. And whereas AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps seniors participants address the most pressing challenges facing our communities, from educating students for the jobs for the twenty first century to fighting the opioid epidemic to responding to natural disasters, to supporting veterans and military families. And whereas national service expands economic opportunity by creating more sustainable, resilient communities and providing education, career skills, and leadership abilities for those who serve. And whereas AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps senior participants serve in more than 50,000 locations across the country, bolstering the civic neighborhood and faith based organizations that are so vital to our economic and social well-being.

And whereas national service participants increase the impact of organizations they serve both through their direct service and by managing millions of additional volunteers. And whereas National Service represents a unique public private partnership that invests in community solutions and leverages non federal resources to strengthen community impact and increase the return on taxpayer dollars. And whereas national service participants demonstrate commitment, dedication and patriotism by making an intensive commitment to service, a commitment that remains with them in their future endeavors. And whereas the AmeriCorps shares a priority with local leaders nationwide to engage citizens, improve lives, and strengthen communities and is joining with the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, Cities of Service, and local leaders across the country for National Service Recognition Day on 04/21/2026. Therefore, be it resolved that the Laramie County Commissioners do hereby proclaim 04/21/2026 the National Service Recognition Day and encourage residents to recognize the positive impact of national service in our community, to thank those who serve, and to find ways to give back to their communities.

Thank you. Commissioners?

Mister chair, I'd move to approve.

Second. Motion and second. Any discussion? Commissioner Thompson?

Mister chair, you know, we talk about it all the time here with all the boards that we appoint, the volunteers and the work that they do for us. We we couldn't survive as a county without them. And so my hats off and appreciation to you for your nineteen years of serving on your commission and to all that you folks do. So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath?

Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Zwanzahnser? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Before I have you move on to the next item, there are some chairs that have become available here if you guys that are standing. Thank you very much, ma'am. Wanna come fill in seats, you're more than welcome to so you don't have to stand. Next item, please.

Item 12, consideration of a resolution appointing a member to the Board of Community Action and Laramie County of Laramie County to complete a three year term left vacant by Isaac Lloyd expiring 06/30/2028. Commissioner Heath.

Mister chair, I would like to appoint Ariana Meyer to, complete the term that is left vacant by Isaac Lloyd and will expire on 06/30/2028 to the board of community action of Laramie County.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Commissioner Thompson, you want say your

Mister chair, I just kind of touched on that previously, but again, we appoint 20 or so different boards and the volunteers that serve on these boards do a wonderful job for Laramie County. And so my appreciation to mister Lloyd and to miss Mayor for for stepping up to serve our community.

Thank you, commissioner Thompson. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath. Aye. Commissioner Hollingseth. Aye. Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioners Weinzer. Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 13, consideration resolution authorizing the issuance of commercial credit cards and a credit limit.

Ms. Stanley or anyone here from finance? Mr. Voss, do you know? So I can speak on it. Deborah, do you okay. Sorry.

Thank you, mister chairman.

I didn't look all the way over there.

Deborah Lee, Laramie County Clerk. This resolution makes null and void a resolution that was adopted in 2018. The bank that's mentioned in that resolution is no longer in business, and the credit limits in that resolution are no longer practical. So this resolution provides flexibility for the board to use the financial institution holding the accounts of Laramie County or another institution selected by the board. It also provides needed flexibility for the board to set credit limits as necessary.

Thank you,

Madam I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Deborah Lee?

To chair and move to.

Motion and second. In discussion? Discussion? Roll call please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hongshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Zwanencer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 14, consideration of resolution authorizing submission of the notice of award to Resources Incorporated for RFP 0001ChalkBluffRoadCountyRoad203, improvement project in amount not to exceed $10,448,440.70.

Molly. Commissioners, Molly Cook, Laramie County Public Works. On 02/26/2026, Laramie County posted a request for proposals, 0001 Chalk Bluff Road, CR 203 Improvements Project to BidNetDirect to formally solicit competitive proposals for construction services for the Chalk Bluff Road project. Proposals were due on 03/26/2026, and the county received four total proposals. After a very competitive evaluation process, the evaluation team concluded that Connell Resources Inc.

Was the most responsive and responsive and responsible proposer. At this time, we're requesting approval from the Board of County Commissioners to issue a notice of award for RFP 0001 Chalk Bluff Road, C R 203 improvements project to Connell Resources Inc in the amount that Dale mentioned. Okay. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for miss Cook?

Mister chair, I'd move to approve.

A motion. Second.

Motion and second. Discussion? Discussion? I'd just like to note that this project and these funds come from the person who is doing a development on that road. So these actually aren't taxpayer dollars that are going to lead to a major improvement to the benefit of many residents in Laramie County based upon an agreement that was reached between the county and the developer on Chalk Bluff Road. So I think it's a win win for both them and for our community and look forward to this completion or the completion of this project. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 15, consideration of resolution authorizing submission of contract 0001 Chalk Bluff Road, County Road 203, improvement project between Laramie County, Wyoming and Continental Resources Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $10,488,440.70. Miss Cook?

Commissioner's Molly Cook, Laramie County Public Works. Laramie County Public Works in collaboration with purchasing slash procurement department is asking for approval to enter into the agreement for this project with Connell Resources Inc for the construction of the Chalk Bluff Road project. Contract will be issued for the amount that Dale mentioned with a notice to proceed date of 04/23/2026. And I do want to let everybody know listening and here in the audience that there is going to be a open house that we are hosting with the contractor on Wednesday, May 6 from five to 7PM. The presentation will begin at 05:15, and it will be hosted at Laramie County Community College, Clay Pathfinder Building, Room 109. And with that, I'm handsy happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. And miss Cook, I imagine we'll be posting that meeting time and everything in the newspaper and on our social media to make sure that people not listening are aware of the open house?

Mister chair, yes. That is correct. We have a a website that is www.chalkbluffroadimprovementsproject.com. You're welcome to check that out. The information is updated there. We will also be posting the flyers and things on social media and on the Laramie County website as well.

Thank you, miss Cook.

Commissioners? Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion by the commission? Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanisner?

Aye. Chairman Maumau? Aye. Next item, please.

Item 16, consideration of the adoption of bylaws governing the Laramie County Planning Commission and vacating prior bylaws. Mister Voss?

Can you pull the microphone over by you, Mark? Thank you.

Yes. Good afternoon. Mark Voss, Lernby County attorney's office. The mission of the planning commission changed a little little bit of the new Lernery County land use regulations. In order to speed things up, reduce, you know, red tape, I guess, can say that we've sort of shortened up the processes of various forms forms of land use permits and permissions.

As a result, the bylaws need to be modified to adopt to the new land use regulations. In addition, we've added some language in regarding the potential for possibly using virtual appearance at some of these meetings by a member of the commission. They've changed, and mister Arnold can explain in more detail why we're doing this, changed the the meeting times and dates and given some flexibility there. It's important to remember that the people that that sit on the planning commission are volunteers. It requires a great deal of work. The voluminous amount of paperwork they

have to go through and the questions they need

to have asked and answered are considerable. And so making certain that we

can make it as easy as possible for these people

to attend these meetings was necessary. So we modified the meeting times a little bit and added some additional powers to them in regard to that. Other than that, they have relatively remained unchanged in most of their capacities except with the additions that need to bring it in compliance with the new land use regulations. These are being adopted, if you will, by the commissioners as a matter of approval. And then after this, they will go before the planning commission itself to officially adopt them as their own rules after you guys make a decision today.

Okay. Any questions for mister Voss? Questions? No.

Mister chair, move to approve.

Second.

Motion and a second discussion by the commission. Discussion?

Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 17, public hearing regarding a transfer of a county malt beverage permit submitted by Harrington Pub Incorporated doing business as Harrington's Pub located at 1529 West Collies Drive.

Alright. Madam Clerk. Mister chairman, Deborah Lee, Laramie County Clerk. This is a name change in the ownership

to a corporation. Okay. Is the applicant in the room? Do you guys want to come forward at all or you don't have to? Okay. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing and if we have some comment, you can go ahead and answer it. So I'll open the public hearing. We'll go online first. Is there anybody online that wants to speak on this item? If so, raise your hand.

Mr. Chairman, there is no one that wishes to speak on this item.

Okay. Anybody in the room? Public hearing one time? Public hearing one more time? Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Mr. Chair, move to approve. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion by the commission? Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum? Aye. Next item, please. Item 18, public hearing regarding a seasonal fireworks permit submitted by JNR Landis Enterprises LLC doing business as USA Fireworks located at 102 West College Drive. Mister Butler.

Chairman, ma'am, commissioners, Matt Butler, Laramie County Fire Warden. All inspections have been completed and appropriate signatures have been obtained for this property. I would entertain any questions that you may have.

Any questions for mister Butler? Any questions? Okay. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. If you'd like to speak on this fireworks permit, please come forward. Anybody online?

Mister chairman, there is no one to make an online comment for this item.

Okay. One more time in the room. Public hearing. Seeing no one, public hearing admits its purpose. The public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Mister chair, move to approve.

Second. Motion and a couple seconds. Any discussion?

Mister chair. Commissioner Thompson. Just a reminder that we currently have a fire ban in effect.

Chairman Malm, through you to commissioner Thompson, that is correct. There is still stage one fire restrictions in the county. I should have added as well that this the owners of this facility have also been made aware of the impending changes, the firework regulations, and the conditions being placed on them.

Okay. Thank you, commissioner Thompson. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Salonencer?

Aye.

Chairman Maum?

Aye. Items nineteen and twenty are the same applicant for two locations. We will vote on them independently, but we'll have one public hearing, for these two items. Madam Clerk. Mister Clerk.

Item 19, public hearing regarding a yearly fireworks permit submitted by Phantom Fireworks LLC located at 227 I 25 Service Road East. Item 20, public hearing regarding a yearly fireworks permit submitted by Phantom Fireworks Showrooms LLC located at 239 I 25 Service Road East. Mister Butler.

Chairman Maum, commissioners, Matt Butler, Laramie County Fire Warden. Again, all appropriate inspections and signatures have been obtained for both these properties. They have been made aware of the changes to the regulations that have been proposed. And just to reiterate, we are in stage one fire restrictions, what limits the use of fireworks in the county. I would stand for any questions that you may have.

Any question for mister Butler? Questions? Okay. Again, this is a public hearing on two fireworks permits. Anybody online?

Mister chairman, no online comments for this item.

Alright. Online comments are closed. Anyone in the room, public comment on this item? Public comment? Public hearing having met its purpose. Public hearing is closed. On item 19, I would take a motion.

Mister chair, move to approve Phantom Fireworks located at 227 I 25 Service Road East.

Second. Motion and a second. Discussion by the commission. Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. On item 20.

Mister chair, I'd move to approve Phantom Fireworks showrooms located at 239925 Service Road East.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Zwanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 21, public hearing and consideration of resolution to adopt the twenty twenty six Laramie County fire rules. Alright.

Is Nicole here or Dan? Got only guys wanna come up.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Dan Angie, Laramie, County events director. After several weeks and months of back and forth and review process and implementation, we have the what we hope to be the final rules proposed for adoption for the twenty twenty six Laramie County Fair.

Okay. Any questions for Dan before I open the public hearing? Okay. Anybody I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Anyone online to speak about the fair rules?

Mr. Chairman, there are no online comments for this item.

Okay. Closing online comments. Anyone in the room like to come forward and speak on the proposed fair rule changes? It's a public hearing. Public hearing. One more time. Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second discussion by the commission. Commissioner Thompson?

Mister chair, just my appreciation to Dan and Nicole and and their staff for the work on this. We received a lot of comments on this and and and really helped us to shape and and form these rules. And then there's always discussion about who's making these rules, and the and the answer is everybody. Everybody in Laramie County has a chance to to to weigh in on these and and certainly the Fair families, and we got a lot of input from them and and, incorporated those into the rules. So my appreciation to all those folks that that wrote in and certainly to Dan and his staff.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Sorensen? Aye. Chairman Mohn?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 22, public hearing regarding review and action on a Class C conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rock Quarry expansion located in a portion of land situated situated in the East Half Section 31, South Half Section 32, Township 18 North, Rain 70 West, and East Quarter Northeast Quarter Section 5, East Half Section 6, Township 18 North, Rain 69 West, Laramie County, Wyoming, and located at 3380 Horse Creek Road. Mister Arnold.

Mister chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning and Development. Priorly Associates on behalf of the applicant LG Everest Inc, who is in a lease agreement with the Farthing Ranch Company has submitted an application for a class c conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rock Quarry expansion. The purpose of the project is to expand the limited mining operation on 15 acres to a large mining operation on 600 acres of land, which requires board approval via the class C conditional use permit. The subject property is located in the land use zone district and consists of 11,081 acres with 600 being utilized for the mine. The surrounding area is also zoned land use zone district.

The property is currently accessed from Horse Creek Road. The limited mining operation was approved and operating under a temporary certificate of compliance as of 12/05/2024 and received full compliance on 03/21/2025. Permanent land use regulations include section one three one hundred governing public notice, section two three one zero two, subsection d romanette three, governing the class c conditional use permitting process, section two four one zero four, governing the land use zone district, section three one one zero nine, governing commercial projects, and three one one twelve subsection c, governing quarries. With that, we do have the applicant here to provide a presentation. I would note that they did have slideshow to present, but obviously our projector isn't working at this time.

So I believe they'll be working from some of their personal documents and we'll try to fill the gaps wherever necessary.

Okay. Thank you. I invite the applicant to come forward. Good

afternoon. I'm Matt Notebum. I'm the vice president of the mountain division for LG Everest. It's unfortunate the slide is not working, but I'll try to freehand this. I just wanted to give you a quick history of our company just to get to know us a little bit better. We are a fifth generation private company that's been around for a hundred and fifty years. If you do the math, that predates the state of Wyoming. So we're pretty proud of our longevity. We would not be in business if we if we if we didn't do things the right way, protecting our valuable resources and serving and being a resource to the communities we serve. Currently, we serve areas in South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Our business is primarily aggregates. And as you know, aggregates are the primary ingredients in concrete and asphalt. This building we're in, the sidewalk we walked in on, the parking lot, the roads, our houses, driveways, basically everything within our societal infrastructure is based on these aggregates. There's a primary ingredient in the building materials. With the planned and permitted growth of Cheyenne aggregates are needed to supply that growth, they're currently in short supply, hence the need for this quarry.

Hard rock quarries such as this are the most efficient means of obtaining exponentially limit the disturbance impact on land mass as compared to a traditional sand and gravel pit. We've been at this site for about eight years doing exploratory work as well as development. So we're not we're not fly by night. This isn't a new thing for us. We've been at this for a long time, making sure we do it right. So with that, I'm gonna bring up Mike Reefer. He'll give you a little more synopsis of the current development and where we're at with that.

Thank you, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Mike Reefer. My address is 5714 South Ingalls Street, Littleton, Colorado. I want to start with the project location. It's situated 31 miles northwest of I-twenty 5 on Horse Creek Road.

The quarry traffic enters directly onto State Highway 211 and does not use any Larimer County roads. LGF Everest holds an approved access permit from WyDOT, and we do not anticipate any changes for the proposed expansion. The property itself, about a half mile off the highway, is the BNSF Railroad. And part of this permit utilizes an area for potential future load out for rail traffic. The that area is is about a 150 acres, which is 25% of the permit area.

Also, we're mining two granite hill formations, but they're located on the backside of the limestone deposits that run parallel to Highway 211. And if you recall the geology out there, those limestone deposits were mined by Holly Sugar Company and Great Western Sugar Company from the early nineteen hundreds to the mid nineteen sixties. And that the site on this property, the Holly Sugar site, was served traditionally by rail. Between those two hills, which consists of a 190 acres or about one third of the permit area, we have a very good well there that produces 20 acre feet per year. This well will supply all the water needed for our operations.

And additionally, we have a backup well closer to Highway 211. I don't have slides to

I apologize for our technical Here,

let me run through here. So on the backside of the mining area of these two hills is a small creek called Ricker Creek, which goes into Chugwater Creek. We've allowed in our mine plan a 100 foot setback, and a large high wall in front of it to protect those low lying areas of the creek, the, hay meadows, and the the wetlands area. So we've, taken a lot of consideration about the surroundings and how we're gonna mine, this property so that there's minimal impact to the natural features of the area. Just as a note, LG Everest notifies the land, the adjacent landowners of all blasting and times as well as the landowner.

The landowner, in turn, has informed the closest neighbors when, what time, and what day we would be conducting blasting activities. And the neighbors have reported that they have never heard or felt any vibrations from our quarry patients. Let's see. I wanna talk about where we are within the current operation. We we are currently authorized by DEQ as a limited mine operation, which has a maximum disturbance of 15 acres.

And mining full scale mining has occurred there since 2024. The operation is approaching that 15 acre limit. It'll be sometime this year in '26. So that is why LG Everest is pursuing a large mine permit from LQD. Baseline data collection has been going on for this expansion part of the operation since February 2025.

The permit application is expect is estimated to be submitted to LQD on 06/01/2026. Once permitted, the Horse Creek Rockaway will be one of the two large mine permits for granite quarries in the state of Wyoming. The let's see. I gotta skip by a couple photos here. I was one of the photos I was gonna show you was the view from where we're currently mining across to the east three and a half miles is Highway 211.

There's just a short window between all these limestone hogback deposits where you can view Highway 211. And that three and a half miles, it's it's when you're driving down 211, it's virtually impossible to see the mining and the plant site area where we will be operating. The total permit area is 563 acres, but the actual mining that's gonna take place is a 190 acres. So the one it sounds like a large permit, but the the road that goes in, the setbacks, and and the railroad load outside take most of that area. So the actual mining that takes place is on about 30% of the permit area.

So the previous Matt talked about the need for this product in the Cheyenne, Laramie and Pine Bluffs area where most of this product goes currently. These materials are critical to the market that we have going on here, especially with the uptick in construction and development. And this site will supply existing the existing as this existing supplies cannot adequately provide all of the work that's on the books right now. Sorry, I had several overview pictures to show you. If you have any questions.

We apologize. Any questions at this time for the applicant? Commissioner Thompson.

So Mr. Chair, I just would note that we've got the pictures, at least I think most of the pictures in the file. So fortunately, we've been able to see them and people can access that online. Okay.

I'd to introduce

Okay. Yeah.

As I stated earlier, we wouldn't be in business after one hundred and fifty years if we did not strive to perform our activities responsibly, and this includes the environmental concerns and impacts to the regional stakeholders. I just wanna go through a few things that we've addressed with the first one is obviously traffic. With this being Highway 211, a state regulated highway, we have coordinated with YDOT quite a bit on making sure that our truck counts were in compliance and that we are permitted to use Highway 211. We've gotten sign off from YDOT on that. We've also coordinated with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and we are currently complying with all the requirements of game and fish as far as preventing wildlife disturbance.

As Mike alluded to, the viewshed impacts of this project are minimal as we're three and a half miles away from the highway behind some hogbacks, so you can barely see it from the highway. Air impacts are also addressed through the state in regards to our we're required to get an air permit for any air activities up there, including crushing, blasting, all of our equipment. And we're required to have dust control and emission measures to prevent pollution as well as fugitive dust. Mike also alluded to the water use on-site. We do have permitted wells on-site.

The state regulates the permitting of those wells to ensure that there's no adverse impacts to the neighbors or the watershed by our use. We are limited to 20 acre feet of use per year. And a majority of that processed water that we use on-site is recycled. So it's not wasted. It has gone through a separation tank and then fed back to the front of the system for reuse.

Overall, the cumulative impact of this operation, as I stated before, is exponentially less than a typical sand and gravel pit. The amount of rock that could potentially be mined just from that 90 acre North Hill alone would equate to approximately 5,500 acres of a standard sand and gravel pit. That's just the rocks. So 90 acres from that North Hill versus 5,000 from a sand and gravel operation. Hard rock mines are the most efficient extraction means of obtaining needed rock for infrastructure and development. Think Melissa has a couple of comments that she wants to make, and then we'll wrap it

up for you guys.

Thank you. My name is Melissa Bouts. I'm from Lander, Wyoming. 671 Park Street is the address. I just wanted to take a moment to discuss the operations and hauling overview for the quarry. The traffic along Wyoming Highway 211 is estimated to include 90% of the hauling will occur to the South towards Cheyenne and other towns to the South. 10% will go North Chugwater and Wheatland. The operating hours will be six a. M. To six p. M. With sales occurring between six a. M. And four p. M. Peak hours for trucking is six a. M. To seven a. M. One hour a day is the peak hour for trucking.

What we did to estimate the average and maximum daily routes to and from trips, that is, to site, was the peak month last year, and that was May 2025. And that was a 38 loads per day, which is an average of 76 trips per day. So two times 38. This was used, again, to estimate the anticipated loads and averages for the upcoming expansion. In addition to that, those 76 trips per day, we're looking at five round trips, which is a total of 10 trips for employees to come to and from the site.

That includes carpooling for some of them. So the anticipated average total is 86 trips per day. This is well under YDOT's standard for a traffic study. Part of the vetting process and application process for the conditional use permit, as you know, includes review by YDOT for the need for a traffic study. And it was waived.

The maximum number that would not be exceeded because otherwise the traffic study would come into play would be 199 trips per day. And that is the maximum average that would be authorized. Far as the permitting goes, it's already been mentioned, but the permitting is estimated to the middle date of June 1 year. We're looking at least a year plus a year process for that permit to be approved and reviewed by LQD, Land Quality Division of DEQ. The baseline studies that are required for a LQD permit, including wildlife, vegetation, soils, and wetlands have been completed.

The field studies have been completed. The data are being reduced and analyzed right now to adhere to the LQD standards. All of the Land Quality Division standards are adhere to the State of Wyoming Environmental Quality Act. Air Quality Permit is already in place. No changes are anticipated to be needed for that. Water Quality Permit will be updated in accordance with the Land Quality Permit at the same time. And it is estimated that the start of mining might start as early as April 2027.

That's all.

Any questions on the haul out? Commissioner Thompson?

Mister chair, so my question is for Matt. Matt, you mentioned game and fish requirements. In our our pack, all I'm seeing is recommendations. Can can you tell me what

There were some setback requirements for the sage grouse lek area, and we're adhering to those setback requirements for the sage grouse.

What what about all all of the other recommendations?

The recommendations?

From Game and Fish.

I'll let him say that. Sure.

So so in our initial packet, we that you received months and months ago, you didn't have the most current Game and Fish letter, but just today was forwarded the most current Game and Fish letter, which has explicit stipulations about how to avoid irritating the sage grouse. And every one of those stipulations is included in the mine permit application that's being submitted to the DEQ. The dominant one, the one that's the most prominent, I guess, stipulation is to not break ground, not disturb any new ground from November it's either November 15 or November 30 through the end of March, I believe. And it's all written into the mine permit as a requirement so that LGE, LG Everest will be adhering to all of those. Similarly with other wildlife, there are also recommendations in that same February 2026 Game and Fish recommendation letter for wildlife.

And most of those are coincide with the not breaking the ground during that same time frame about November to the end of March, maybe into April. Also, 25 mile per hour speed limit, which I understand is a standard operating procedure for algae at risk. And as far as other wildlife, a bat survey was done just to make sure no bats will be adversely affected by this operation, and that was found to be not the case. No bat habitat was on the site. And there were also a list of aquatic concerns.

However, because we're completely avoiding any contact with Richter Creek and Chugwater Creek whatsoever by having at least a 100 foot high wall plus another 100 to 200 foot buffer in the horizontal direction from the operation, there will be no contact with water, running water of any sort. And so so all of the Wyoming Game and Fish and US Fish and Wildlife recommendations, which are encompassed in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's recommendations are included in the permit.

Commissioner Thompson? Mister chair, through you. The only thing you didn't mention is raptors. Did do the raptor survey as well?

That is also part of it, yes. Sorry, I didn't have my slide here in front of me. Yes, raptors are also part of it. All of these surveys have been done by a professional wildlife biologist, certified professional wildlife biologist, and are included in there's a whole series of appendices that are part of the baseline surveys that need to be done before land quality will accept a permit. And so that was also sent to the group, if you'd like to look at it. It's called appendix it's a whole series of appendices, but appendix D9 is the wildlife one. So that has all the details and the recommendations and making sure that all of the wildlife concerns are addressed.

Mr. Chair, I just want to make sure. So the letters we got from

the Game and

Fish there's a whole slew of recommendations. I just didn't see requirements. So I just wanted to make sure that those recommendations were incorporated.

In the newest one, dated February 2026, you should see requirements in there. Also, you will see, if you in that email that was sent with the extra attachments, the mine plan. It's a draft version of the mine plan just because there are some aspects of the pit design. It's not pertinent to wildlife. Include the verbatim, the commitment to adhere to all of the requirements in the Game and Fish letter. It is explicitly cut and pasted in there. So it should be a one to one relationship that you see in that mine plan. And that will also show up, I believe, in the site plan when we get to that. But I know we're not talking about a site plan right now.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Else from the applicant? Okay. Full report, please.

Mister chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning. The Laramie County comprehensive plan identifies the areas ag and range land in the areas outside of the planned Cheyenne future land use area. Agency comments pertaining to the following, the Wyoming Game and Fish recommendations CWER one five zero zero five point o two attached to this report. All other agency comments have been corrected or acknowledged and the applicant just spoke to the game and fish requirements. Public notice was provided with no comments received.

A conditional use is given to the land use meant to be beneficial to the permitted uses or those similar within a zoning district with conditions or requires conditions to mitigate impacts that may have on the surrounding area. Every listed land use or land use proposed similar in nature, intensity and community impact which requires a conditional use permit has probable impacts and is required to meet all conditions within the LCLUR. It was determined that a class C conditional use permit would be required along with the site plan which will be forthcoming. Class C conditional uses are generally those which are presumed intense in nature and likely require conditions to mitigate impacts that they may have on the surrounding area to uphold public health safety and general welfare. Any conditions placed by the governing body shall be met.

The planning commission met on 03/26/2026 and recommended by a vote of five to zero in favor of. Based on section two three one zero two subsection d romanette three, the LCOUR governing condition class c conditional use permits, staff finds this is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County with our recommendations and findings being based on evidence provided, staff recommends the board find that this application meets the criteria for a class c conditional use permit pursuant to section two three one zero two subsection d romanette three of the LCLUR. And b, this application meets the criteria for commercial projects pursuant to three one one zero nine of the LCLUR. And c, This application is in conformance with section two four one zero four of the Laramie County land use regulations governing the land use zone district and that the board may approve the class c conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rock Quarry expansion located in a portion of land situated in the East half of section 31 of the South half of Section 30 2 Township 18 North Range 70 West and East quarter of the Northeast quarter of section five east half of Section 6, Township 18 North Range 69 West of the sixth principal meridian Laramie County, Wyoming with the following condition, comply with and provide a copy of the approved Department of Environmental Quality Permit and with that, staff stands for any questions?

Any questions for staff before I open the public hearing? Okay. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. I'll go online first. Is there anyone online that would like to speak to this item?

Mr. Chairman, no one has raised their hand to make a comment on this particular item.

Okay. The online portion of this public hearing is closed. In the room, if you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward and state your name.

Good afternoon. Wendy Volk, Cheyenne, PO Box 2969. As you may know, I'm a real estate agent with over thirty years of experience, and I'm also married into a ranching family of the Horse Creek area. You'll recall eight months ago, we were before you to talk about road concern road safety concerns on State Highway 211, also known as Horse Creek Road. I still have the same concerns about all of these commercial developments, but I wanted to go particularly to this permit.

My perspective is grounded in how land is used, valued and sustained over time. Recent materials related to the Horse Creek Rock Quarry expansion provide important context that I believe is directly relevant to broader development discussions in the same Horse Creek area, including proposed wind energy projects. The quarry application expands a mining footprint from approximately 15 acres to 600 acres and required they complete extensive review of wildlife, water and environmental impacts. That review identified mule deer crucial winter range, proximity to a greater active sage grouse lek, habitat for eagles, migratory birds, bats and other sensitive species, aquatic systems, including the South Chugwater Creek and Ricker Creek and the need for buffers, seasonal restrictions, and long term mitigation measures. The letter that I think was referenced a few moments ago about Wyoming Game and Fish were recommendations.

They were not requirements. And so, for example, when they talked about the sage grouse, they talked specifically about some recommendations of not removing any vegetation or topsoil between March 15 and June 30. They would say that if the company couldn't do that, they did other recommendations. My question is as we continue to do these types of projects in all of Laramie County and around the state, who is watching to make sure and how are we enforcing these recommendations, not requirements as part of the permit? So these findings confirm that Horse Creek area is not a neutral or low sensitive landscape.

It is a functioning ecological system supporting multiple species and uses, including long standing agricultural operations. What is important here is not the quarry itself, but what it reveals. This same landscape is now being considered for multiple large scale energy projects. While each project is evaluated independently, the land, water and wildlife are shared across all of them. There is currently no consistent requirement to evaluate how these impacts combine across projects or across county lines.

From both the land use and a stewardship perspective, that is the gap. The wildlife identified in this study do not experience impacts one project at a time. They experience the combined effects of disturbance, infrastructure, traffic and habitat change across the landscape. Similarly, water systems and rural communities are affected cumulatively, not incrementally. I respectfully ask the Board to consider the following: whether the existing processes adequately address cumulative landscape level impacts whether additional coordination or analysis is warranted before further large scale approvals and three, how long term land use decisions in areas like Horse Creek align with the county's stated priorities agriculture, wildlife and rural character.

This is not a question of whether development should occur. Wyoming has long balanced multiple land uses successfully. The question is whether current processes are aligned with the scale and pace of development that is now being proposed in our area. The Horse Creek study provides clear site specific evidence that this landscape is sensitive and interconnected. It should be considered within a broader framework as additional decisions are made. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Volk. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Anyone else to speak on this item, please come forward.

Mister White? Mr. Chairman, Mike White. I guess I'm gonna give some insight on this. I'm a sixth generation Guami knight, eight decades almost. I'd like to speak in favor of this project. I believe the applicant, the ranch has done everything that was required of them, regardless of the game and fish, the studies from every entity, the EPA, you name it. We are in a situation where this property is range lands and agriculture, and it can have the quarry there. So I speak in favor of this. Thank you.

Thank you, mister White. Any questions for mister White? Okay. Mister Farthing.

My name is Charlie Farthing. I reside at 228 Road 237 Iron Mountain. My family is the one that the proposed quarry or expansion is on, and we've dealt with the Everest people for several years now in their exploration and in their small mining, and they've been awfully good stewards with some reclamation done already. Mining is nothing new in our area, the Horse Creek Iron Mountain area. We've had large mines before mine at Iron Mountain, which was iron ore on the Iron Mountain Ranch.

It closed in the early 1960s. We've had the Horse Creek Mines, two of them. One of them was an aboveground mine that closed in the early 1900s. The other was an underground mine in the Hogbacks that have been referenced here today. That ran for a number of years.

Several of the local ranch families worked in that for that mine as supplemental income. We're used to the truck traffic on Horse Creek Road because when the Horse Creek Mine was running, a lot of that material was trucked out on Highway 211. As you all know, there's an increasingly need in Laramie County for this material. We've got a lot of houses being built. We've got a lot of highways being built, roads.

These data centers have already used some of the material that they provided. And I don't know two of the I think maybe the only two concrete companies we have in Cheyenne have got material already from out there. I guess what I would ask you is, I think you have to consider private property rights. It's my family's decision to go forward with this. We've looked at this long and hard.

It's not something that was a snap judgment. We think it will be beneficial not only for our operation, but for the community as a whole. As was stated earlier, this courthouse, when you walk out on the sidewalk, when you use these streets, it all comes from aggregate, the concrete, the asphalt. And I don't know the Game and Fish has been out there and has studied this. They've had their biologists out there.

They've had the Game Wardens, people with I would guess a great deal of expertise. This is something that I think the Wyoming Game and Fish is good at. I think they do a good job, and I think that these people you're gonna deal with here will do a good job too stewards of the land when they get done with it in their reclamation. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them at this time.

Any questions for Mr. Farthing? None at this time. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Anyone else before I close the public hearing? Anyone else in the room want to comment on this item? One more time. Public hearing going once, public hearing going twice, public hearing has met its purpose, it is closed. Commissioners.

Mr. Chair, move to grant the approval of a Class C conditional use permit for Horse Creek Rock Quarry expansion located in a portion of land situated in the East half, Section 31 South Half Section 32 Township 18 North Range 70th West and East quarter of the Northeast quarter Section 5 East Half Section 6 Township 18 North Range 69th West West of the 6PM Laramie County to Laramie County Board Of Commissioners and adult findings of fact a, b, and c, the staff report the following condition that we the the applicant comply with and provide a copy of the approved Department of the Environmental Quality permit.

Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion by the commission. Commissioner Thompson.

Mister chair, while I appreciate miss Volk's patience about this, I agree with mister Farthing. I think it's a private property. Right? I I think that we have processes in place to protect wildlife. I think we have processes in place to manage traffic. And fortunately, there's no Laramie County roads involved with this. So that goes to the state of Wyoming. And certainly the Game and Fish is a very thorough analysis of this. And I'm comfortable and confident in the work that those entities have done to make sure that every I is dotted and every t is crossed in this process. So I'm in favor of moving forward on this.

Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Yeah. I would just note, I appreciate the concerns as we look at the future of Laramie County and especially as we see land uses change throughout our community, but I would tell you that I believe that if I think about who are the best stewards of our land, it is generally those in the agricultural community, whether it's farmers or ranchers, and it's I trust them to make the decisions that are best for them, their families, their operations, and for the community as a whole.

It is unfortunate as the community has grown, there has become more traffic towards this subject property, but that's to no fault of the actual property owner that the town has grown towards them and traffic has increased. And I'm confident in this particular developer and their reputation and their ability to run an operation that is both safe and in compliance with state law. There's one thing Wyoming does well, it's mining, and it does it well in terms of how it protects all of the other ancillary things. So I trust the Game and Fish to do what it needs to do as it it's regarding the permit that is required. And so I am in favor of this action. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath. Aye. Commissioner Hollingsead.

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioner Zwandenzer. Aye. Chairman Moe.

Aye. Alright. I'm gonna ask our clerk real quick before we go to the next item because I know there's a lot of people here. Would you like a quick break?

Yes, please.

Okay. We're gonna take a quick restroom break, and then we will get started on the last item. I apologize. We just wanna make sure that we can go through and we don't have to break in the middle of it. We'll get start again in five minutes.

But this feels better.

Alright. Madam clerk, are you ready? Alright. We will come back from break. Appreciate you guys' patience. Next item, please.

Item 23. Public hearing regarding review and action on a Class C conditional use permit for the Bidder Wyo Ranch and events located in a portion of land situation situated in the Northeast quarter of Section 11 Township 14 North, Rain 70 West of the 6 PM Laramie County, Wyoming.

Alright. Mister Arnold, sorry. I found the clerk and I forgot about the director. Cut me a break. It's it's been a day.

Mister Arnold. Mister chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning and Development, Riedel Ventures LLC, DBA Bidowayo Ranch and Events on behalf of landowner Tanya Riedel has submitted a class C conditional use application for the Bidowayo Ranch and Events project. The purpose of the project is to continue the historic use of the business as a public event and recreational venue. The business has ceased operation for over a year and now will will now require a board approval via a class C conditional use permit. The subject property is located in the land use zone district and consists of 39.97 acres.

The surrounding area is also zoned, land use zone district. The property is currently accessed from Happy Jack Road. However, the applicant wishes to move the access to Brush Creek Road, which will require a right of way permit through the Bureau of Land Management, which is still in process. This will also necessitate Brush Creek Road being engineered and brought up to county standards. Permanent land use regulations include section one three one hundred governing public notice, section two three one zero two subsection d romanette three governing class c conditional use permits, section two four one zero four governing the land use zone district, Section three one one zero nine, governing commercial projects.

Section two three one zero two subsection c c romanette four, governing discretion by the director to determine a conditional use permit is required. And with that, we do have the applicant here to provide a short presentation related to the project. Ms. Riedel.

Thank you, Commissioners, for allowing me to be here today and to present to you plans for the Bidawaya Ranch and events. Bidawayo Ranch is a unique and valued part of Laramie County, a true local treasure with deep roots in our community. Our goal is to thoughtfully build on that legacy while creating something meaningful, sustainable and lasting for future generations. While we have been through many challenges and differing perspectives along the way, I remain grateful for the opportunity to participate in this process. I respect the importance of community input, private property rights, and the democratic process that brings us here today.

We are in good faith to present to you our plans from Bidawayo Ranch and events, plans grounded in responsibility, transparency and respect for our neighbors while preserving the character of the area and supporting the broader community. It has been very important throughout this process to work closely with both the local and federal agencies. During our site visit with the BLM, we appreciate the opportunity to walk through the property together. We discussed the use of the land, the parameters of our five forty acre grazing lease, the rights and limitations associated with our right of way access, and our recreation permit, has now been submitted. We were also able to locate property pins that confirm important details regarding our existing structure that is being presented as the venue site, which has historic which also historically has been used for entertainment and community gatherings.

It appears our building does not encroach on BLM land, but an official survey will follow later this month to form a formally identify the northern boundary. The buyout the BLM biologists who visited with us provide us with a clear understanding of the process moving forward to create the road at identifying any potential environmental considerations. He will also be back at the end of this month for his second survey. At this time, those considerations would primarily relate to the timing of any potential roadwork, particularly in relation to the designated breeding breeding seasons of certain species, including small mammals and raptors. These animals, however, have been living with the noise and the sounds of the traffic flow since 1983 through Wildcat Trail.

To minimize traffic and support safety, we will provide transportation for our guests using passenger vans that we already own and operate. This allows us to manage the flow of arrival and departures in smaller groups rather than having large numbers of individuals, vehicles traveling to and from the property for larger events or shuttle service vehicles, which may be louder and not navigate as well. Our goal is to provide a system that is both efficient and respectful to the natural landscape using vehicles then that safely navigate the terrain while allowing guests to experience the setting in a thoughtful and controlled way. Handicapped and some select guests will be driving themselves to the property in their own vehicles. We understand and acknowledge the concerns of Table Mountain residents.

We are committed to operating with care and consideration, including strict adherence to reduce speeds, heightened awareness of pedestrians, horseback riders and other road users. In addition, caution during evening hours to protect both residents and wildlife. Today, I think as we go through public comments, you'll be given additional provisions presented by the public. We'll be presenting some of those to you momentarily. And I would just like to be able to return to the podium to address anything that is specific for your concerns.

There are some sound restrictions I'd like to talk about as well as our travel and maybe times activities and how many per week. But I'll maybe let others speak on that first and then come back when it's appropriate to answer any questions and to make sure I can solidify that you have an understanding of those items.

Certainly.

I do want to if I could present just one thing that came in last minute. Can I approach? This is just from our structural engineer who visited along with the county planner, Peterson. Just kind of saying he's been through the property. He understands the safety of it and also our willingness to comply with any recommendations and

considerations for maintaining the property in his entire.

And with that, I'm gonna let my daughter, Lacey, speak. Oh, sorry. It's gonna be my son-in-law, Austin, first.

Okay.

Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Austin Coward, 121 West 6 I'm gonna keep this short, but for months, my job has been to design our operations plans and make sure we have our bases covered when it comes to safety and stewardship. While our family has the skills to run a business, we are experts in conservation, first response, or wildlife management. But we don't have to be because we're not doing this alone or carelessly. To learn about land, wildlife stewardship, we have partners with experts in the natural resource sector.

On our own private property, we have worked with the conservation district to help protect the the rangeland and address drought. County Weed and Pest is helping us handle invasive species like mullein and tophax, both of which contribute to wildfire danger. The USDA's conservation stewardship program is helping us create a robust grazing management plan. We've even talked to a wildlife biologist so we can learn about the area and operate sustainably. We really do enjoy the wildlife and the land as much as anyone else, and we do recognize our responsibility to take care of it all.

We also recognize the difficulties of operating so far from town, so we sought guidance from experts on safety. The Director of the Emergency Management Agency and the Fire Warden both came out to the ranch to give us an overview of emergency response for our specific location. They also offer best practices on wildfire prevention and risk management. Based on their recommendation, we brought American Medical Response out and they talked to us about their response protocols. We also discussed using on-site EMTs and paramedics for larger events and how they can help us upfit our operations with all the proper medical supplies that we need.

Helicopter evacuations are often used in the area, so we even have Life Flight fly their helicopter out and land at the ranch to talk about response times and protocols related to helicopter evacuation. We even went to the deputy chief of the Laramie County Fire Authority to discuss any considerations related to their response to an emergency at our property. We have worked and will continue to collaborate with all of these agencies for staff training and to ensure our emergency action plans fit current best practices and work efficiently with local emergency services. While there are obviously considerations when operating in a rural setting, we have gone above and beyond our due diligence to ensure we operate safely and sustainably. Thank you.

Now to my wife, Lacey.

My name is Lacey Coward. My address is 121 West 6th Ave, and I am a member of Riedel Ventures LLC and Tanya's second daughter. I do have some handouts for the commissioners if we can approach. Today, I'm going to repeat my comments from the Planning Commission hearing in regards to our response to public concerns as well as update with some new information. The handouts that we just gave you have helpful photos if you want to follow along.

It was mentioned that in the past, Biddlewild Ranch hosted only small, max 20 to 25 people invitation only gatherings. Alcohol was never served, offered, or permitted, and the original uses of the ranch did not include most of the activities that Riedel Ventures plans to have, and that it's a radical departure from the area's heritage. The fact is when the ranch was in operations, guests numbered up to 200 people for dinner shows, which included a steak dinner and live band. These were put on Fridays and Saturdays during the summer. A simple Google search shows that these offerings were publicly advertised.

Whether or not the previous owner had a profitable business is irrelevant. It was a business nonetheless. In regards to alcohol, there was an understanding that Biddlewild Ranch permitted guests to bring their own booze. They did not serve or sell alcohol at the time, but guests were allowed to bring their own free vents. Without a liquor license, which typically provides a way of regulating and monitoring consumption, there are fewer safeguards in place to help ensure responsible drinking.

Licensed service often includes trained staff, oversight, and accountability measures that help reduce the likelihood of irresponsible consumption or alcohol related incidents. Instead of it being for a free for all, having our liquor license will greatly improve safety at our location. We will have mandatory tips training, no outside alcohol, no shots, alcohol will not be permitted on BLM land, and compliance will be strictly enforced. As for the ranch activities that were previously offered per the Steele family who are the prior owners, those include University of Wyoming alumni events, horseback trail rides, cabin rentals, and family events that were offered April through October, Cheyenne Frontier Days, d a z e, a local attraction during CFD that included a barn show, trail ride, and cabin stay. Weddings were offered all year.

Family reunions were offered all year. University of Wyoming cowboys events, Cheyenne triple c, church gatherings and conferences, Graceland College reunions, Legacy Training International, which is retreats and seminars, Wind Riders Adventure Camp, which was a kids camp, the Cheyenne Western Adventure Park project, the Laramie River Ranch project, the Boot Scoot and Boogie Show, and the Bittawaya Ranch Bed and Breakfast that was offered all year. It is worth noting here that our loudest opposition, Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losi of KZ Trust and LL Trust, who have property that borders our ours to the South and have vacant land surrounded by BLM to the North, are the nieces to the previous owner of four seventy Happy Jack, aka the former Bitawet Ranch. They have also used the ranch for events during its past operation. Miss Losey had her own wedding there where they did serve alcohol.

This highlights a major gap between past actions and present objections. We are not reinventing the wheel. We plan to use the ranch in a similar fashion to what it has been used for since its opening. As a family run operation, our entire focus is on preserving and sharing the ranch's heritage. A common misconception has been that the conditional use permit and business plan plans include all structures on the property.

The commercial permit includes the barn and will be under a new address, TBD Brush Creek Road, not 470 Happy Jack Road. It was assumed that Riedel Ventures will likely get a restaurant and or public bar permit. We are not applying to be either a restaurant or a public bar or liquor store. Any liquor served will be at our own private events and select activities. There were concerns that Rio Ventures will have up to a 150 space parking lot.

Parking spaces are determined per code requirement. We will have around 25 parking spaces. Some question if guests would want to use our shuttles, mentioning it would be a two hour trip and cause high volumes of traffic. If guests do not want to use our shuttle service for their larger events, they will not be booking their event with Betelweig Ranch. It will be explicitly stated in our venue contract that shuttle service is mandatory for a certain number of guests.

It will not be a two hour round trip from our designated off-site parking location. Additionally, the shuttle service will significantly reduce traffic and safety concerns that would otherwise be caused by a large volume of vehicles accessing events. One public comment made by John DiStasio said, According to the fire department that serves Table Mountain Ranches and the surrounding area, more than 500 vehicles travel that dirt road daily, end quote. The reality is that there may not be a noticeable increase in traffic as you already have people who visit for recreation to the John And Annie Woodhouse Recreation Area and the BLM land for hunting, horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, etcetera. Another concern is there will be no way to communicate in areas with no cell service.

All staff members will follow safety and emergency protocols and will be equipped with satellite phones and weather radios. Starlink Internet will also be available at the barn. A primary concern is that guests will start fires. Per our venue contract, there will be a strict no open flame policy, no smoking of any kind, no fireworks, and no campfires that are not manned by a staff member. We will also enforce any fire restrictions imposed in our area.

We are extremely aware of the risk that anyone and anything in our area can pose in regards to fire dangers. We met with multiple agencies, including Janine West, director of the Laramie County Emergency Management Agency, and Matt Butler, Laramie County fire warden, to go over strategies we can implement to create defensible space around our structures, eliminate highly flammable invasive plant species,

and

form comprehensive response and evacuation procedures to keep our guests safe. Safety is our number one priority. Some have said that our business would not have any benefit to neighbors. Those who live off Wildcat Trail and Cheyenne Pass only have one ingress and egress. In the event that access is blocked during an emergency situation, there's currently no other safe way for those people to exit.

The same could be said for some Table Mountain Ranches residents who would not be able to reach Road 109. The improvements we will be making to the road across BLM permit the road to be used as a secondary exit from these neighbourhoods in case of an emergency. Likewise, the road will provide a secondary ingress route to the neighbourhoods for use by emergency vehicles in the event the primary access points are blocked or rendered unsafe by conditions. Additionally, Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losey of KZNLL Trust have vacant land that is landlocked by the BLM and they currently use the St. Dangerous two track roads.

They are also pursuing a BLM right away to legally access their property, and we know that the BLM was out to their property yesterday. Miss Zimmerman and Miss Losey would benefit greatly from the road that we would have improved. Making the roads safe and up to county standards benefits all who access BLM land. A comment stated that weather would impact road safety. We are seasonal use only, May through October, minimizing use of the roads in the spring and winter months.

Weather will be monitored closely, and plans change in the event weather and road conditions become too hazardous. Another set of concerns are guest traffic will cause wildlife to be hit, windshields to be broken, horses to spook, increase noise and dust, and jeopardize the safety of neighbors, children, and livestock. Our intentions that will be evidenced in our safety and operating plans is to have as low impact as possible to the land and surrounding landowners. We respect the above concerns while also acknowledging that any driver who pass through these roads pose the same threats. Safety is our number one priority, and every effort will be made to keep guests in our communities safe.

Understandably, people have also voiced that wildlife will be affected adversely. We recently consulted with a retired wildlife biologist who also happens to live in the near vicinity to gain a deeper understanding of the wildlife that inhabit our area. Through that conversation, we learn more about the species present, best practices for guest safety should encounter occur, and ways to responsibly minimize the impact our activities may have on local wildlife populations. We're excited to be able to share this landscape with our guests while remaining committed to respecting the natural behaviors and habitats of the wildlife that make the area so special. It was mentioned that Riedel Ventures LLC has been dishonest and not transparent.

We are aware of the genuine concern and confusion brought to us by the public and hope today serves to address many of them. We also know that we cannot appease every single person, try as we might. I would remind people our property has no covenants, and we have our own property rights also. We understand some people just simply don't like it, and that's okay. Riedel Ventures had sent two letters to the two different HOAs nearby.

Cheyenne Pass got information that specifically pertained to them, and Table Mountain Ranches got one that pertained to them. The intent behind those letters was to heat people from feeling in the dark. They were not sent at the same time, and Table Mountains included more information due to the fact that road access goes partially through that area. We were not required to send any letters, and it was a gesture made in good faith. I would also like to note that following the planning hearing on March 26, we proactively reached out to the Table Mountain Ranches HOA to initiate a constructive dialogue.

And from those future discussions, we hope to work collaboratively on addressing the anticipated interaction between our business and the surrounding neighborhood. There is information regarding our activity misinformation regarding our activities, specifically that we will encroach on neighboring lands owned by Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losey of KZ and LL Trust resulting in trespassing. Per our submitted BLM recreation permit application, we have mapped the exact horse and bike trails we will be using. Some trails will also be on our own 40 acres. We will not be using anyone else's private land for our activities.

Another misunderstanding is that there is no access from TBD Brush Creek Road aka the barn to 470 Happy Jack Road aka the cabins without trespassing on private easements in neighboring land owned by Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losey of KZ and LL Trust. Per our submitted BLM right of way application, Riedel Ventures has already requested making a road to allow our own access from BLM land to the structures on 470 Happyjack Road without encroaching on the nearby private easements and neighboring property. An inaccurate statement was made by Kelly Zimmerman of KZ Trust that the BLM is going to require Riedel Ventures to have an EIS Category six environmental study. Per the Realty Specialist at the Bureau of Land Management, as of this morning, BLM is in the internal scoping phase of our application. The environmental study requirements per the NEPA process have not been determined yet.

Therefore, Ms. Zimmerman's statement is not accurate. Since our last meeting, a cultural survey took place and the archaeologist recommended cultural resource clearance to the BLM. We are working very closely with the BLM and the county. Both are fully aware of our plans and have been informed of every update.

Another primary concern is that the BLM right of way access road will be dangerous and not sufficient for emergency responders. The BLM access road will be 20 foot wide to accommodate emergency services and two way traffic. The roadways will have proper grade, drainage, erosion control, etcetera, according to county regulations. Appropriate temporary signage will be added to help with guest safety. Since our last meeting, we also got the opportunity to have flight for life out fly out to the property to check out landing zones in case of an emergency.

They also offered to help train our staff on the procedures during an emergency response. There has been a concern raised that the proposed BLM right of way access road would encroach on vacant land owned by Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losey of KZ and LL Trust, which is currently surrounded by BLM. The access road will not encroach on any private property. It will be located entirely on BLM land. In numerous comments, Kelly Zimmerman and Lisa Losey of KZ and LL Trust said it was guaranteed that our guests will trespass onto neighboring private property.

That is speculative and not based on any evidence. We will have defined routes, temporary signage, and on-site staff to keep guests within approved areas. In addition to speculation regarding guest trespassing, comments have been made which assert that property values in the area will decrease because of our proposed business. Much like fears about trespassing, the fears about a decrease in property value is entirely speculative and should be disregarded. Another concern was there would be irreversible damage to BLM land from the widening of the road.

A condition of our BLM right of way will be to have a reclamation plan. We will be responsible for the restoration of any newly disturbed land caused during the lease. Lastly, it was mentioned BLM land is not meant to be used for commercial enterprise, and Real Ventures will over rely on public land. According to their website, the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming manages over 13,000 active oil and gas leases covering roughly 8,400,000 acres. The state also features thousands of grazing permits and extensive mineral estate management with the BLM administering over 10,000,000 acres of federal and gas leases in the region.

We were granted one such grazing permit and are actively maintaining that lease responsibly. Many right of ways are granted for commercial use and rely on the BLM access they are leasing. Although there isn't a specific statistic about how many BLM right of ways are awarded for small business, we arguably have significantly less impact for a simple access road than energy, oil or gas projects, and the BLM still awards right of ways for these much larger uses. I'd also like to mention here that rumors about our family being wind farm developers or having any affiliation with wind farm development is false. On a more personal note, in regards to all of those that have opposed this project, nothing we have done seems to appease.

At what point does it become less about legitimate concerns and more about opposition for opposition's sake? We've been under surveillance by neighbors since we've begun this process. I've had neighbors take photos of me on the deck of our property, videoing all our vehicles going in and out. We've had neighbors watching us with binoculars from the BLM land. I've had people giving misinformation to the BLM and to the county to sabotage our applications, and the list goes on.

We are their neighbors, whether we live at our ranch full time or not, not to mention we all live in Cheyenne. That property is also for our family's enjoyment. It is not just going to be a business. We are a family of 11 who have accepted this huge undertaking and responsibility. We don't have an army of people.

We don't have infinite wealth. We don't have unlimited resources. My family has stood under the intense opposition and scrutiny and has remained steadfast, professional, fair, and honest, and we will remain so. As you listen to all perspectives today, I encourage you to keep this in mind. Many will argue that our business can take no reasonable mitigation measures or that we should have unprecedented unreasonable conditions put on our business.

Mitigation doesn't mean eliminating all impact. It means reducing impacts to a reasonable and manageable level, which is exactly what we're proposing here today. We believe there are practical, responsible steps that can and will be implemented to address these concerns we've heard from the public. I invite you to consider all these points I've made today. Unless you have any questions for me, I thank you for your consideration.

Are there any questions at this time? Pardon? Yeah. And I appreciate the support and everything, but we'll just refrain from applause for anybody because I just want to start that we do it every time anybody comes up. We'll just refrain from that. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Excuse me. Good afternoon, mister chair through you. My name is Jeffrey Bolt. I am the Beatles attorney and I practice with Overstreet Homework Cooker at 2922 Central Avenue here in Cheyenne.

Yesterday, miss Zimmerman, an owner of land adjacent to my client's property, sent an email to you or at least to the the general commissioner's email address with a list of nine restrictions or conditions that she would like you to place on the conditional use permit if you grant it. We think that those restrictions, those conditions are unnecessary, unwarranted, and unreasonable. And I would just like to address them now, assuming that you have you're familiar with them, that you've looked at them. The first condition is that sound emanating from the venue be limited to 50 decibels measured from the closest private property line, which they claim is about three fifty feet from the venue. 50 decibels at the nearest property line is an excessive restriction.

50 decibels is the equivalent to rainfall. It's equivalent to the sound a refrigerator makes. Given that the nearest residence to the venue is just shy of 1,200 feet from the venue, it's unreasonable to have a 50 decibel limit three fifty feet away. My clients propose a limit of 70 decibels, 1,250 feet from the venue. They're willing to accept that condition.

It was discussed at the last meeting. 70 decibels is just a little bit louder than a normal conversation. It's the sound of a dishwasher. It's the of freeway traffic. It's not a rock concert.

And remember, the Riedels have agreed that the venue will close at 10PM. So again, this isn't frontier days, keeping people up. The second restriction request is that the attendance be limited to 100 people, including staff, and anyone on the property. And the property is a 40 acre property that, in addition to the venue, includes a residence and related buildings. Those buildings have nothing to do with the commercial venue.

And we're hoping that will be more clear once the Brush Creek address is created by the county for the venue, whereas the residence has the 470 Happy Jack address. But if if the Riedel's have a family gathering at the residence, those people should not be counted towards the 100 people maximum at a venue. We think we think it needs to be clear that those are two separate areas of the property. Again, it's a 40 acre property with two separate purposes that have nothing to do with each other. Zimmerman has requested that I apologize.

Oh, that my clients put up signs, fences, and gates to keep guests from wandering onto her property. This was mentioned earlier. If if you've ever been out there, you will see that miss Zimmerman has already put a smorgasbord of gates, signs, cameras, fences between the properties. She's purely speculative when she thinks that guests are going to wander away from the venue onto her property. Those guests aren't there to wander onto her property.

They're there to enjoy what's going on at the venue. This is an unnecessary and unreasonable request. Ms. Zimmerman has requested that all the buildings on the property be treated as part of the commercial venture for purposes of the liquor license. Again, it's it's imperative that the commission understand that these are completely separate buildings in a separate part of the property.

And what happens at the residence has nothing to do with what happens at the venue. And no liquor is gonna be served to guests, to venue guests at the residence. The venue guests will not be at the residence. Ms. Zimmerman would like a condition be placed on the granting to limit the events with more than 15 people to no more than two times a week and only between May and September.

Again, my clients intend to operate from May through October. And while they don't anticipate having large events three times a week or more, it could happen once in a while. And seems unnecessary to restrict events to 15 people. It's a number they pulled out of a hat, and it doesn't relate to anything. Again, Ms.

Zimmerman also asks that events having 15 or more people be required to use the shuttle service my clients plan to use. My clients have determined that a reasonable number is 50 people to start using the shuttle service. There's plenty of parking there. And if you anticipate that there are gonna be four people per car, 15 people is three and a half cars. It it's not gonna create a large driving issue down the road.

15 people to use the vans is just not necessary. She requests that dust mitigation measures for all roads used by the applicants to minimize impacts on surrounding neighbors and properties. Again, gonna the Beadles are gonna maintain the BLM land that they're building. The BLM the road over the BLM land that they're improving to the BLM standards. That's that's what's necessary, and the BLM is gonna to place restrictions on them regarding how that road is maintained.

Ms. Zimmerman asks that the Riedels not commence construction or operation of the commercial business until the Riedels have obtained all necessary authorizations, rights of way, permits or easements from the BLM. The Riedels have no intention of starting operation until they've received all of those things. But construction's already begun. And in fact, some construction is necessary in order to obtain those permits and approvals.

So to say that they can't do any construction until all the permits and approvals have been obtained is absurd. And then finally, the last, I can't even explain what she's requesting here. So I'll just read it. She requests that the county commissioners, either on their own action or after receipt of a written complaint, may revoke, suspend, modify the conditional use permit for a breach or violation of any condition or approval or limitation of the permit. The county commissioner shall notify the permit holder of the complaint or proposed action and provide the permit holder with the opportunity to contest the proposed revocation, suspension, or modification in a public hearing.

The county commissioner shall make findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of their decision. So it would appear that she's seeking to hold the Riedels to a higher standard of compliance than any other business in the county. Such disparate treatment is unwarranted. While my clients have no intention of ever breaching restriction imposed by this commission nor breaking any other law, they should be subject only to the same oversight and compliance requirements that every other business in this county is subject to. The Riddles have done nothing to make themselves worthy of closer scrutiny.

I mean, seems like she's trying to set up a special court of commissioners to oversee their operation. And that's absolutely unwarranted. In summary, the objectors, and Ms. Zimmerman in particular, seek to suppress my client's business through the imposition of unnecessary and unreasonable restrictions. We ask the commission to act reasonably and fairly in its consideration of the Riddle's conditional permit application and not unfairly burn their business. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Arnold, full staff report. Unless you hear you guys, any questions? Okay. Full staff report, please.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning. The Laramie County comprehensive plan identifies the area as ag and range land. This area is outside of the plan Cheyenne future land use areas and at the time of this report, review comments are still being addressed, mainly access to the site. The applicant wishes to access the parcel from Brush Creek Road, which will require to be brought up to the LCLUR current standards of 24 feet wide.

Private access through the BLM land will be 20 feet wide. The applicant is still in the process of obtaining final approval and leasing agreements from BLM. The applicant is working with environmental health to bring the property up to their standard for the commercial uses related to the septic. Public notice was provided and several comments were received which are attached to this report. Participants in the public hearing before the Planning Commission requested a noise limitation on operations at the property to be placed as a condition.

The Planning Commission recommended a condition whereby noise cannot exceed 50 decibels at the property line. The applicant opposed this condition and is requesting the board review the recommended. Condition. The applicant is proposing if such a condition is imposed that the condition be as just stated, 70 decibels beyond 1,250 foot distance from the venue area. And if you're able to look at the exhibits, if you were to strictly enforce the property line restriction there, it would be basically right next to the structure as it relates to the BLM property line.

So that is requested to be changed. The Planning Commission met on 03/26/2026 and recommended approval by a vote of four to zero in favor of. With the addition of further conditions contained in this proposed motion, chairman Jason Koy recused himself. Based on section two three one zero two subsection d romanette three of the LCLUR governing class c conditional use permit, staff finds this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. Based on evidence provided, staff recommends the board find that a, this application meets the criteria for a class c conditional use permit pursuant to section two three one zero two subsection d romanette three of the LCLUR and b, this application meets the criteria for commercial projects pursuant to section three one one zero nine of the LCLUR.

And c, this application is in conformance with section two four one zero four of the LCLUR regulating the land use zone district. And that the board approves the class c conditional use permit for the bit of Wyo Ranch in events located in a parcel of land situated in the corner of Section 1114 North, Range 70 West of the six prime meridian Laramie County, Wyoming, with the following conditions as stipulated by the Planning Commission. Applicant must bring Brush Creek Road to current county standards for a public roadway and the private access easement through the Bureau of Land Management parcel to current county standards for private access. Applicant must show proof from environmental health that they have satisfied their standards for commercial use of the septic and three, show proof of an approved and recorded easement agreement between the landowner and the Bureau of Land Management. And four, the noise shall not exceed 50 decibels at the property line for all commercial events.

Five, that all events must terminate at 10PM. And six, limit attendance at all events to a total of a 100 people, including staff. And with that, I stand for any questions.

Any questions for Justin? Mister chairman? Commissioner Zwanson.

Mister chairman, through you, sorry to put you on the spot here, Justin, but could you please, just for the sake of everybody, explain the difference between the class c conditional use permit, which is what we're doing today, and the site plan?

Mister chairman, through you, commissioner Zwanitzer, with the large jurisdiction that we have to govern, we implemented with the promulgation of the twenty twenty five land use conditional use permits, dependent upon their intensity and type of use, whether they be a class a, which can be handled administratively for very small operations, class b, which are for medium type operations, which effectively receive a decision by the Planning Commission of either approval, approval with conditions, or denial. And then class c, which goes before the Laramie County Planning Commission for recommendations to include the conditions you see before you today. And then a final decision by the board of county commissioners approve, approve with conditions or modified conditions per the recommendations or denial. The conditional use permits will be recorded at the real estate office and they of lease service the zoning ordinance on the property until such time as the use changes. The commercial site plan, which is required and forthcoming post conditional use approval, which will then get into get into the nitty gritty more of the the technical nature of the of the project.

And that is actually required to come back before this body for a final approval of the site where you guys can relook at it and place any condition any additional conditions as it relates to the traffic or anything like that at that point in time. So we have the conditional use for zoning, the commercial site plan for the actual bonafide use that will oversee the building process.

And through you, mister chairman, if I could, would it be appropriate for items like four, five, and six talking about termination of events, number of people, noise, notifications, would that be more appropriate with the site plan process as opposed to the conditional use permit we're talking about today?

Mister chairman, through you commissioners, the resolution's gonna be recorded at the real estate recording office, effectively, will serve as the zoning ordinance or the restrictions on that. We can definitely place additional conditions at the site plan stage, but that's kind of at the discretion of this body. But you'll have the option at a later date, but if if you so choose to approve these conditions as recommended by the planning commission, then they would be codified via resolution.

Any other questions for staff? I'm gonna go to online comments first. Is there anyone online that would like to speak on this item?

Mister chairman, we do have some online comments.

Okay. Go with the first one, please. Please state your name. Hello. You're online?

Good afternoon. Are you can you hear me?

Yes.

Jason Cloy, 468 Laramie or I'm sorry. 468 Happy Jack Road. Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present, and thank you for the process that's in place to allow this to occur. As stated in the letter that I sent earlier in the week, my primary concern is the safety and additional issues regarding the special purpose permit.

As a long time member of the Planning Commission, I have advocated for citizens' property rights, and I believe that this is a prime example of citizens' property rights. It is important to recognize the hard work that both planning, the planning commission, and now you, along with the applicant and the citizens have put into this project. All my years on the planning commission, ten plus years, I'm proud to show the work that both the applicant and the planning commission came to during last month's public hearing. I did recuse myself from that meeting because of my close nature to the property. It's important to recognize that it's rare that an applicant and the planning commission can come to terms of conditions.

And during that meeting, four conditions or five conditions were made, and it's important to recognize that those are important. Before I get into those conditions, I just wanna talk about words. Words matter and facts matter, and I wanna address a couple facts that were stated during the applicant's presentation today. First off, the fire department does not do traffic studies, so it was referenced that there was 500 Road, Cowan 10 Road County Road 109. We do not measure that and nor do I know a John that would have been on our fire department.

That would be addressed by public works for accurate detail. Second fact that matters is the addition of Brush Creek Road does not benefit Wildcat or Road 109 because of the fact that dead ends at private property and a private easement. So as far as safety goes, unfortunately, those are not valued access points nor would the insurance safety organization or any emergency plan constitute those accesses as evacuation points because they're on private land. So those are some factual pieces that that should be addressed. Secondly, being able to look at the conditions that have been placed, which I strongly support, I hope that you recognize that those conditions were discussed in detail during the planning commission with the applicant and the citizens, and those were the baseline conditions that were accepted.

Let's look at sound. So in the county of land use regulations, we have numerous locations in the land use regulations under special permits, class c, where sound is judged. Windmills, for example, wind generators have a 50 decibel at the property line. So this would be consistent with the conditions that have been placed on this property. Varying from that would and does present some challenges.

Now, understandably, a quick search utilizing Laramie County's GIS, the western property from the barn at this location is 518 feet. The south location is 535 feet from their property line. The north or I'm sorry, the east is 1,500 feet and the north is 50 feet. Those are factual numbers that you can utilize Laramie County GIS and the ruler function to be able to measure. The 50 foot one, understand that that placing a a noise decibel at that BLM boundary does create a problem.

So maybe providing the exemption to extend louder into that area would be appropriate. However, the proposed 70 decibels does not align with the rest of the land use regulations for noise and extending it to over 1,200 feet now places it directly in line with the KZ Trust residence which is 1,150 feet from the barn venue. So I just wanted to address that as far as sound. So I would ask you to support the original conditions by the planning commission at 50 decibels at the property line, maybe with an exemption for the north property line because the the barn, the venue does sit essentially right on the property line. Maybe a good suggestion would be to allow it to go to the end of the parking lot, the proposed parking lot on the BLM.

That way, it's encompassing property. Second, attendance. Attendance, in line with the the residential property versus the commercial property is a concern. First off, two addresses on one property possesses a problem for Laramie County Communication Center. It also provides a problem with emergency response.

Depending on where a citizen is standing with a phone, where there is cell service, it will warrant or address that cell phone location to the closest address. So if they are 10 feet to the north or 10 feet to the south, it will address either the 470 Happyjack location or the proposed Brush Creek location. Now that's not a big concern if those are two separate property lines or subdivided. So my recommendation with years of experience in the Planning Commission is that those properties should be subdivided. If it's truly gonna be a business venue for the barn, then it should be subdivided and kept separately, which then allows the addressing to be accurate.

Third, BLM and rules. Right? So BLM is a pivotal component of this. Accessing the BLM property, I'd I'd really trust the applicants doing their due diligence there and it sounds like they are. So the one concern I have is that they stated that no work would be done, but unfortunately, they've already built a road that that connects the old road to the barn.

So when they stated the barn road was made, it actually was made prior to any deal on permitting. And so, again, that just comes down to let's make sure that we're following all the rules appropriate. In closing, because I know you have a lot of people, and I thank you for the time, and I understand the challenges. And as an advocate for private citizens' right, I just want us to make sure that we do due diligence to make sure that we address the the conditions that were placed by the planning commission. So please support what your planning commission, those volunteers that you just recognized today with the volunteerism recommended to you because they work diligently to work with the applicant and the citizens to come up with some reasonable conditions. With that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Coy. Any questions for Jason? Okay. Thank you. Next.

Mr. Miller.

Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. Just a second here. I'm pulling up my notes. Sorry. Okay.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Charles Miller, I'm speaking strictly to item number 23, the bid o y o conditional use permit. Moments ago, the applicant admitted on the record that their BLM right of way is still an internal scoping and that the federal and EPA environmental review requirements have not yet been determined. Under BLM's own process, a right of way is something that is applied for, reviewed, and either granted or denied after the required reviews are completed. You're being asked to approve a a county permit that depends on a federal access corridor that does not yet exist in approved form.

That is premature, and the board should not pretend otherwise. Second, the applicant's own testimony says the BLM access road will be 20 feet wide and will include proper grade drainage and erosion control to meet fire apparatus road standards. That is not a casual driveway. That is engineered commercial infrastructure. So I need the board to answer this on the record. Has a legally binding road maintenance agreement been executed that places all construction, maintenance, and long term liability for this road on the developer? If the answer is no, then Laramie County taxpayers are being asked to carry the risk of a private commercial access point.

Third So so I will I will tell you that that's not true. So that if they they will, if a permit is granted, have to sign a road use agreement and the taxpayers are not on the hook for this road development. That is a condition, like I mentioned earlier in the meeting, with the Chalk Bluff Road that the developer bore the cost of that. And so I just wanted to stop you before you kept reading and let you know that that wasn't it is in fact not signed, but it would be a condition of approval.

Thank you for that. I'm going go ahead and continue. I don't have much left here in my prepared testimony. Third, the applicant's attorney stated that while they do not intend to begin operation until they have received all required approvals, construction has already begun. That is not a minor detail.

It means work is underway before the federal access process is finished and before this county permit is fully resolved. That is exactly the kind of contradiction that should stop this board cold. Fourth, mister cow Coward testified that they had to fly life flight out to establish landing zones and coordinate with emergency agencies. Jason Cloy also testified that the nearby dead end roads and private easements are not recognized evacuation points or emergency plan access routes. So the public safety story is not resolved.

It is still being sold to you as if if it were set settled. This board should not approve a commercial venue in a remote high fire risk area while the emergency access burden remains uncertain. For those reasons, I urge a no vote until the federal and EPA process is complete, all construction timing is fully explained, and the county has a clear written agreement placing all road and emergency liability costs on the applicant. Right now, the board is being asked to approve a permit on an incomplete and contradictory record. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Miller. Next.

We have Mr. Eric Zimmerman.

Yes. Good afternoon. Can you

hear me?

Yes, sir.

Yes. Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Kelly Zimmerman's husband of twenty eight years and been helping to maintain property out at 484 Happyjack Road. I would like to take this moment to discuss some transparency issues.

As before she purchased this property in mid twenty twenty five, she she sent us a letter, you know, asking for two days a week, nice small wedding venue, nothing much, no liquor license. We were surprised to find out, you know, after saying no to any business use out there across our property access, we found out that she purchased the property in in in August. With that said, you know, she's been doing construction since that time frame. And, you know, construction is considered business use, and she has no legal access to that property, you know, federal lands and and everything else. So you it's we're just besides ourselves.

You know, I'm a huge property private property proponent. I've been a farmer rancher my whole life. And for so many just ignore common sense and their neighbors, you know, this affects, you know, quite a few people in that area. Everybody who lives out there has been opposed to this venue, and the only ones who are for it are are the ones who live in cities. With that said, I would like to thank you for your time, and I hope that you turn this permit down. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Anyone else online?

Mr. Chairman, there are no other online comments.

All right. Public hearing online is closed. In the room, if you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward. Public hearing is open.

Thank you.

I was just about to leave because I gotta go.

I apologize.

That's okay. No. Commissioners, thank you. Thank you for your time this evening. It's gonna be a long night. I am Tony Brannan, 4840 King Arthur Way in Cheyenne. Early on in this process, when concerns came to the Bitterwy o team, they answered back with well planned solutions, answers, compromise.

They have

been thoughtful and extremely thorough in their responses to safety and wildlife concerns and have gone above and beyond. This is a beneficial project to all Cheyenne families, and it would be disheartening to see a hardworking Wyoming family unable to operate and succeed this creative small business. Riedel Ventures has committed to smaller events, family friendly activities and honoring the traditions of Wyomingites. This is not only beneficial to Cheyenne locals, but our tourism industry. As we all know, people visit Cheyenne from all over the world expecting to enjoy an Old West experience and have very few choices for such activities.

Tourism truly is something that benefits us all. This would be a wonderful addition to our community. Again, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Mister chairman, commissioners

Can you pull the microphone up just so the Yes.

Commissioners, my name is John Eisbart. I'm in the Cheyenne Pass HOA, and I represent 34 parcels there. Really appreciate your time this evening on this really emotional issue. This is not a case of not in my backyard. This is a case of not in their backyard.

Not a single supportive comment comes from someone who lives in the affected area. And I think that's real important for you to consider and realize there. Those of us that live up there, we chose that area because of the peace and solitude that it provides. Also, in their testimony, they talked about really a lot of hearsay. There were events with 200 people and so forth.

I can tell you, in my years up there, there has not been an event anywhere close to 200 people. They also spoke about being good neighbors and really concerned about the impact they have on both Table Mountain and on Cheyenne Pass. That goodwill was exhausted quite some time ago. There's our road that goes down, Wildcat Trail, it's owned by the HOA. Very narrow, very steep turns.

They have run-in in defiance of the easement, commercial traffic on it. They and their agents have cut locks on gates, all that. Again, that goodwill is gone. We had I thought we had an agreement that they would help put a gate in at Happy Jack where Wildcat Trail is. Then I received an email from their attorney saying that because we voice our opposition to it, that they're going to limit that.

Again, that goodwill, goodbye. The the trust is just simply is not there, which in our our our society, in Wyoming society, you know, handshake goes a long way. But once you violate that trust, it's very, very difficult to to build back. Also, I'd like to address the issue of danger. So you get a 100 people packed into that barn, and I I applaud them for bringing out life flight and that and and serving that and looking at other methods of evacuation.

But in a fire, in a wildland fire, getting a 100 people out of there quickly, safely isn't possible. It it just isn't. We've had a wildfire just this past Sunday on the Richardson Ranch about two miles away from there. So it's a reality. And in this year, it's it's very much a a reality.

The idea of a shuttle, and that was brought up by others that the shuttle so you have an emergency, a a shuttle, which would be my understanding, be in Table Mountain where the Table Mountain Road hits the BLM. So to get that shuttle to the the ranch in a timely fashion is not a a practical thing, again, on a emergent situation. The planning commission, a very thoughtful group, came up with those considerations, those those requirements, one of which was the 50 decibel limit at the property line. Very, very important, I think. And this evening, I think you'll hear a lot supportive comments talk about they have childhood memories from the ranch and so forth.

I want you to consider my children. I have four children, seven grandchildren. Their memories of our property and living there and listening to coyotes and so forth, not to concerts. So please consider that as well in that. In that and they mentioned fireworks. I would really appreciate if you would put in there no fireworks ever regardless of fire restrictions. Those things go up. They're unpredictable where they come down. 40 acres is a pretty small containment area for them. Parking spaces.

Think there's some confusion about the parking spaces. It's not necessarily the parking spaces at the barn, at the venue. It's for the larger events, the parking space where that Table Mountain Road hits the BLM, and that congestion of a 100 vehicles. And we all know four people in a car. Yeah. It happens sometimes, but not practical. So you have a 100 people. That's not gonna be 25 cars. That's gonna be fifty, seventy five cars. So it's that congestion, that parking where that Table Mountain Road hits that BLM.

That's the the real issue about the the parking. And with that, again, I just really appreciate your consideration, and would stand for any questions.

Any questions? K. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening, ma'am's and sirs. My name is Jake Beringer. 810 Valley View Drive out at Table Mountain Ranches. I'm a I'm a physician in Wyoming. I went to the University of Wyoming's residency program here in Cheyenne, and I work in the emergency room at the VA and also in Lusk.

And that's relevant because the concerns about the dust out in our neighborhood, it's already dry and dusty. And with the additional traffic, it just it's gonna make a problem worse. In the emergency room, I see people that have exacerbations of their asthma, their emphysema all the time due to, you know, seasonal irritants and dust, quite frankly, as the trigger. I know that there were statements about limited additional traffic. However, the undertaking of road improvement out of the BLM and on Brush Creek Road also on that whatever would need to happen on Crow Creek and Valley View Drive would create significant dust.

And I mentioned Valley View Drive and Crow Creek because in the event of an emergency with emergency response vehicles needing to pass, there are some very narrow points that are going to be impassable with high speed traffic in in emergency situations. My wife and I are not opposed to people's business ventures, and I fully support the people's right to pursue any sort of livelihood. But just as a health officer, I'm concerned about the veterans out there who've already been exposed to particulates and have know, some sort of health issues related to prior service. I'm I'm a colonel in the Army National Guard. I'm the state surgeon for the Wyoming Army National Guard.

I deal with soldiers that have been exposed to burn pits, dust, and and all these conflicts overseas and in The Middle East. And so I just urge you to consider that factor. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioners, my name is Chuck Brannan, 4840 King Arthur Way. I just want to discuss the integrity of Austin and Lacey and this family. These are not unreasonable people. I think as this goes forward, everyone's gonna see that they're just trying to do they're just trying to operate their business. And I feel like throughout this process, they've been very reasonable listening to the last gathering, like, living in Wyoming and living in Laramie County, like whether you're for or against

Sir, fact that we're

all in this room.

You just have to speak

to me.

I'm sorry. I know know we're

all doing this in this room. Like we should all be proud of this.

Like

we are very passionate about private and public lands in Wyoming. What they're looking to do is nothing unreasonable. My main concern being a resident of Laramie County, there's been testimony about it's just people from the city who are going to be for this. But we are residents of Laramie County. This is part of our county too, and we do have a say.

I am very passionate about conservation, about the North American model, our public lands, our wildlife. And I believe that this family is working within reasonable realms for those concerns, and I think you guys will find that as well. So I just want to preach to the the quality of these people and how reasonable they're being. The last and like I said, the last hearing, there seems like a very unreasonable push against it. And what I would like to request the commissioners to look into as we've heard about them being on their own private property, which everyone here says we respect what you do on your private property.

We respect what you do on your private property. It seems to be that way for their private property, but not this property that was just purchased. And so my knee jerk reaction is, okay. Well, then what is happening in this community? Now that eyes are on this community throughout Laramie County, what is going on out there that maybe they don't want people out there?

Are they have they been enjoying this vacated private space? You know, there is hunting that takes place. I heard testimony about people going out and teaching veterans to hunt out there. That's awesome and that's noble. But I want to make sure if we're here for safety, if this business goes up in place, will the commission consider what safety concerns need to take place for their business? As we've already heard, residents of the community have been taking unsolicited pictures of them on their own private property. Are they going to be harassed? Are their customers going to be harassed? Does Game and Fish need to be more involved? Does the commission need to be more involved with Game and Fish?

Making sure that the residents in the community are abiding by what needs to be taking place if you're going be out there legally hunting. And if people are out there running a business, teaching people how to hunt, I would request that the commission would also work with BLM as well to make sure and I might be wrong, but if you're doing some sort of commercial business on BLM, I believe there's a special recreations permit that's needed. I haven't seen anything approved for this area. But would the commission also look into that and make sure that our public lands within this community, with the event center and with everyone else living around it, now that eyes are on this community, is are our public lands being represented appropriately out there? If we're just if we're going to be looking at them, let's look at everyone else as well.

Thank you

very much.

Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Any questions? Okay. Next.

Chair and commissioners, my name is Phil Robertson at 2018 Seymour Avenue here.

Mister Robertson, can you pull the mic a little closer?

A little Sorry.

Yours got better.

Yeah. It's just sorry.

Phil Robertson. 2018 Seymour Avenue, Cheyenne. I'm a sixth generation Wyomingite. I will tell you that I just read a report that half of the dude ranches in The United States are right here in Wyoming. It's part of our legacy. People come here for this experience, and here's an opportunity to extend that that Dude Ranch feeling for folks. I've never heard people be more responsible and thinking more thoughtful about how they operate a business than this. I'm I'm a little bit concerned about the decibel restriction. A dog barking is 75 decibels. I mean, that that seems a bit unreasonable.

I think the the 10:00 curfew that they they're talking about is very reasonable and neighborly. But I I look forward to this operation going, and I hope that you support it. I think that there's a lot of good things that will come to this community because of this operation and I appreciate your opportunity to speak to you about this in support of the Biddle Waio Ranch. Thank you.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Sorry. My name is Lisa Losey. I own four eighty four Happy Jack Road in the 80 acres entitled Brush Creek. I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some obvious questions that I hope we're asking.

Per Rydell Venture liquor license and the attached lease agreement, the entire property is leased to Rydell Ventures. I don't understand why we're pretending she is only going to use the barn. And if we are just gonna use the barn, where exactly is the bride going to get ready for her big day? If we're just using the barn, does that mean retreats and camps are only day use, which would indicate far more traffic in and out of the property? If it's just the barn, does that mean the children for the Windrider's camps will need to eat, sleep, and shower elsewhere?

Once again, more traffic. Per a phone call with miss Riddell on 09/19/2025, in order to get around our private easements that state no business use, she brazenly said, the bride will be my personal guest. I was very much blown away. The quintessential person cannot be your personal private guest. Is that how Riddle Venture plans on treating their events, skirting Laramie County regulations and safety, very important safety measures?

Once again, Google Maps and Apple Maps will not take you through BLM. There is no preventative measure that will keep guests and vendors from trespassing on private lands. We would want would you want your private property and your private rights violated? Do you want your innocent, unaware constituents and guests driving on noncommercial compliant roads in the dark of night? Shuttles, is that all guests?

Is that some guests? How does that get monitored and how does it get enforced? If Rydell Ventures can only have a 100 person occupancy, well, what does that mean? Is that the whole property, just the barn, or the barn capacity with additional outdoor attendees? Tanya Riddell stated on record that she would have 95 guests with five staff members.

I beg you to think about that. As I know you have all attended a wedding or some sort of large event. What about cooks, servers, bussers, bartenders, DJs, officiant, photographers, promised fire attendants, managers, etcetera. So is that the worst service ever? Or is it a very serious safety issue?

Because I'm not sure how they're going to execute all those safety measures that they've just promised us with five staff members? Or is it a mistruth since we can't even shuttle every guest in with passenger vans with five staff members? I think this should give us pause. Here is what 20 service industry owners, managers, and staff have to say about what actually be needed for such an event for safety and proper service and really

highlighting Laramie

County as somewhere awesome. So noise. Would you want to sit on your patio and listen to a stranger's wedding toast? What about the DJ? Because I guess we're not gonna have a band with only five staff members. What about the hootin' and hollerin' that goes on for a wedding and a fun event that we're wanting to cheers and all be excited about? What about the many generators that will be running when, not if, when the power goes out. What about concerts? We as neighbors have the right to peaceful enjoyment. I don't want to sit on my deck and listen to the dishwasher.

I don't know about you, but I turn my dishwasher on when I'm leaving or going to bed. Lights, would you want to sit on your deck and have your rural night sky be eliminated? Laramie County, against a lot of opposition, you guys changed us from rural residential to land use. We are now begging you uphold provisions you added to ensure our residential property rights are not boldly violated by the rezoning. We are residential.

We did buy the view. We commute daily or at whatever point, often out to our rural residential homes for a reason. Please consider that and thank you for your time. And I don't know if you would like to read any of these

or I think we got the email from I

didn't send these via email. They were just My son works in the restaurant industry. I've worked in the restaurant industry forever. And so I just put together a little

Sure, you're welcome to bring them up. And then does anyone have any questions? Okay. Thank you.

I'm Nancy Sleeper. I live at 811 Latigo Loop at Table Mountain Ranches. And my comments are mostly about the to to remove the access through Table Mountain Ranches. I'm used to being able to go for walks around there and ride my bike, and now I'll have to I don't wanna have to see extra traffic, and nobody else in the community wants that either. It's it's ridiculous to think that they wouldn't they wouldn't have they they wouldn't use the access straight from Happy Jack Road.

I I I saw that it said existing residential easements coming in from the South would no longer work. And that's it. Like, it doesn't want to work, won't work. So now let's dump it on Table Mountain Ranches and make us have to suffer it. So I, my objection is reroute this thing, this project. If the Rydells have all these contacts, why don't you use them to get your own access through your own community for this venue. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Good evening. My name is DeMonte Anderson, 221 Hines Avenue. I'm the owner of Wyoming Wave Studios. I have a associates in audio production, but in September, I should have a bachelor's in audio production. They did reach out to me about sound control. So if there was anything about being negative 50 decibels, I would be the audio engineer. This also creates another opportunity opportunity for me because, here in Wyoming, there's not a whole bunch of audio engineering opportunities. So for that, if you do pass this for them, I will make sure that they can still have quiet nights in their location. That's all I wanted to say.

Thank you, sir. Any questions? Okay. Next.

Hello. Thank you for having us. My name is Kelly Zimmerman, and I am the owner of 484 Happy Jack Road and Brush Creek property. I'm going to dive right in. Could you please put up slide one?

Mr. Chairman, through you Ms. Zimmerman, unfortunately, just like the remainder of ours, we don't have access to our projector at this time. I have forwarded your PowerPoint presentation to the commissioner so they can be viewing it while you're having a discussion.

We do have it, but it's just not up there.

Wonderful. So if you're looking at that now, slide one shows you that on July 23, Ms. Riedel clearly stated to us, as my husband earlier mentioned, that she would not be getting a liquor license. No alcohol license will be obtained or issued, as you see highlighted. If you move to Slide two, you will see one month later, three days after the property conveyed to Ms.

Riedel on August 25, a liquor license was applied for on August 20 Transparency and business plan consistency is still a major concern. Slide number three, please. Stated shuttle service is unrealistic, and again, the readers' intent is inconsistent. On October 21, in front of all of you here at the liquor license hearing, Ms. Riedel stated, all parties involved will be shuttled through BLM land. All parties involved includes staff, vendors, guests, etcetera. However, in a letter to Table Mountain Ranches sometime in November or December, the letter was

not

dated, she said parking will be on-site for staff and vendors, indicating they will be coming in their own vehicles and not shuttled in. And traffic routing for guests to arrive and depart via shuttle service, so only guests at this point. That's a clear departure from what she originally told you at the liquor license hearing. Then March 26 at the Planning Commission hearing just a month ago and per the Bidawayo responses to the public comments regarding shuttles, we were all told that if guests do not want to use our shuttle service for their larger events, they will not be booking their event with Bidawayo. It will be explicitly stated in our event venue contract that shuttle service is mandatory for a certain number of guests.

So not all guests anymore, just a certain number, and they did repeat that statement today. What will that certain number be? Very unclear, and again, departure from what we have all been told previously. Also, a major concern is safety. If you would move to Slide four, please.

As you can see, it is pitch black out there at night and makes for very, very unsafe driving conditions, even when intimately knowledgeable of the roads like those of us who live and have homes out in this area. These pictures are just from a few days ago. On April 15 at 08:26, you can barely see the ridgeline. And at 10:01PM on the sixteenth, it's just black as black can be. Yes, vehicles have headlights.

But with all the blind corners and mountainous hills, headlights don't help much. These photos were taken from the BLM Road at the midpoint between the Riedel Barn and the county's Brush Creek Road, the exact route the Riedels plan to use want to use. Slide five, please. What exactly is this business? It changes as frequently as the Wyoming wind.

Again, unclear and ever changing business plan should indicate to you that even the Riedels don't know exactly what they want to be. The frequency of the business activities prior to purchasing the property, as she indicated to my sister and I and Cheyenne Pass and as written to Table Mountain Ranches and for the granted liquor license was only going to be one to two times per week, Wednesdays and Saturdays only. And that included all of the activities, the weddings, the events and any other business activities. Then, and this is per direct quotes at the Planning Commission public hearing just a month ago, March 26, at minimum, her business activities will be three to four times a week. That is double what she originally told all of us.

Ms. Riedel herself said, one large event per week, either on Friday or Saturday. Friday, you say? That's not the same as the liquor license. You're telling me she's going to schedule large events on Fridays and not have the ability to serve liquor? Again, a departure from previously stated intentions. Horseback riding three times a week, date nights four times a week as well as family night four times a week, rotating times in areas for those. So where is she actually having these events take place? Clearly, it's going to be more than just the barn. And Austin Coward said, at the heart of our operations, we plan to offer ten day camps.

That's ten consecutive days, clearly not one times per week. Unfortunately, all indicators point to you approving this permit, sadly, even in the face of the opposition and the extreme dangers that it presents. As Ms. Riedel's lawyer told you already, I emailed you, I'm sure that you've seen it. And he outlined the conditions that my sister and I thought are reasonable.

I'm not going to go over them all again, because he already did that. The conditions, they speak for themselves. And again, they are reasonable and and based on information we all have to date. But I am gonna speak to two of them. The first is the noise.

And, of course, that's been mentioned already on our behalf really because our property is eleven fifty feet away. So the 50 decibels, let's just start conversation here. I'm sitting on my porch, as my sister said, the closest property line, which is three fifty feet away, is very reasonable. You make it 70 decibels at twelve fifty feet, and it's even louder on my porch. So I do encourage you to keep that condition to this permit should you approve it.

The second condition that I will speak to was the last one. It was the one that Mr. Or Ms. Riedel's lawyer didn't seem to understand. But with regard to it, it is actually based on regulations that exist in other areas of Wyoming, including Cody, Wyoming.

That's what's written in their land use regulations. What it does is it would help to I guess one of the big questions is how are you going to monitor, how are you going to enforce regulations and conditions? And this is one of those ways that helps do that so that it keeps the riddles from straying from whatever the conditions and regulations are, and it gives the rest of us maybe some peace of mind that if perhaps they do not, then there's some recourse. I truly do still believe this permit should be denied as it is just, again, way premature. BLM has not given permission for her to use their land for any of the activities, for the access and we're just very premature.

And yes, BLM will require a NEPA and NEPA study. And it's going to be a long time before that access comes through for her. So please keep that in mind. I want to thank you for your time. Do you have any questions?

Any questions from the Zimmerman? Thank you.

Thank you.

Kim Buffum, 3162 Green Valley Road. Good evening. I don't have any claims to have lived here for generations or not. I'm one of the newbies, and I've been observing this very closely, and I find it very interesting. I moved out here five years ago from a small suburban town on the East Coast. I was 58. I thought I'd live out the remainder of my years surrounded by friends and loved ones, but time had a different idea. My town experienced a gradual and then a sudden major cultural shift and the state and local taxes were becoming exorbitantly high. So I left, and I came here. Was it easy?

No. Was it necessary? Yes. I hope most of you won't need to make such a major life change. But that doesn't mean that things won't change around you. I couldn't fight a cultural change when I didn't even speak the language. Nor did I want to see my retirement savings needlessly wasted on never ending tax increases. There was no one for me to go to to help resolve these issues. But all of you do have someone to go to. You can work with instead of against the Riedel family and Biddo Wild Ranch.

You can ask yourselves why the people who've gotten you all riled up don't even live here full time like you and the Riedels do. You can ask yourselves how you might benefit from the reopening of a previously shuttered and slowly decaying ranch property. How might that contribute to, rather than harm, your chosen way of life? You can work with the Riedels instead of against them. We all have little to no say in controlling the flood of data centers surrounding the Cheyenne community that are coming or the mass exodus of West Coast people coming into the Western portion of the state.

But you can add your voice to a positive reopening of the Bitawile Ranch. Please choose the positive way and not the angry, ill informed way that some are asking you to for their own benefit. And as a side note, as a sign of respect, could we please pronounce this family's name correctly? It is Riedel. It is not Riedel or any other variation. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Anyone else in the room like to speak?

Come forward.

My name is Lindy Rose. I live at 1461 Mountain View Loop in the Table Mountain Ranch community. I'm not part of the HOA, but I do reside there at the top looking at Table Mountain itself. This is a tough night. I don't envy your position sometimes. When you have a family business who wants to continue their legacy and their history,

that's not wrong. Can you raise the microphone? Yes.

That's not wrong for a family business to want to continue their history. It's also not wrong for a private community who all the homeowners who bought into it had an expectation that traffic would flow a certain way and they would be protected from the traffic they moved out there to avoid. That's also not wrong. So what are we to do? The families who bought into Table Mountain bought in because it was private, because there was no connecting road or traffic expected from anywhere else.

We have Kurt Gowdy, unhappy Jack, and we also have White Antelope now near Horse Creek, and we were still protected. And now we're not. When the benefits of a business outweigh the privacy and the residential concerns, how are we to choose? We choose when growth erodes the community sense of safety, autonomy and environmental balance. Importantly, it's especially when the impact to that neighborhood and the character that it fosters is changing faster than the neighborhood can adapt to it.

There have been a variety of events that have been expressed in these meetings and in discussions, and they range from small events to big events. And we've also seen murmurings on social media about even bigger ones. So where are the residents of Table Mountain Ranches supposed to exhale and know that it won't get any bigger and the traffic that comes with it? So my home overlooks the roads of Hyde Merit, Crow Creek, Valley View, and Brush Creek. And the traffic study that was mentioned before may be accurate on 01/2009, but it is certainly not accurate on those roads where a handful of cars traverse it every day.

I know because I work from home, I'm there all the time, and I look out my windows and I see. The reason so many people on this matter are speaking with such high emotion, and they all have their own reasons that work for them as to why they feel so passionately, is because they all care about Table Mountain Ranches. That's our home. We bought there purposely because it was so unique and so private. So of course, we're passionate about wanting to protect it from the traffic.

Don't see anything wrong with a family business wanting to live out their dream. But it is wrong to change the character of our neighborhood without our consent and without it being built for that to suffice the business goals of one family. So I do wish them well. I hope that they can continue and meet their goals just in a different way so that our place in Table Mountain is not impacted, and we can all find a way to move forward for the betterment of the county. I would ask you to please consider that and deny the application only that allows the traffic to come through Table Mountain. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Next.

Hi. I'm Adonna Deacon, 875 Lataga Loop. I live in Table Mountain year round twenty four seven every day. I watch the dust plumes as people go to and from to work and stuff like that. Additional traffic will increase that a lot. It is so dry out there right now. A simple spark, and we're all in flames. They talk about a shuttle service. From where? Where's their staging area?

At the beginning of one zero nine by our mailboxes? Where? Some magical, mystical place? They have yet to even define that. But they're gonna have these magical shuttles go through the properties.

I'm asking you to deny this. There are horses that go down the road to the corral where Valley View and the 109 Meet. There's a corral that is used by children, four H, FFA, cows, all kinds of animals are going there. And we're changing it so that more animals can go there and use it because we own it. And you're putting livestock at risk as well as children.

Children play outside. Yeah. We have all these areas where they can play, but really riding their bikes and stuff, they like to do it on the roads. I take my grandchildren for walks and strollers. I don't know if you remember me last month. I was here with my grandchildren. I can't roll the stroller through the the grass and everything like that. I have to roll it on the road. People don't slow down on those roads as evidenced by the elk that is sitting on the side of the road. Would you want that to be your grandchildren?

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else?

Good evening. My name is Annalisa Miller. I'm here from the Fallon Law Offices at 300 East 18th Street on behalf of Kristen Bloom, who resides at 615 Valley View Drive. Miss Bloom is a third generation Cheyenne resident who who resides on the Table Mountain Ranches community. She is in opposition of the CUP.

Miss Bloom spent many years searching for the perfect home in Laramie County. After five years, she finally found it. Her home was supposed to be protected from noise and development. There's a working ranch to the North, a state section to the South, BLM land to the West, and it's on a dead end road. But this project could change at all.

Miss Bloom echoes many of the comments that were made today. And like her neighbors, she never would have imagined that her dead end road could, which has just a few cars traversing down at each day, would could end up within a much heavier traffic area. And she's not only concerned about the ways in which the event center will disrupt her way of life, but she does also have concerns, like others have said, about her daily walk, about the antelope, and about the rural character of her community. Many of the literature, letters, and comments in support of the CUP application have perpetuated and relied on a narrative that this event center will revive the historic Beta Wayo. But to miss Bloom, the unfortunate reality is that Beta Wayo, in its historic nature and use, can't truly be revived, because this 40 acre parcel is not a historic ranch anymore.

It's been sold, it's been subdivided, and it's no longer accessible from the same points. Today, miss Bloom would emphasize that it's nothing more than a barn in a canyon with no reliable access and no way to safely host a 100 people at a time. Safety remains her primary concern, and I won't continue to belabor all of the points about traffic congestion, though those are very important points and values to her. But she also has doubts about the consistency of the proposed motion as it is currently written. So the proposed motion asked the applicant to bring Brush Creek Road to the current county standards for a public roadway, but the BLM roadway is simply asked to be brought up to current standards for private access.

So we're looking at a 24 foot width versus a 20 foot width whenever we get down to the BLM section. And it makes no mention of miss Bloom's Road, Valley View Drive, at all. So again, while miss Bloom does oppose the CUP in its entirety, if the CUP is ultimately approved, we would request that condition one is amended so that all three of these roads that will be affected are required to be brought up and maintained by current county standards for public roadways. Because we are dealing with a commercial use, not a general private use. So the land use regulations don't really provide support for limiting any of the roads in question to a 20 foot wide width.

As you can see on the map included in the packets that are part of the executive summary prepared by the planning commission, the Valley View Drive and Brush Creek Roads are both dead ends, and a significant portion of the access to the event center will have to go past Valley View Drive. There is no proposed condition about making sure that Valley View is also maintained up to county standards in light of the excess traffic that will be going down the road. Then if we get past Brush Creek, the proposed condition as it currently reads would only require that it goes to 20 foot. So not only is this impractical and seems arbitrary to have different roads widths along the same eight mile stretch that the same convoy of cars will be traversing to get to the event center, but there also doesn't seem to be support for that in the land use regulations. So rural roads with limited access are required to have at least 24 foot wide roads.

So for example, in the land use regulations, rural minor roads are supposed to be a minimum of 32 foot wide. Rural collector roads, a minimum of 28 feet wide. Local county roads, a minimum of 24 foot wide. Local county roads through rural subdivisions, also a minimum of 24 feet wide. If significantly more cars begin using these dead end roads on any given day to visit a commercial venue, then it makes sense that these roads would have to be maintained to serve a public and commercial purpose rather than the private use.

Thus, Valley View Drive, Brush Creek Road, and the road that will go through BLM land should will all become commercial roads and should be held to that same standard. Under the land use regulations, even alleys in commercial areas and rural commercial driveways must be at least 24 feet wide. One of the only circumstances in which a 20 foot wide road is permissible is when we're dealing with a private access road that goes through rural residential subdivision that has four or fewer lots. They the and the regulations explicitly states that the reason for that is to make sure that the needs of emergency vehicle access are met. But this isn't the circumstance that we're here discussing today.

In other words, 20 feet is treated as the absolute minimum width necessary for low impact access,

and

not for roads serving a commercial purpose like what we're dealing with and talking about today. If this is the baseline for minimal emergency access, then a wider standard is necessary for a commercial event center. If the CUP is ultimately granted, it's require it should be required to keep and maintain all three of those roads at a minimum of 24 feet. This concern is also compounded by the topography of the area. It's not a flat area. It's not the open terrain that's typical of most of Laramie County. As you've heard today, these roads run through canyons. There are hills. There's curves. There's wildlife to avoid.

And so that further implicates the importance of making sure that these roads are contained at commercial standards. As the executive summary points out, roads and connectivity and minimizing the impacts to view sheds and minimizing impacts to wildlife is of the utmost importance. Miss Bloom would request that you deny the CUP in its entirety because she believes that the proposed use is unsafe and will unreasonably impact her ability to enjoy her property. But more than that, the proposed conditions are arbitrary and inconsistent. If the board is inclined to grant the CUP in light of these serious risks and safety concerns, we would at least ask that it's denied until a full traffic study is complete or that a BLM easement is secured.

And at a bare minimum, we would ask the board to impose additional conditions on the CUP to minimize more impacts to wildlife, minimize the traffic, and to consider the practical limitations of connectivity in this instance, specifically making sure that Valley View Drive, Brush Creek Road, and the road through the BLM land all meet the 20 foot wide threshold. At the end of the day, this application asked the board to treat commercial events center as if it were a low impact rural use, and to treat this network of narrow inconsistent roads as if they were capable of safely supporting that use. But we don't believe that the land use regulations allow for that kind of mismatch. This isn't a historic destination with adequate infrastructure. It's just a barn and a canyon served by roads that were never designed and are to handle this level of traffic.

Approving the CUP under these conditions, and without giving full consideration to the road wits and pending authorizations, creates real and foreseeable safety risks, and fundamentally alters the rural character of this community. And for those reasons, miss Bloom respectfully requests that the CUP be denied. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions? K. Thank you. Anyone else?

I'm Paul Frondainst. I live at 700826 Hawthorne here in Cheyenne. I own a the Parcel D in close proximity to this proposed development. I'm

you guys got a heck of a tough job,

just so you know. But I'm I'm a you know, I think as a landowner there, I I can appreciate the folks that are from the city that are talking about that, you know, we should have this. But, you know, the people that own property there, I think, the the the landowners, I'm sorry, should trump that in my humble opinion. I do own a lot that that parcel. I'm not I'm not entirely opposed to it.

However, I do believe that you need to they need to remedy the issue with the gate up there off of Happy Jack in in in a manner that is acceptable to that association and the owners there. The, you know, the history, everybody uses a history of this piece of property. I'm kinda like, I don't know. I'm not in on that one. It was some cobbled together deal in the past, and I don't think it has this historical it's not I don't think it would qualify as a historical monument on the historical register.

But that being said, I think if they if you could remedy that, man, it's a hard deal to deal with this stuff down in the valley there.

You're

you you've got a tough deal there. The, you know and and probably the my biggest concern is, okay. So if they don't meet or don't if they violate this, if they violate the sound or they violate what is my recourse? What do I do as a citizen to go, okay. This happens. What do I get to do? I'm I'm stuck with this.

Someone's trying to actually call us, and then we cite them for violations of their permit multiple times until such point that the citations were unpaid or challenged or rose to the level that we could effectively seek a court injunction to revoke their conditional use permit. That is the ability of us to do that, and it's the ability of property owners, any citizen to make a complaint for a violation of any county ordinance or county regulation, and then that is the process. Okay.

Mister chair, could could I also add that liquor licenses are renewed every year? So every year, they have to come before us to renew liquor licenses. And like we've done with cases in the past, if there's issues that we have with our sheriff's department, things along those lines, we we we don't give the liquor licenses. So that's something else to consider.

Alright. Well, with that, that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Evening, commissioners. My name is Jeff Dirksen. I live at 824 North Table Mountain Loop, which is in Table Mountain Ranches community. You've already heard about the impact or the concern about the impact that traffic in the Table Mountain Ranch community is going to have with this proposed venue. I've heard no attempt to mitigate the impact on the Table Mountain Ranch community other than a comment made that we may not notice any additional traffic, which I find hard to believe when you consider patronage, vendor deliveries, food service vehicles, staff, etcetera, accessing the venue via Coal Creek Road, Valley View Drive and Brush Creek.

I I we've we've talked about, you know, property owners' rights. I understand that. And people have a right to use their property within limits for what they wanna use it for. However, in this case, I question the wisdom of using Crow Creek Road and Valley View Drive to access this venue. And maybe unfortunately, but I think she made a good point.

The young lady here kind of stole my thunder. It's already been mentioned that there are a number of places on Coal Creek Road, Valley View Drive that are narrow and have low visibility curves as well as crest of hills and, in some cases, combinations of the two. And as as I understand it, Laramie County is responsible for those two roads because they're public access roads. Heaven forbid, something bad should happen associated with his venue on one of those two roads, And so he decides that those roads were being used for a purpose that they were not designed for. Hence, the lady before me and what she mentioned about bringing them up to standards, which would include not only road width, but

I would

also expect it to be roadway visibility. So that's my biggest concern, whether or not you decide it's appropriate to mitigate the impact on Table Mountain Ranch. At least, we need to look at the safety factor of using those roads in the high kind of high value high volume type traffic that we're talking about here and the additional traffic that we expect us to see. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Perino.

Good evening. Kathleen Perino, 468 Happy Jack Road. Thank you for giving us your evening so we could all express our concerns. My first concern is just how many businesses they seem to be rolling under this conditional use permit. So we have an event center that does concerts, that does family reunions, but we also have recreational things, horseback riding and mountain biking. And at this meeting, they didn't mention it, but at the last meeting, they also mentioned they're gonna do some rehab. So we have a lot of things being rolled under one conditional use permit. Just wondering how many businesses you can really tuck into one

of

those. So that's just one thought. I would like to express the same as as many others. I'd really like to see the decibel level stay at 50.

I

I feel like now that they're trying to push it up, they're already indicating to us they're gonna be a little louder than they had previously thought. So we would appreciate it if if that's something that we could stick to. I am just gonna point out that even if that road is wide, there are a lot of twists and a lot of turns, and it's very hard to navigate out there at night. I know. I do it. Ended up in the wrong driveway more than once. Sorry, guys. So I I do think that after dark is is gonna be tough for those people. I think there's some significant safety concerns there. And, you know, my last offering is just that this is a tremendous neighborhood impact.

When a business is driving their traffic through somebody's neighborhoods by their houses at night all the time, it's a lot to ask of that neighborhood. You know, it's it's great that the people in the city are here to support this, but they're not the ones that are having their houses driven by this. Even though their house this business doesn't sit in anybody's neighborhood, If you have to drive through a neighborhood to get there, I think we should treat it as if it's a part of the neighborhood. It's it's a lot of impact for these people, and we're all here wondering, you know, where do those neighbors' property rights where are our rights? You know?

Can how do we protect ourselves? I do appreciate you saying that we can turn in complaints as if there are any violations. I don't want to hassle you with those kind of things, but it is reassuring to know that there is some recourse. And I would just like to conclude. I think this is placing an unfair burden on the neighborhoods for just one business. Thank you so much.

Have a

Thank you. Any questions for Katie? Catherine Pirino, sorry. Okay. Anyone else?

Alright. I'm gonna check one more time online.

Mister chairman, it does look like we have one additional online comment.

Okay. I'll go to finish this one up in the room, then we'll go online. Okay.

Thank you. I'm Tom Bogsty. Live out in Table Mountain. 714 High Merritt Road.

Could you pull

your Yes. Sorry.

Mic up, please?

Been out there for thirty five years. And I've been concerned and see that there needs to be some more work done in terms of Table Mountain folks haven't been informed in any meaningful way that their lives were gonna get upset by this new business proposal. And so we're getting lots of reaction. And in the last two association meetings, there was no one raised their hand that they were in favor of this project. So just as they were experiencing trouble with their neighbors and couldn't get a road that's a much more appropriate road to get in there, immediate access almost in comparison to eight miles in on Road 109, that it would be good to figure out how your group that's done so much work can inform local folks so they're not throwing their arms up and being frustrated thinking they're being invaded and have no say, which they have had no say.

So that would be one recommendation is to develop some dialogue with neighbors so that there isn't just continued conflicts. Secondly, I haven't understood where this shuttle will be. Is it going to be driving through Table Mountain or is it more in Brush Creek area? Because that will determine a lot of traffic flow and a lot of potential accidents. Because once in a while, with all the winding roads and blind hills, it's dangerous and we lose somebody from our residence periodically.

And it's a tragedy. And it's going to get far worse if there's lots of traffic coming through, especially with people that may not be fully or they may be a little inebriated with some substance or another, that puts us at risk where we're just innocent, table mountain, peaceful, we're living our lives because we are willing to drive a half an hour to town and back every day to have that quiet, peaceful life. And suddenly, it's being invaded, And so we're getting a lot of negative reaction from that. And I think that can be corrected by getting better information out and some patterns of traffic where people have some more predictability about it. A bigger issue that I have is that I haven't heard much about we have red flag warnings every day anymore almost.

And Brush Creek, if you've been out there, is three and a half feet of grass with lots of dead timber. It's it's like an incubator for, oh, let's create a forest fire here. And that's from their property down to the major road that gets into Brush Creek that is just waiting to burst on fire. And we've seen what happens even in a short grasp place like the Bunkhouse Bar fire a couple years ago, where it ran from near the Bunkhouse bar all the way to Cheyenne, Northwest part of Cheyenne, 10 miles of out of control burning. And once a fire gets started, especially with how dry it is and how windy it is, That canyon, having worked for the forest service and fires, is is just ideal for being able to combust into like a Roman candle, where it's just shooting out flames all over and starting fires not just in the bottom, but up on all the hillsides.

And with winds that are going thirty, forty, 50 miles an hour, it will it will be like we're creating a bomb almost of explosion, a fire that can cover all of Table Mountain and all those houses, all those people's lives are potentially in danger. And I haven't heard anything really being talked about that. And it's the most crucial part because you're not only losing people's lives, homes, and all their belongings, etcetera, but it's also inviting to what we've learned from Northern Colorado is that it costs a homeowner that now, the average one in the edge of the foothills, has to pay $7,500 a year just for fire protection. And it's like, oh, how how many people are gonna be driven out of Table Mountain with no say because of this business enterprise coming in to make some money and do whatever good deeds they wanna do. But it's, like, very insensitive to all the people that are established out there that depend on it being safe, particularly with the fire situation that's so dire right now.

And something needs to be done about the Brush Creek area where it's just funneling a fire into all of Table Mountain ranches, where it puts everybody's life at risk. Because like with the bunkhouse fire, if it gets into Table Mountain, then it's if the winds are really blowing, it's going to go right on across the Shadow Mountain and all those new developments on the north end of town, we could have just a disaster. And that's the most important thing I see in this whole project is waking people up to what was deer and cattle out there not starting fires suddenly are going to be people. And we know what people do. They have lots of different access to making fires.

And I'm glad to hear they're going to really patrol that seriously, it sounds like. But that's really hard to control it really seriously, where it only takes one spark. And we've got our bonfire and our and our Roman candle shooting out across the hills then onto the prairies. So those would be major concerns I would have that are unresolved still. A final thing I was wondering is, and you can maybe help with this, is me understanding how much the county taxpayer money can go into supporting private business to try to be successful.

And so that's a different question. But concern for getting along with these folks if they're going to be moving in and being able to have dialogue going that's more productive between all of Table Mountain ranches, where several 100 people are unknowingly, at this time, risking their lives living there if a fire does start.

Okay.

So thank you. Any questions, I'm glad to take that.

I mean, I mean, I can tell you that Laramie County doesn't actively participate with any business in terms of public support, public dollars. Like I've mentioned a couple of times, road infrastructure upgrades when they're needed based upon traffic studies and things like that or the responsibility of the developer. So there's not tax dollars that go to support necessarily. I'm a private enterprise.

Yes. Well, I'm glad to hear that. But I am concerned about once it's locked in, it seems like it's locked in indefinitely of paying for sheriff, ambulance, fire protection, all the different services that So

they pay prop they pay the property taxes that like everybody else that pays for those items is what I would I would tell you.

So so you guys will take care of that. Okay. Anything else? Any recommendations on what to do about the fire situation? Because that is a real serious concern. I would think for them too. Yep. Even though they're above it, and the fire's gonna move on down through Table Mountain and across towards Cheyenne.

I'm sure as we begin to work the permit and the whole process here when the public hearing's done, hopefully, we'll be able to maybe address some of those concerns of yours.

Okay. So Do you have an idea of when that would be?

Here in the next whenever everybody's done. So when everybody gets their chance.

Okay. What? Well,

no. I just said dress items. So Oh. Okay. Thank you, sir. Alright. Online real quick.