Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty. Welcome to the September 1st Laramie County Board of Commissioners meeting. I'd ask if you have a cell phone that you turn it to silent. And if you're going to speak during a public hearing portion, if you'd come forward and state your name and address for the record, it would be appreciated. With that, first item, please.

Item one, consideration of the minutes of proceedings for August 3, 2026.

Public hearing. Second.

Motion to second any discussion on the minutes. Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Malm? Aye. Next item. Item 2, consideration of minutes of proceedings for August 4, 2026.

Motion to approve.

Second. Motion to second any discussion? Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead?

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Items 3 through 22 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. Commissioners? Mr. Chair, I move to approve consent agenda items 3 to 22.

Second.

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

Aye.

Mr. Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanson, sir? Aye. Chairman Maumau? Aye.

Dale, are both the microphones on over there by you? They're just lying. Okay. Next item, please.

Item 23, consideration of warrants in the amount of $6,834,408.57 for August 2026. Commissioner Thompson.

Mr. Chair, I've got a conflict on the warrants, so I'll recuse myself.

All right. Commissioner Thompson has recused himself. Commissioners?

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion on warrants. Discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath?

Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Zonda, sir? Aye. Chairman Malm? Aye. Next item, please. Item 24, consideration of the adoption of the Laramie County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Mr. Butler. Chairman Malm, Commissioners, Matt Butler, Laramie County Fire Warden. Before you today is the adoption of a long-awaited community wildfire protection plan. We have been in this process for over four years now between the different grant applications and being denied and then reapplying and getting accepted. So I'm very pleased to come before you with the final plan for Laramie County's community wildfire protection plan. I've got a short five-slide presentation with about a two-minute overview of the website that I'd like to provide, if that's okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Perfect. So the planning process for a community wildfire protection plan was, again, from start to finish, from awarding the contract to Bintel Inc., was about a year-long process with this. Started off with a kickoff meeting, planning meetings, stakeholder meetings, and community meetings throughout the entire last year. We went out for... Public comment via surveys. We had the public meetings, a couple different public meetings, one out in the western portion of the county and one at Archer. Very well attended on both. Stakeholder meetings we had throughout the whole time. These were subject matter experts from, make up from fire districts, state forestry, our grants department, emergency management, myself. Commissioners were involved. And then the planning team is really kind of what drives this plan home. So I first and foremost want to give a huge thank to everyone that participated in this plan with me and in conjunction with me to create it and make it what it is. I want to give a special shout out to Sandra Bay, our grants manager. She spent countless times with me early in the process going through this application for this grant that we ultimately received. So without her, I don't think I could be up here presenting this. So thank you very much, Sandra. Very much appreciated. Next slide. So it consists of five different parts. There's the base plan that kind of gives the who, what, why, when, and how. What a community wildfire or CWPP is. Explains a little bit of the demographics of Laramie County and what our makeup is. Goes into the different appendixes. Community ignitability, which is more or less the fire behavior of what Laramie County can see. The home ignition zone recommendations. If you're a community member watching online or if you're in the audience, this is probably the section that you want to pay attention to the most. This is how you can protect your home from wildfires and create that defensible space. Appendix C is probably the part that if you're reading this big long pen, you want to skip. This is how they collected all of their information, what type of methodology G they use, the surveys, the different GIS layers. So on and so forth. And then the last one, Appendix D, is truly the bring it home appendix, which is the homeowner recommendation. So Appendix B is what you can do around your house to protect your individual home. Appendix D is kind of the countywide recommendations, which I'll kind of go over view once we get to the live map. Next slide. This is just a map of the field work that Bintel, myself, and all the county fire chiefs did. So all the blue lines represent where we traveled. This was over about six to seven days worth of traveling the county, taking pictures, talking to the local fire chiefs in these communities about where their hazard areas are. That was what the stakeholders really brought to the table was being able to talk to the contractor with where their stay awake at night areas are in the community. Those are the areas that we really wanted to make sure that we hit when we traveled around the county looking at what a community could do. So this is just a map depicting the different lanes of travel that we took throughout the county over those six or seven days. Next slide. These are the different communities studied based off the title of the plan, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. This doesn't cover every square inch of Laramie County, but we tried to get a good representation of all the communities here in Laramie County and what their makeups. On this map, there are different ratings. So red is kind of that extreme fire danger level, and that could be based off of topography. It could be based off the vegetation. It could be based off of distance to water resources, where then as we get down to the blue, those are the lower hazard areas or the lower communities for fire risk and anywhere in between. Next slide. We did identify a couple areas of special interest in these areas that are just kind of called out in the plan that kind of stand alone and may need some special management options. One being Kirk Gowdy State Park, another one being F.E. Warren Air Force Base, and then the Archer Fair Complex out east here is another one of the special areas we identified. Next slide. So this is the busy slide. This is the recommended treatments for the different communities and what they are. I purposely left it busy up here because you can see that there's a lot of them. There's over 19 different communities surveyed with over 40 different individual recommendations across those different communities. And a lot of them are going to be very similar across communities because the makeup of Laramie County is very similar. For 90 90% of the county, we're a grassland community, so a lot of the recommendations will be the same. But on the eastern and western sides, we do have those forested areas. So I left it busy so that we can go to the next one. And this is the public-facing website. So it's cwpp.us. Again, if you're listening online or here in the audience, I would highly recommend going to this website because this is where you'll be able to dial in to your neck of the woods and see what we did. So if Justin can click on the link there. It should work. So it brings you to Bintel's landing page. If we zoom into Laramie County, you can click on our little icon, our county seal there. Go to the map section or the home section, doesn't really matter, but we'll go to the maps because I wanted to go to the recommended treatments. Third row down, second one in is the recommended treatments. There's a whole bunch of layers on the left-hand side that you can turn on or off. You can turn off the areas of interest. You can turn off the community boundaries. You can find out where the nearest fire station is to you. All sorts of different layers. But the one we're really interested in this one is those recommended treatments. So if you could zoom in to kind of North I-25 area just off of Horse Creek Road, Justin, that'd be great. So you can kind of see the different recommended treatments here. We've got a bunch of mow lines. One of the things that came up during the study was that a lot of our fires that they have highlighted in this plan generally move from west to east because of our winds, right? So a lot of our mow lines that are recommended here on the north-south corridors as well as to the bottom of the screen there, the defensible space linkage. Protecting communities, that community just to the bottom corner or the bottom side of the page was a perfect example of how good defensible space protects homes. That area was impacted by the Happy Jack fire a number of years ago. They're highlighting that a link defensible space for some of these neighborhoods, can really do wonders for that community. If you click on any one of the recommendations, it'll give you a breakdown. If you click on just any one of those, Justin, it'll give you a breakdown of what that actual recommendation is. If it just says linked defensible space and you're not sure what that means, you can click on it and it'll give a definition or an example or a breakdown of what it is they mean by linked defensible space. And those are all throughout. We have water locations, proposed water locations. We have mow lines, link defensible space. There is roadside treatments in the plan. So it really is that community plan that I'm hoping that our community at large can use and help better protect the community. I appreciate the time to give you the 30,000 foot view of what the CWPP is. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions for Matt?

I just appreciate all the work that you've done on this and everybody else who was involved. So thank you.

Thank you. All right. Do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second. Motion to second. Any further discussion? Discussion? OK.

Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath?

Aye.

Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swan, is there? Aye. Chairman Malm?

Aye. Next item, please. Thank you, Matt.

Item 25, consideration of an agreement between Laramie County, Wyoming and Garland DBS Incorporated in an amount of $70,140 to provide repairs to the roof of the event center, 3801 Archer Parkway.

All right. I don't see Jason in the room. So I believe these are two, this is a repair to the cap on the roof of the event center at Archer that was causing some leaking all throughout fair and other times when we're fortunate enough to get rain. So, commissioners? Mr. Chair, move to approve.

Second.

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

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Winester? Aye. Chairman Mullen?

Aye. Next item, please.

Consideration of a resolution reappointing Mark T. Voss as the Laramie County Attorney in accordance with Wyoming State Statute 18.3.301A, effective September 1, 2026.

Mr. Voss, do you want to bring your kids in and sack clothes and...

Unfortunately, they successfully grown up and moved away so I can no longer present them as pathetic orphans. Okay. Or soon to be. I would like to say that this is the most interesting and challenging job I've ever had. I love every minute of it. Even the frustrating parts, I think that people who. have a little opinion of government have not experienced what it's like inside one the people that go to work every day and keep stuff running and you don't know about it it's an honor to represent them and this entity and the elected officials

Thank you, Mr. Voss. Commissioners? Mr. Chair, move to approve. Second. Motion to second discussion. Mr.

Chair. Commissioner Thompson. Just, Mark, thanks. It's a pleasure to work with you. I don't know that I've ever met anybody as intelligent as you, and certainly your knowledge of the law is quite impressive, and it's been a pleasure to work with you, so I appreciate you still wanting to do it.

Anyone else? Mr. Chair, I've never met anybody as loquacious as you in written or verbal form. And my knowledge of early English literature and the Viking Empire, because of you, I've learned a lot.

I never knew that a road issue could find its roots in maritime law, but Mark Voss will tell you that there's actually a way that you can see that and trace that line directly. So with that, roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swandon, sir? Aye. Chairman Malm? Aye. Next item, please. Item 27, consideration of a resolution appointing a member to represent Laramie County on the Board of Wyoming Association of Risk Management, expiring June 30, 2029. Gavin?

Thank you, Commissioners. Gavin Lobmeier, Risk Manager for Laramie County. This is just to officiate the appointment to the Board so that I may represent Laramie County in our insurance pool.

Yep. Any questions for Gavin? Mr. Chair, move to appoint Gavin Lobmeier.

Second.

Motion to second. Discussion by the Commission? Discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath?

Aye.

Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Malm? Aye. Next item, please. Thanks, Gavin. Item 28, public hearing to solicit input and comments on the U.S. Department of Justice 2026 Justice Assistance Grant application to benefit Laramie County, Wyoming, and the City of Cheyenne, not to exceed $66,012, and this is a non-action item.

All right, this is a public hearing. If you'd like to come forward and speak on this grant opportunity that Laramie County is putting in for through the Department of Justice. Anybody online?

No hands raised at this time.

Public hearing one more time online, one more time in the room. Anybody? Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners? Next item, sorry. No action.

Item 29, public hearing regarding the correction of the 2026 mail levies pursuant to Wyoming Statute 3913102GC3IJ. Ms. Nath.

Commissioners, Cherie Snath, Chief Deputy Assessor for Laramie County. The reason we're here today is because we had the incorrect information for the mill levy requested from the Weed and Pest Board. So originally we thought it was five mills. It turns out it's seven mills, so we needed to correct that, and we had to increase the mills on all tax districts by 0.2 mills.

That's it. Okay. This is a public hearing. If you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward. Anybody online?

There are no comments at this time.

One more time in the room. Public hearing. Anybody? Really exciting stuff. One more time. Everybody's saving their ammo. All right. Public hearing having met its purpose. The public hearing is closed. Commissioners? Mr.

Chair, I 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 Malm. Aye. Next item, please. Item 30, public hearing regarding a major subdivision permit and plat for R&R Heights located in a portion of land situated in the west half of Section 2, Township 14 North, Range 68 West of the 6 p.m. Laramie County, Wyoming.

Mr. Arnold.

mr chairman members of the board justin arnold laramie county planning and development presenting on behalf of the project planner sunny m porsche palm land planning llc on behalf of landowner gene wheeler revocable trust has submitted an application for a major subdivision permitting plat for the above location the purpose of the application is to subdivide 319.71 acre lot into 52 single-family residential lots the subject property is located in the land use zone district and is currently used for agricultural purposes The surrounding area is residential to the west, agricultural vacant land to the east and south, commercial and detached residential uses. The property is located at the intersection of Horse Creek Road or State Highway 211 and County Road 215. Given the difficulty of this intersection and access to the proposed subdivision, access will be reconfigured at the intersection to grant access from Road 215 and another access point off of Road 116. No direct access will be from Horse Creek Road. With that, we do have Casey Palmer with Palmer Land Planning here to answer any questions you may have related to the project.

Mr. Palmer. Good afternoon, Chairman, Commissioners, Casey Palmer, Palmer Land Planning agent for the owners. So I think staff covered it pretty well. This is a 52-lot subdivision of approximately 300 acres. The floodplain crossings are in the process of being engineered now. The only thing I would call your attention to that's not in the staff report is we had sent you a letter regarding the public safety fees for this project, so there's $52,000 due. And following submittal, the fire authority had reached out to us asking if we could make improvements to the cistern access on Road 117. And so we have a contractor's verified estimate for that. It's about $48,000 of the $52,000 that's due in public safety fees, and we'd just like to apply those fees to that construction. The remainder of the balance will be paid in cash. And outside of that, I don't have anything else to add unless you have any questions for me.

Any questions for Casey? No. Questions? Okay. Thank you, Casey. Full report, please.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning. The Laramie County Comprehensive Plan identifies the area as rural ag interface. According to the adopted Amec memo dated January 31st of 2014, the property lies within zone two of the study area, which requires a minimum of 5.25 acres gross for sufficient groundwater recharge from a pumping well. A subdivision of more than 5 lots requires its submittal of the Chapter 23 study to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. A Chapter 23 application will be submitted and a letter of non-adverse recommendation will be required prior to plat recordation. Water and sanitary sewers will be provided by individual well and septic tanks. The Environmental and Services Impact Report provides a general outline of the project and its impact on schools, stormwater runoff, and county services. Portions of these parcels lie within the FEMA 100-year floodplain. The land analysis map provides information regarding the buildable area of the proposed subdivision for each lot. At the time of this report, agency reviewer comments are still being addressed regarding backup and vehicular traffic around mailbox turnouts and corrections to prevent this from happening. Staff met with the applicant and pertinent agencies on August 24th, 2026 to correct these traffic concerns on the plat with those corrections are a condition of this report. Public notice was provided with no public comments received. The planning commission met on August 13th, 2026 on this matter and approved the project with a vote of three to zero. Section 23102, subsection A of the LCLUR requires that Laramie County Planning Commission find that the proposed use is permitted and in conformance with all applicable development standards. Staff finds this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. and based upon that evidence staff finds the day this application meets the criteria for a major subdivision per permit and plat pursuant to section four five one hundred of the twenty twenty five lcl you are in b this application is in conformance with section two four one oh four of the twenty twenty five lcl you are governing the land use zone district and that the board may approve the major subdivision permitting plat for r r heights subdivision with the following conditions being one All agency comments must be addressed and or corrected prior to recordation. Two, right-of-way alignment and mailbox location corrections must be resolved prior to recordation. And three, a Chapter 23 non-adverse action letter must be received from the DEQ prior to recordation. And with that, I stand for any questions from the body.

Any questions for Mr. Arnold? No questions? All right. This is a public hearing. If you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward. Is there anybody online?

There are no comments online at this time.

All right, one more time in the room. Public hearing, anyone want to come forward and speak on this item? Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed.

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the major subdivision permanent plat for R&R Heights located in a portion of land situated in the west half of section two, township 14 north, range 67 west of the 6 PM Laramie County, Wyoming. And recommend adoptions of the findings of facts A and B of the staff report with the following conditions. Condition one, all agency comments must be addressed and or corrected prior to recordation. Condition two, right-of-way alignment and mailbox location corrections must be resolved prior to recordation. And condition number three, a Chapter 23 non-adverse action letter must be received from DEQ prior to recordation.

Second. Motion to second. Discussion by the Commission. Discussion? Discussion? Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanitzer? Aye. Chairman Maum? Aye. Next item, please. Item 31, public hearing regarding a zone change from LU land use to CB community business zone district located at lot 20, block 7, All-America subdivision, second filing, Laramie County, Wyoming.

Mr. Arnold. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning and Development, presenting on behalf of the project planner, Kate Cundall. Style Surveying Services, LLC, on behalf of Jacob Johnson, has applied for approval of a zone change for lot 20, block 7, All-America Subdivision, second filing from Land Use Zone District Community Business. The purpose of the application is to change the zoning of the subject parcel to match the zoning of the owner's adjacent lot to the west. The adjoining lot is currently used for storage. Any commercial development of the subject parcel will require a commercial site plan in future actions. Pertinent regulations include section 21103 and 24105 of the LCLUR. And with that, we have Shane Hanson with Style Surveying on behalf of the applicant to answer any questions you might have.

Mr. Hanson. Good afternoon. Shane Anson, Stiles Surveying Services. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the zone change.

Any questions for Shane? Questions? Okay. Thank you, sir. Full staff report, please.

mr chairman members of the board justin arnold laramie county planning the subject property is currently assessed as residential vacant land and is bordered by a mixture of residential and commercial properties the laramie county comprehensive plan identifies the area as urban rural interface these areas may have higher level of vehicular access greater overall level of community service and plans cheyenne designates the area as rural residential Individual well and septic systems provide water and sanitary services to the area. Agency reviews have been addressed. Public notice was provided in accordance with section 13104. Notices were sent to 23 surrounding property owners within 500 feet with no comments received. Section 21103 subsection E of the LCLUR states that prior to making A recommendation to the commissioners about any zoning map amendment. The planning commission is required to find that one, the zone change request supports and upholds the safety and health of the community. And that it endorses the general welfare of the inhabitants of Laramie County. And that one of the following two was also determined, excuse me, to be declared to be a finding. the existing zoning classification of the land does not fit the overall development pattern of the area or b there have been changes in physical economic and social nature within the area which have prompted the request and which enable the zone change to better meet community needs Criteria I and B are met by the type of action proposed and by meeting all of planning's application criteria. The Laramie County Planning Commission met on August 13th, 2026 and recommended approval by a vote of three to zero. And based on the evidence provided and as included in the Johnson's own change file, staff states that A, This application does meet the criteria for a zone map amendment pursuant to section 21103 of the 2025 LCLUR. And B, the proposed change in zone district is in conformance with the requirements of section 24105 of the LCLUR. And that the Board of Commissioners may approve the Johnson zone change from land use to community business for lot 20, block 7, All-America subdivision, second filing Laramie County with no conditions. And with that, I stand for any questions.

Any questions for Justin at this time? Questions? Okay, this is a public hearing. If you'd like to speak on this item, please come forward. Anybody online?

There are no comments online at this time.

All right. This is a public hearing again on the zone change. If you'd like to come forward and speak one more time. Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed.

Commissioners? Mr. Chair, I move to approve the change in zone district for lot 20, block 7, all-American subdivision, second filing from land use to community business, and adopt the findings of fact of A and B of the staff report with no conditions.

Second. Motion and a second. Discussion by the commission? Discussion?

Discussion? Discussion? Roll call, please. Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Allingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Sollinser? Aye. Chairman Maum?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 32, public hearing regarding a zone change from LU land use to PUD plan unit development zone district located in portions of Sections 1, 2, 3, and 11, Township 12 North, Range 67 West, and portions of Section 35, Township 13 North, Range 67 West, Laramie County, Wyoming.

Mr. Arnold.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning. I'm presenting on behalf of project planner Kate Cundall. Palma Land Planning LLC on behalf of Vantage Data Centers has submitted an application for approval of a zone change for project Latigo from land use zone district to planned unit development zone district. The zone change will establish a framework for the development of a data center campus and supporting infrastructure. An on-site workforce accommodation component to house construction phase personnel is included. The PUD comprises approximately 1,835 acres and is located south of State Highway 223, also known as Terry Ranch Road. The subject property is currently assessed as agricultural. The surrounding area consists of a mixture of rangeland and commercial uses. The PUD district is intended for industrial uses requiring buffering, secure operations, and associated accessory uses that cannot readily fit into general commercial or mixed-use districts. Permanent regulations include Section 21103 and 24111 of the Laramie County Land Use Regulations. And with that, we do have the applicant here to answer any questions you may have.

Mr. Palma. Good afternoon, commissioners. Casey Palma, Palma Land Planning, agent for the applicant. So what you have before you today is a zoning framework on about 1,800 acres to establish a data center and supporting infrastructure, mechanical cooling plants. Internal cooling is provided by closed loop system. Phase 1 includes staging areas, access, circulation routes, and on-site power production in Section 11. The PUD does allow for on-site workforce housing, but no on-site residentials proposed at this time. We are coordinating with the adjacent landowner, primarily the state of Wyoming, about mutual access and cross-access, and then the best way to coordinate complementary land uses and provide appropriate buffering and that type of thing. I do have with me today a couple of representatives from Vantage. Matt Clark, Senior Government Affairs Manager, and Tim Denenberg with Market Development. So I'd like to just turn it over to them. I think they have a brief slideshow that they've given to staff and just want to kind of run through a little bit of an introduction for you.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. Thank you so much. So we'll be brief in just kind of our background of the company and the project overall and then answer any questions that you may have before we move forward. So next slide. Vantage Data Centers, as it's mentioned on the slide, founded in 2010. Our headquarters is in Denver, Colorado. We have multiple data center sites throughout the country, if not worldwide. We deliver our data centers in a proven, flexible manner that meets many customer needs. We serve many of the world's leading technology partners and leaders. And we, most of all, are committed to be a long-term partner in any community in which we build, making sure that we engage with the community in a way that limits the impact and brings the maximum return on investment. Next slide. As you can see, the project we anticipate will bring up to 2,000 jobs to the local community with an investment of up to $20 billion when it's completed. We intend to focus most of our community engagement around workforce development and local engagements. How can we help the community? What are the things that they need? We also are firmly invested in conservation and a solid use of natural resources. We want to make sure that we leave the land as well as we found it. Next slide. So just a brief overview of our community engagement approach. Like we mentioned, we believe that we need to go into the community and talk to them and listen to their needs and concerns as we build and we go. I mentioned before that we are focused on being good stewards of the resources in which we use, including both water and natural gas in which we use to power it. We've already had our first open house to talk to the community about the timeline of the project, what we're doing, how we're looking to invest. We want to make sure that some of the concerns that we heard around lighting and noise, we meet not only the county standards, but ensure that those are not a problem for the surrounding community. While we missed last night's meeting in person, we did attend online to the best of our ability, and we will be here quarterly to continue to answer any other questions. We've set up a couple of displays outside that kind of give an overview of what we've talked about today, and we're happy to meet with anyone that would like to further discuss it without taking up any additional time. So I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, and he'll give an overview of the project and the timeline, and then we're happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Tim Denneberg. I'm a director of market development for Vantage. If you would kindly go to the next slide. So again, not to repeat the report from staff, but the project location is at the very southern end of the county, sits squarely within Laramie County, not in the city of Cheyenne. We're hopeful that the location is optimally chosen adjacent to uses that are compatible and away from kind of some of the other parts of the county and the city that are not really supportive of this. Again, it's just east of I-25, south of Terry Ranch Road, and west of 85. If you go to the next one. So, again, just a quick overview on the PUD itself. It covers just over three sections. It would enable the development and the investment in data center infrastructure, which includes the buildings. There's also administrative office component. As mentioned by Casey and Matt, there would be on-site power generation. With that, we intend to use Wyoming gas, keeping both the resources and the investment within the state there. And then the closed-loop chiller system essentially uses no water during cooling operations. There's an initial fill-up, but after that, the water just cycles. And other than restrooms, for the employees that will be working there, water use is very low. And I think as Matt has mentioned, Vantage plans to invest back into the local water resources so that we're being a net positive on that front. And then there is also plans for onsite workforce housing, knowing that it will require a lot of people, which brings a lot of good jobs, but need a place for those people to live while they're building it. And we hope to try and mitigate those impacts that bring in some of those onsite. And then lastly, things like traffic, light, air quality, noise, We're taking very seriously and intentionally into our planning and really appreciate the dialogue and the feedback that we've gotten from the community on all those items. And both as part of our PUD and our future site plan and other submissions, look forward to incorporating plans to make all those impacts as mitigated as possible. And again, making this as positive a project for the county and the community as it can be. And the last one I think we've got on here, just to touch base on timeline. So we're pretty early in the process here, almost towards the end of 2026. This is really one of the first steps for us on the entitlements and the permitting for the project. And with that, again, really looking forward to continuing the dialogue with the community want to be transparent with our plans and open about how this can be beneficial and how we can work together to make this really local to Laramie County. With that, we hope to start construction next year, which would go about until 2030, and from there the operations phase would start. That concludes our quick overview. Thank you all for the time, and again, we've got other members of our team here happy to answer any questions now or after the meeting as well.

Thank you. Any questions for the applicant? Commissioner Thompson. Mr. Chair, thank you. Source of the water?

The water will be sourced from on-site. We're currently doing testing to confirm that we can reach the Lance Aquifer, so that is the intended plan. And additional information will be provided in the site plan for that as well.

Fair enough. And then this comment, for every 100 gallons of water used, 110 gallons will be restored. What does that mean?

So essentially, Vantage plans to invest in projects that will restore water into the existing aquifers, things such as floodplain and wetland restoration that essentially allow water that's not currently being restored to get restored. So trying to basically put more in than we're taking out.

Mr. Chair, through you, in those projects, will they be site-specific?

They will be, I would say, local specific. So not on the site itself, but within Laramie County area. Other examples might be helping invest in agriculture improvements, irrigation ways to make those more efficient. So ultimately benefiting the county, not just on the site.

Mr. Chair, one more question. So how do we monitor that? I mean, how do we keep track of that? I mean, as a county commissioner, as a member of the public, how do I see those activities and see those results?

That's something we can follow up with more information on. I don't have a great answer for you right now, but I think it's something that we're more than planning and excited to help be transparent and report as much as we can on it.

Any other questions? Thank you guys. Mr. Arnold, full report.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning. The Laramie County Comprehensive Plan designates this area as gateway corridor in ag and range land. All access to Project Latigo is intended to be directly from Terry Ranch Road, either via I-25 or State Highway 85. Access to public roadways will be constructed to YDOT standards. Water service will be provided via on-site wells. Agency reviews have been completed with all comments addressed. Separate responses from the application were sent for comments from WAPA as well as the Wyoming Game and Fish. Public notice was provided in accordance with Section 13104. Notices were sent to 19 surrounding property owners within 500 feet of the subject property. One public comment regarding access to the project was received. Applicant responded that the project will not be using the accesses in question to the north. In that comment, the applicant response is attached to this report. Section 21103 subsection E states that prior to making a recommendation to the county commissioners about any zoning map amendment, the planning commission is required to find that one, the zone change request supports and upholds The safety and health of the community and that it endorses general welfare of the inhabitants of the Laramie County and that one of the following two was also determined and declared to be a finding. A, the existing zoning classification of the land does not fit the overall development pattern of the area. B, there have been changes of a physical, economic, or social nature within the area which have prompted the request and which enable the zone change to better meet community needs. All three criteria are met by the type of action proposed and by meeting planning's application criteria. The planning commission met on August 13th, 2026 and recommended approval by a vote of three to zero. And based on evidence provided and as included in Project Latigo file, staff finds that A, this application does meet the criteria for a zone map amendment pursuant to Section 21103 of the LCLUR, and B, the proposed change in zone district is in conformance with the requirements of Section 24111 of the LCLUR, and that the Board of County Commissioners may approve Project Latigo zone change from the land use to planned unit development with no conditions. I would also note, before you start your discussion, that should it be approved, there would still be a commercial site plan and associated public notice and public hearings that would be required before approval, final approval of any project. With that, I stand for any questions.

Thank you. Any questions for Justin? Any questions? Okay. Public hearing online first.

There are no comments online at this time.

Public hearing in the room, anyone want to speak on this item? One more time for a public hearing? One more time online?

There are no comments online at this time.

Okay, public hearing has met its purpose. The public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Mr. Chair, I move to approve the project Latigo zone change from land use to plan unit development located in portions of section 1, 2, 3, and 11, township 12 north, range 67 west, and section 13, township 13 north, range 67 west, Laramie County, Wyoming, and adopt the findings of facts A and B of the staff report with no conditions.

Second. Motion to second. Discussion by the commission. Discussion? Discussion? I would just say I appreciate the applicant's commitment to our community through their efforts to revitalize waterways and try and give as much as we take. When we talk about these large industrial projects or Laramie County in general, when we meet with folks, we tell them Wyoming and Laramie County are open for business, but you have to be willing to enter into a Wyoming relationship. And I think that through our discussions and through this presentation from Vantage, we've seen that at this point they're committed to doing and upholding those things. I think we've long looked as a community for industry that not only used Wyoming resources to produce and power the nation, but produced power that was utilized right here in Laramie County. And so I'm excited about what this project potentially brings and excited for the partnership. So I appreciate you. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Swanson? Aye. Chairman Momin?

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 33, public hearing regarding invocation of Track 2 Walden Ranch Estate, second filing, located in a portion of Section 10, Township 13 North, Range 63 West, and approve of a small subdivision permit and plat for Walden Hacienda, Laramie County, Wyoming.

Mr. Arnold. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning, presenting on behalf of Project Planner Kate Cundall. Style Surveying Services, on behalf of J.J. Walden, has submitted a small subdivision permit and plat application for Walden Hacienda, located at Tract 2, Walden Ranch Estate, 2nd 5 Wing, Laramie County, Wyoming. The subject property is located at 4503 Road 208, Carpenter, Wyoming. The subdivision reconfigures the existing 27.5 acre parcel into four tracks. The average track size is 6.88 acres. The subject property is currently assessed as residential and located in the land use zone district. The surrounding areas consist of farmland and residential uses. Private wells and septic systems provide water and sanitary service to the area. The existing residents will be located on track two. And with that, we do have Shane Hansen here, agent for the applicant, to answer any questions you might have.

Mr. Hansen.

Good afternoon. Shane Hansen, Stiles Surveying Services. A couple items we need to discuss regarding this project. One of them was a road name change that was requested. Actually, a road name that was requested. J.J. Walton put in an application two and a half, three years ago to name that road. The neighbors to the south wouldn't sign it because they didn't want to change their address. In this venue, you get to approve it. We have no problem with naming the road at all. So that's one of the conditions that's on here that we'll take care of. The other condition is they asked for an additional 40-foot right-of-way. There's currently a 40-foot right-of-way on the section to the west. It's an easement dedicated to public use. The initial submittal, we said we dedicated a 20-foot easement to public use for a 60-foot wide right-of-way through there. Currently, there's only three tracks that use that 60-foot wide right-of-way. We'll track to the south. Mr. Walden's track and the track to the north. So there's 40 foot there currently. That's been there for decades. People further to the south go south to 208. We're adding three tracks to create a family compound for Mr. Walden and his family. We're asking for relief from that 40 feet. If we dedicate 40 feet, it puts his pipe collar fence in the right of way, including all his utilities, his propane tank. And et cetera, et cetera. So we'll be asking for his relief from that 40 feet requirement down to the 20 feet, which is right against his fence. He still has to upgrade the road. We believe 60 feet is adequate through there since there's only going to be seven tracks that use it total. Currently, there are spots in the county that serve four to six tracks with 40 foot wide access. So we're adding 20 foot wide to it. Also dedicated against public use as an easement. Those are the two items that were put on this as our conditions, and these are our solutions. We'd like to be able to go a 60-foot right-of-way through there. It seems to be very viable, and we will name the road.

Okay. Any questions? Not at this time, Shane.

Mr. Chairman, through you, Mr. Hanson, is there still some contention about the road name change for the neighbors to the south? You said originally they did not sign off. Are they still?

So we had to go to all the neighbors on the south. The neighbor nearest on the south, Mr. Walden's track, Agreed to it. The neighbors further to the south, because he's addressed off of 215, didn't want to change his address. He's actually access is from 208, so I'm not quite sure why he's addressed off of 215, but that's part of 215. I think it's 215. Anyway, that's what the issue is, is they didn't want to change their address. Road 218, 207 to the south, 208 to the north, sorry. The ones to the south, 207, they actually come from, that's how their access is, and their access is only 40 feet wide going up to Mr. Whelan's property. The person directly to the south, he agreed to it, he signed off on it, but the other two would not. So at that point in time, that killed it, we couldn't do it. With you folks being the Board of County Commissioners, and we can simply name it, and if you approve it, then it's done. And they don't have a choice but, unfortunately, to readdress their houses. Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Shane. Full 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. Public notice was provided in accordance with section 13104. Public notice was sent to six surrounding property owners within 500 feet with no written comments received. Outstanding agency comments concern the access easement as discussed of 40 feet shown on the proposed plat. there are improvements within this widened easement that have been in place for several years and complied with the access easement in place at the time of construction with the widened easement the engineer is asking that these improvements be removed since they now encroach an agreement between the engineer and applicant has not been reached as to the removal of these improvements from the new easement they are asking the commissioners to resolve this matter and if the applicant is required to name the easement Based on evidence provided and as included in the Walden Hacienda file, staff states that A, this application meets the criteria for a small subdivision permitting plat pursuant to section 45100 Romanette I. And B, this application is in conformance with section 41102 governing the subdivision permitting plat vacation. And C, this application is in conformance with section 24104 governing the land use zone district. and that the Board of County Commissioners may approve the vacation of Track 2 Walden Ranch Estates second filing and approve the small subdivision permit and plat for Walden Hacienda and adopt the findings of Fact A, B, and C of the staff report with two conditions. One, the vacation of Track 2 Walden Ranch Estates second filing will become effective upon recordation of the Walden Hacienda subdivision. And two, all agency review comments must be addressed prior to plat recordation. And with that, I stand for any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Arnold?

One of you at any time. So, Mr. Chair, so the question about the name change, I'm not seeing that in our conditions. I'm not seeing that in the notes either.

And also the variance.

And the variance.

Mr. Chairman, Commissioner Thompson, that will have to be ad hoc at the end of the conditions to require a road name change in compliance with the road naming standards in the LCLUR and effectively approve the 60-foot right-of-way rather than the full 80-foot. in that section and and i might ask for some clarification through you mr chairman to the applicant are we we're only doing that for the section where the existing infrastructure is or for the entirety of the the the right-of-way mr hansen mr chair through you the 20 feet that would be we would be dedicating to the public use is for the entire length of walton hacienda Mr. Chairman, through you, Commissioner Thompson, so effectively approving a 60-foot right-of-way to construct a rural residential roadway and then to approving a name change in compliance with the land use regulations. Effectively, if there's any parties that aren't agreeable to the name change, that's where the board comes into play. Ideally, from a planning standpoint, we like to have these internal roadways named simply because of emergency response. You noted on the map previously shown that we have a lot of houses that are addressed from Road 208 that are probably a half a mile away from the actual roadway themselves. Adding additional roadway to the network and trying to clarify that is good from an emergency response standpoint. Again, we don't have all buy-in from all parties, so it would require an override from the body.

Commissioner Thompson. Mr. Chair, what's the proposed name of the road?

Mr. Chair, is it Walden Ranch Road? Mr. Chair, also through you, it hasn't been placed on the plat yet because we didn't know we needed to name it until the comments came back. And now the comments have come back. We explained that we had tried to name it previously and that it had been denied, not denied, but we couldn't get the neighbors to sign off. So we are more than willing to name the road. As long as the commissioners approve it, it'll be done.

Any other questions for Shane or Justin?

Mr. Chair, I do have a question. This would be for Justin. We do have the Walden Ranch Estates out on 138. Is that going to conflict with the road naming there, and will it be confusing to our first responders?

Mr. Chairman, through you, Commissioner Heath, I was just going to look at that. So when I mentioned that we wanted it to be in compliance with the LCLUR, we definitely want it to be a unique identifier. And I'm not sure. We would just verify through this process that it's a unique road name. I'm not seeing that we have a bonafide road name, but we don't want it to get confused for emergency response services.

Follow-up? I bring that to your attention because there is a Somerset Drive in Dakota Crossing and a Somerset Drive out east of Cheyenne, and invariably the addresses get mixed up.

Thank you, Commissioner Heath. Commissioner Thompson-Zwancer, anything else?

Mr. Chairman, through you, I'd actually like to get Public Works' opinion on the width of the roadway, if they have any comments or concerns with that road width.

Mr. Chairman, through you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Zwancer. This is something that we addressed in our comments with them. The initial plot did show that the right-of-way was narrower. From a Public Works perspective, we always try to enforce the 80-foot right-of-way rule. as outlined in the Laramie County Land Use Regulations. The question that we would raise is, should anything be developed to the west of this road in the future, would an 80-foot right-of-way be required? And if so, would that landowner, who has already dedicated 40 feet on their side, be required to dedicate an additional 20? We believe that this would be up to the Commission ultimately to decide, but we do, from a public works standpoint, enforce the 80-foot right-of-way rule and have requested that the additional 40 feet total be platted with this action. Mr. Hanson?

If I may. The 40 feet on the opposing section is a 40-foot easement. If that land were to be developed, it would have to be dedicated to the public, and a 60-foot right-of-way would be easily doable.

Anyone else? Okay. I think I'm at the public hearing. All right, this is a public hearing. If you'd like to come forward and speak on this item, please do so now. Anybody online?

There are no comments online at this time.

One more time in the room. Public hearing? I'd like to speak on this item. Please come forward. Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Mr. Chairman, following your view of the staff report, I move to approve the vacation of Track 2 Walden Track Estate second filing and approve the small subdivision permanent plat for Walden Hacienda subdivision and adopt the findings of Facts A, B, and C of the staff report with two conditions. Condition 1, the vacation of Track 2 Walden Ranch Estate second filing will become effective upon the recordation of Walden Hacienda subdivision. And condition number 2, all agency review comments must be addressed prior to plat recordation.

Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Mr. Chair. Commissioner Thompson. Move to make an amendment to add condition number three, that the 40-foot requirement in the comments be reduced to 20-foot along the western section of the property.

Okay, does the amendment have a second? Second. We have a second on the amendment. So we're looking to amend the motion to reduce the... Easement from 40 to 20 feet on the west side. Any comment on the motion, on the amendment to the motion? Any comment?

Commissioner Thompson. Mr. Chair, I mean, the guy's got his fence there. And so, I mean, he didn't build it in the right-of-way. It's been there, and we're going to require a right-of-way. I'm just a little uncomfortable making a right-of-way where he's got that fence. And I think we're going to be fine with 20 foot.

So we'll do this amendment and then we'll amend on that. Any other discussion on the amendment? Okay, roll call on the amendment.

Commissioner Heath. Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead. Aye. Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioner Swanson. Aye. Chairman Malm.

Aye.

Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Mr. Chair, move to name the road Walden Ranch Road. Excuse me, move to amend the motion to add a fourth condition that we would name the road Walden Ranch Road. Sorry.

ask you to consider your motion being that the applicant name the road a name that complies with the LCUR road naming conditions because we don't know for sure if that'll work yet.

Fair enough. I would change my motion.

Okay, so what I said is what he said, and we're looking for a second. Second. Okay, we have a second. Any discussion? Discussion. So, Mr. Chair, what exactly does that mean? So, I think from what I can glean is that we have to make sure that there's not a very similar name out there in the road database, that there would be confusion. So, if Walden Ranch Road... is not if there's nothing really close to it we can go with that but it just needs to make sure that it's compliant with the lcur so we're not approving a road name that is non-compliant So, Mr.

Chair, here's my concern, and it's the neighbor to the south that had problems with the name being changed before. What if they want to name something totally different? I mean, I guess that's my concern here. And so would it be better just to, so our condition will allow our staff to name the road, and since there's no mention of Walden Ranch Road in the motion, because we took that out, the staff can just name it whatever, correct? Correct. Mr. Arnold.

Mr. Chairman, through you, Commissioner Thompson, so we'll look to see what name options are. It might be a good faith gesture with the neighbor to get some input on what that road name should be as part of this application process. Again, it'll be up to the applicants to decide. We'll just run it through our process to make sure it's a unique identifier and that it works with our road systems. Does that make sense?

Mr. Thompson? Taiwan Swanitzer Road. Just throwing that out there.

All right, any other discussion on the amendment?

Mr. Chair. Commissioner Heath. The only thing that I would add is we have not made it a practice to name roads in subdivisions, and we've had some that we've had to maybe extend the road name into an area, but we have not made, as a board, a habit of trying to name roads within subdivisions. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time coming up with names for my dog, much less county roads.

Thank you, Commissioner Heath. Mr. Chair, I don't recall this ever being asked. I don't recall ever being asked to name a road until today. Okay.

Any other discussion? Roll call, please, on the amendment. Second amendment. Commissioner Heath.

Aye. Commissioner Hollingshead. Aye. Commissioner Thompson. Aye. Commissioner Zwaneser. Aye. Chairman Mom.

Aye. Are there any further amendments?

Just a point of clarification that we are not officially naming the road. We are just saying that a name will be selected that applies with our current land use regulations. That name will be determined by the applicant, hoping they will do their due diligence for the neighbor to come up with something that is.

Sounds good.

Okay.

Any other discussion? Okay. Roll call on the motion as amended twice.

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

Aye. Next item, please.

Item 34, public hearing regarding review and final action on a site plan for the Bittawayo Ranch and Events located in a portion of land situated in the north quarter of Section 11, Township 14 North, range 70 west of the 6 p.m. Wyoming, or Laramie County, Wyoming.

Mr. Arnold.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning, presenting on behalf of the project planner, Sunny Imporcio. Riedel Ventures LLC, DBA Bittawayo Ranch and Events, on behalf of landowner Tanya Riedel, submitted a site plan application for the Bittawayo Ranch and Events project. The Class C conditional use permit for this project was approved by the Board April 21st of 2026. The purpose of this project and subsequent commercial site plan submittal as required is to continue the historic use of the business as a public event and recreational venue. 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 Rush Creek Road, which is currently in design phase for submittal along with the requiring of right-of-way permit through the Bureau of Land Management, which is still being processed to date. The applicant and Laramie County have received conceptual approvals with no concern from BLM staff as to this ultimately being approved. I do believe they have a recreational permit. Pertinent Laramie County land use regulations or statutory provisions include section 13100 governing public notice 24104. governing the land use zone districts in Section 31109, governing commercial projects. And with that, we do have Mrs. Riedel and her party here to answer any questions you may have to the project and provide some information.

Ms. Riedel.

Good afternoon. Thank you for reviewing the final packet for our on-site plan. I appreciate the opportunity to go through those details of the plan to ensure that we have addressed the requirements necessary for your approval. One of the most significant issues throughout this project has been access. I believe it is important to explain how we arrived at the access route presented to you in the final plan. The previous Bittowire Ranch operation utilized an access route for approximately 40 years and accomplished that accommodated its many guests. When we began negotiations for the purchase of the ranch in April of 2025, we attempted to preserve that access. For approximately five months, while also working to complete the purchase of the property, we attempted to negotiate access through the seller and the neighboring properties. Ultimately, we were unable to secure the agreement that would allow us to use that route for our intended operations. As a result, we were forced to develop an alternative means of access. I encourage the county and the residents of Table Mountain to recognize that history when understanding the new route proposed. This was not our first choice. It was a route we pursued after the previous access was unavailable to us for business use. There has also been attempts to challenge our ability to use the residential access to our property, including access to necessarily Access necessary simply to reach our home, courses, trash service, personal property, and the like. Regardless of the disagreement surrounding access, our response has been to work through the appropriate legal and governmental processes rather than to go outside of them. The historical operation of Biddlewire Ranch include commercial trail riding, kids camp, group hiking, and more on the surrounding public lands. Whatever had occurred historically, our responsibility is to operate differently moving forward. We are working directly with the BLM management and other agencies so that the recreational use of the public land associated with our ranch is properly authorized and managed. There is oversight today and we welcome that oversight. Our intention is not to just benefit from the public land surrounding this ranch. We want to help preserve it, protect it, and provide the opportunity for members of the public to experience Wyoming's landscape and Western heritage. I recognize that County Road 109 is not an ideal road to add additional traffic and that is a legitimate concern for residents. Our guests will be encouraged to stay below posted speed limits within the subdivision at controlled speed. Less than 30 miles per hour provides a safer and more respectful approach while also allowing guests to appreciate the area that leads them to John Anniewood Woodhouse Recreation Area and the new entrance to our ranch. There will be an increase in traffic associated with our operation. I do not want to make light of that. What I can commit to is managing our guests, employees, vendors, and operations in a manner that emphasizes reduced speeds, wildlife awareness, and respect for the people who live along that route. Wildlife protection has been one of the most important considerations in our project. We have communicated both with the BLM and the Wyoming Game and Fish We understand that we are operating in an area containing important wildlife habitat and public resources, and we take that responsibility seriously. I wish the existing two-track road on the BLM could simply remain untouched. However, that road must also satisfy the access and emergency response for our property. The BLM requires a minimum road width, and the emergency access requirements necessitate additional width. While those improvements will change the existing two-track, there also may be a benefit. A better roadway can encourage vehicles already using the public land to remain on designated road rather than traveling off-road. Our goal is to make the improvements necessary for safe and compliant access while remaining sensitive to wildlife and the surrounding landscape. The compromise to allow us to use existing material resources to build the road will help us preserve the beauty of the land. From the beginning of this process, I have worked with Andy Bartell and Adele because I recognize that the proposed Brush Creek Road improvements will have a direct impact on their property. Included in our packet are the engineered road plans as well as the correspondence from the Laramie County Fire District addressing portions of that route that cannot fully meet certain standards, and the mitigating measures proposed for those locations. Those measurements include two separate emergency pull-outs designed to improve emergency access and vehicle passage. Both the county right-of-way and the BLM right-of-way access roads will be constructed and maintained in accordance with the requirements and approvals of Laramie County, the BLM, emergency services, and wildlife protections. Throughout this process, we have demonstrated that we are willing to do the work that is required of us. We have worked with Laramie County, County Commissioners, County Planning, BLM, Wyoming Game and Fish, Laramie County Fire Authority, Laramie County Fire Warden, the Deputy Fire Warden, AMR, Flight for Life, the Wyoming Liquor Division, Environmental Health, Public Works, Engineers, Road Professionals, Biologists, and the previous owner operator who have helped us understand the responsible operation of this property. I am extremely grateful for everyone's assistance. We understand the approval of this site plan comes with responsibilities, and we do accept those responsibilities. No matter how hard I have tried in this extraordinary experience to make people understand my words and actions, I cannot accommodate everyone. And since this is my public comment, I just want to say I serve a mighty God who I want to honor for this amazing opportunity. I hope to touch lives. I hope for people to come for healing, joy, rest, and fun. I have a thousand ideas and visions on how I want to grow and transition into a treasured asset for our community. That is where my focus needs to be. I hope to make proud all the folks who have helped us get there. There is not a day that goes by that I don't pray for peace, and I will always give thanks for this endeavor. I am an entrepreneur, and that's how I see the world. Find something you love to do, work very hard in it, and it will bring you reward. This has been a journey to say the least, and there will undoubtedly continue to be challenges, but our family is excited to move forward and put a plan in place to begin operations. We intend to do this right. We intend to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us. Thank you for your consideration. And if you have any questions.

Any questions at this time? Okay. Thank you. 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 planned Cheyenne future land use areas. At the time of this report, agency 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 it to be brought up to LCLUR current standards of 24 feet wide, or as you saw in your staff report, the alternative design to be approved by this body. Private access through BLM land will be 20 feet wide. The applicant is working in good faith with BLM to establish a private access road through this portion of land and will bring it to BLM standards, which are attached to this report, as well as an approved access easement. The applicant is working with Environmental Health to bring property up to their standards for commercial uses regarding septic and food. At this time, the applicant is requesting Phase 1 of the project be allowed for smaller recreational uses such as guided horseback riding date nights family nights and guided recreational hiking this will allow a smaller scale operation to move forward now while the road and access easement approval gets completed for the long-term easement which will occur in phase two of the project this request as well as well as the preliminary road designer attached to the report for reference public notice was provided and comments have been attached to this report contained within the staff report As previously stated, the Board met on April 21, 2026, regarding the Class C Conditional Use Permit and approved it with a vote of 5-0 based on Section 31109 of the LCLUR Commercial Site Plans. Staff finds this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. And based on evidence provided, staff recommends the board find the following in regard to Phase 1 of the BIDA-YO Ranch and Events Center, that A, this application for Phase 1 meets the criteria for commercial projects pursuant to Section 31109 of the 2025 LCLUR. B, this application for Phase 1 is in conformance with Section 24104 of the 2025 LCLUR. C, sufficient infrastructure exists to allow small-scale recreation and family-oriented activities. Phase 1 of the BIDA-YO project. And D, The record in this matter includes but is not limited to the staff report documents present on the agenda and the entirety of the project file. Therefore, let me get that. And then the second portion of that is Laramie County Board of Commissioner staff finds that this application for Phase 2 of the BIDAYO project shall meet the criteria for commercial projects pursuant to Section 31109 of the 2025 LCLUR upon completion of the conditions herein and approval of the Laramie County Planning and Public Works Act. b this application for phase two upon completion of the conditions as described will be in conformance with section 24104 the 2025 lco ur governing the land use zone district c the application is in is is in its design phase for access on brush creek road and that an application for right-of-way on blm property has been submitted and is currently pending review and approval by that agency i understand that they have a recreational permit the nipa review on the application may not be completed and any final approval granted until 2027 indeed due to the limitations on space and topography the access route on brush creek may comply with reduced width as indicated in the incorporated letter of august 19th 2026 from the laramie county fire authority and with the laramie county emergency management office rather than full compliance with county road standards e the record in this matter includes but is not limited to the staff report documents present on the agenda and the entirety of the project file and i believe that covers it and i'm happy to answer any questions from the body any questions for justin at this time okay we're going to go ahead and open up the public comment i'm going to go online first if you'd like to speak and you're online please raise your hand

Anybody online?

We have one commenter online.

OK. Go ahead.

You should be able to speak now.

Online, would you like to testify? I'll try one more time. If you're online and would like to speak, please go for it now. Okay, we'll move on to testimony in the room. Sir?

Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission, my name is John Ispart. I reside at 1320 Bobcat Trail. Thank you for this opportunity to provide input. I really want to, to every story, there's two sides. Ms. Riedel just spoke about how they've tried everything to be good, law-abiding neighbors. Just is not so. For instance, she mentioned that we have fought her for trash removal, getting her personal items out of the thing. Just isn't the case. I've sent her communication saying, let's work something out. Let's let you be allowed to get those things. Yesterday, a semi got stuck on our little two-track road had necessitated a tow truck, a big commercial, great big tow truck that had to tow this semi out. That is not the retrieval of personal items as it was portrayed to you. And more and more on that. But just know that the upset in our neighborhood is much different than has been portrayed. And I'd like to just say that consideration of any plan which doesn't exclusively use Brush Creek Road just isn't warranted. It will force them to trespass again and further. They don't have access to Wildcat Trail. They've continued to use Wildcat Trail with commercial vehicles. That semi yesterday, that was not the first instance of that. We've had several of these. It's the first one that needed a tow truck to pull them out, but they just have ignored that. They've bullied their way into it. This has put the issue onto the sheriff's department plate, and we're reluctant to do that. We know the sheriff has bigger and better things to do than worry about us calling each time for trespassing. We don't want to do that, but I think we'll be forced to do that. They violated the conditions set by you, the commission, and the planning commission. The limit was 100 people maximum. They had a wedding, a commercial wedding that was advertised on their website. It had 115 guests plus a ton of staff and everything else that went through Wildcat Trail. These are the things that upset us that we don't know how best to deal with. There was alcohol served. They didn't have the liquor license. At least two venues where liquor has been served. Again, commercial activities. These aren't private residence things. These are big commercial events. I'd also like to speak about the engineer's report on the traffic study. In his report, he talks about that it's not required because the traffic will be less than 100 vehicles, 100 trips. And that just isn't so. Again, their first event there was well in excess of 100 trips. 115 people, plus the staff, all that well in excess. And that's just one event. The engineer's report does not address the local traffic, the people that live there. No shuttles were used. At first, they mentioned back during the planning commission presentation, that they would use shuttles for for all events then they came back and said we're going to use shuttles for 75 events venues that have more than 75 people just had the wedding 115 people plus all the staff no shuttles So I just encourage you to please require a full and complete traffic study. I think that's very, very warranted. And then as John Douglas, he's a world-renowned profiler. As he said, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. I believe that to be very, very true. And so as we look at their past behavior up to this point, We can expect more of that and more extreme behavior. The view shed. Just moments ago, she talked about how they want to preserve the view shed. However, what they've done is erected these great big neon signs. They must be eight foot tall with the address on the hilltop. That's not preserving the view shed. They also spoke about changing the address from Happy Jack to Brush Creek. That sign talks about the 470 Happy Jack address. Well down, this isn't viewable from Happy Jack. This is viewable to our folks that live on Wildcat. Yeah, we have pictures of that. And so again speaking out both sides of their mouths, but the actions and that's what I want to really emphasize is That what they've done in the past More and more of that On the traffic traffic has been reduced This summer being an especially dry summer that dust has been been very very thick and consistent Again, complete disregard for the easement and the revocation of that easement. They erected signs on Happy Jack directing the wedding venue traffic down Wildcat. Again, not good neighborly actions. Road damage. We've had road damage again. You get a semi-stuck, you get a tow truck pulling it out, you're going to expect more of that. And then per the BLM's response, they're not going to make a decision until the earliest January of 2027. We really should wait for that because they're doing a full and complete review. And let's just wait for that. There's no need to rush this. Let's wait for all the pieces. And the commission and the planning commission in the past have said that. Yeah, let's wait for the BLN's response. And we think that that's appropriate in this case. And then also, under Wyoming law and your own comprehensive plan, There's a duty to protect the natural resources of our county. Wyoming Game and Fish has determined this area to be critical mule deer winter range. Brush Creek has been designated a yellow ribbon trout stream, and that runs within 200 feet of their main venue. All these things will be studied by the BLM and other governmental agencies. The county comprehensive plan, your county, our, I'm sorry, our county comprehensive plan explicitly identifies western area of our county as needing protection for the view shed, wildlife, and steps should be taken to minimize the impact. Eight foot neon signs on hilltop certainly do not comport with that requirement. and and with that i just again urge you to please there's no need to rush this that and i stand for any questions that you might have any questions not at this time thank you sir and i just oh are these signs still there were they purely used to direct that wedding venue no these were after the wedding these are very recent and they are there

Okay, and maybe in an attempt to make sure they don't trespass on other property? That's speculation. I'm not sure.

You can see it from Happy Jack. So you have to have trespassed to see them.

Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Heath.

I do have a question. What size of truck was it that got stuck in there the other day? Was it an 18-wheeler?

Yes. Yes, a full-on semi.

Okay, now I have another question to follow up with that, if I may, Mr. Chair. Do you or your neighbors ever receive delivery of furniture or appliances, say, from American Furniture or something along that line?

Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, certainly they do. Not by semis, but yes, certainly we all receive deliveries.

So I guess my question then is if a semi is too big for that road and an American furniture delivery truck can get through on that road, perhaps then there might be an option to limit the size of trucks that can use that road.

Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, I think the point I'm trying to make is, yes, if that is through Brush Creek Road. Yes, I think that 24 foot width would accommodate American furniture trucks, you know, larger delivery trucks as well as semis. This came down Wildcat. Again, they're forcing that traffic through Wildcat and that is not made for semis or even large American furniture trucks. UPS can get there. FedEx can get there. No problem. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And I just ask when you come forward if you can make sure that you speak into the mic just so we can make sure folks online can hear.

I have pictures of the truck being towed out if you need it. But it's really not me.

I'm very well aware how big a semi is. My son drives one.

So if we can just, yeah.

My name is Jo Zimmerman. I live on Wildcat 1370 Wildcat Trail. And I would like to back up and support what our HOA president has been talking about, but also introduce some new things. And I am representing all of the Wildcat Trail residents because we've been most directly impacted in the near term. And it's not the size of the truck necessarily in terms particular instance yesterday and also there were seven or eight other construction type trucks pickup trucks with ladders and things like that that also used our road the point is they were violating the residential use only clause of the easement which we have revoked so it's that's really the point not the size of the truck but yeah semi shouldn't be being used And I'd like to point out that in the Laramie County notes of the packet with this application, it mentions that all the residential permits will have to be changed to commercial because of the nature of the business. Well, that means everything that comes down that road to do any kind of maintenance or construction or repair work or whatever... is in violation of the residential use only clause for Wildcat Trail. It is a single lane road. So that's the immediate concern we have is the increased traffic on our road. It's at least quadrupled. And I would say most of it, with the exception of family get-togethers and whatnot on the weekends, is in violation of the easement because it is in support of the business side of it. We are also concerned of course as the as the Table Mountain people are with the noise level the Planning Commission had recommended a decibel limit and yet during the During the hearing in April that limit was done away with so we're concerned about that in the long term once the venue gets up and operating and of course, we're also concerned about disturbing the wildlife Just this morning, one of the work trucks going up there, I saw startled a group of does and fawns, and they scattered along Wildcat Trail. Now, if this was at 10 o'clock at night with people that had been drinking because they're not using shuttles, you know, it's going to happen. Additionally, as John had mentioned about, you know, past behavior is a good example of or predictor of future behavior. The applicants have shown a blatant disregard for the use of our road and its residential use only status. The applicant has flagrantly trespassed on neighbor's lands. We have photos of her on one of the neighbor's lands where there are clearly no trespassing signs. In the proposal, they say they want to preserve the scenic quality and rural character of the area, and yet they put up these signs, I think as a poke in the eye, as a spiteful gesture, because the only person that can see it, my house sees it, and one other resident sees it. And you can hardly see it when you're down on the road unless you look up. Like I said, I think it was a spiteful gesture. on their part. So that to me talks about character. They also claimed, actually one of the neighbors stopped a man at the end of my driveway because he was lost. He was looking for a bit a while and he said his son was renting it. The applicant lied to me and the HOA president directly At the top of the road, we were just sitting there chatting, and we said, well, that's why we're revoking the easement because of all these violations, and you're renting it. She said, we're not renting it. I don't know why a man would have said he was looking for Beto Ayo because his son was renting it if it wasn't true. Also, there's a water permit that they pulled where it states the house will be used as a verbo in the summer. So, again, that's commercial use. So during the phase one plan, if it is approved, please don't, how do they plan to access it? The brush creek is just a little two track and then it turns into barely an ATV trail, very rugged, very steep. So during this phase one, how do they plan to access the venue? Because they cannot use a wildcat trail. Those are our immediate concerns. And then I just, all of us have discussed, after all of these various meetings, the purpose of the commission is to represent all of the county. And that's the residents as well, correct? Not just development. And it seems like through every meeting, liquor license, planning commission, it's just a rubber stamp because the applicant filled out the form right and checked all the right boxes. We don't feel like there's actual deliberation on whether the project is right for the area. The comments are done. The vote is taken. There's no thought that seems to be being put into it as to whether it is really right for that neighborhood. That is all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Zimmerman. Any questions? Thank you.

Chairman and fellow commissioners, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you today. My name's Karen Crone. I live in Table Mountain, and I am the vice president for the Homeowners Association. I first heard about this proposal to gain access through our neighborhood for the new bit about why Oh project back in November of 25 we had a HOA meeting it was an unusual HOA meeting this was not a highly hotly discussed topic this was everybody in agreement everybody in the room which was probably 60 people or so. Everybody was strongly opposed. Not one person was in favor. That has continued to be the case throughout. I know I've been to meetings where we've had lots of people show up. We do have 217 lots out here and about 160 families because some people own more than one lot. We as an HOA have no control over the county roads. We know that. That's up to you guys. However, we have to drive on them every day, and it is a problem right now, and the more traffic we have, the more problem it's going to be. As far as potential mitigation, the HOA has no control over what our members say we can't negotiate for them in terms of mitigation factors or anything like that so everybody has their rights and they will be coming up and talking to you about it i did want you to note that according to your laramie county land use regulation section 1 3 100 and the commercial review criteria you are legally obligated to weigh the evidence presented by the public both today and in the past We've had numerous people write letters starting back in November and continuing on. And one thing I noticed up here when I was at another meeting was there were a few people that spoke in favor of this and a huge number that opposed. The people who spoke in favor were not people who were having their neighborhoods driven through or anything like that. They were people who lived in town. And I think that's important to note because they're not affected by this at all. I'd also like you to note that in your Laramie County land use regulations, the purpose of that regulation is to promote the health, safety, and the general welfare of the citizens of Laramie County. There's a whole lot of us out here that feel like This is not in our favor. This is not the general welfare. There's a lot of us and a few of them that our safety is at issue with traffic, with kids, with horses, all that sort of thing. I'm going to have a number of people that are from Table Mountain are going to express their personal difficulties and how this is affecting their life, and so I'll be pretty short and just urge you to follow your guidelines, take into consideration the concerns of the neighbors that are affected by this, and don't approve this plan at this time. We request that you wait until see what BLM says. We've already had people driving around our neighborhood, lost, trying to find, been a while. And routinely coming through just, you know, like, I don't know if Google's sending them there or how they're supposed to go. But what's going to happen? I mean, they can't get through Brush Creek Road. There's no way for that access. So there's really no access for these at this time. It just... You can't, I mean, you can maybe take a four-wheel drive, but I don't think so. You know, I've been up there once or twice, and it's not like they're going to get people to drive through that. So that's the main concern for today is just that, you know, this is not the right time. January after BLM comes back and then after the road gets made, That would be the time to start the project. Anyway, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Crone? Thank you, ma'am.

Hello, I'm Nancy Sleeper. I live on Table Mountain Ranches, and my main thing is I'd like this project to be taken out of its misery. We're not opposed to businesses or tourism that benefits the Wyomingites, but we just don't want it to carve up our subdivision this business could have explored other places without negative impact like this would be I wanted to show that Table Mountain ranches we can also celebrate we The life dreams for all of us is to live there. There's animals that we have, and deer and antelope. Deer and antelope all belong to Wyoming. They live there too. um folks at tmr have decided this is where they want to live the rest of their lives our lives and we're all united in this and i'd like to show just a few few pictures um there's three three things just to show how nice it is there and we want we protect it we want it left on alone That's the beginning of where they would go through. And that's looking down the valley there that traffic would go right through that valley, put lots of dust and disrupt animals on the way. And so I think there's another one to that one. And then there's one more, I think. OK, maybe. Well, just imagine really pretty pictures. And that's what we have. We love that. And there's nothing in this site plan that will mitigate the harm that it'll do to TMR and Cheyenne Pass. And there's already event centers nearby. There's White Antelope, Hines Lodge. world-class mountain biking at Kurt Goudy. Bitter Wild markets itself as a unique experience. People have been hiking and horseback riding and camping out Happy Jack Way for decades. And groups that need to do retreats, they can go to these places. They already have options. But ironically, Bitter Wild would be taking away the beauty of of what people want to see in wyoming and when when i hear that bit a while would take care of uh... that the the b l m that nobody takes better care of the b l m than mother nature itself it's if it's just left alone you can't get that once it's once it's been carved up with a road and i don't care how nice the road is uh... it it shouldn't be there it's the b l m it belongs to the everybody You can't get that back for future Wyomingites. So that's my thoughts.

Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Sleeper? Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Carlos Berceve. I'm representing Stag and Cross Outdoors. It's a veteran services organization that seeks to help our veterans who suffer with post-traumatic stress and moral injury. ultimately to prevent suicide. I'm not here to debate and discuss neighborhood disputes. I'm here to keep things pretty simple. I'm a simple man with a simple plan, save lives. Vision and purpose. When I heard about what Bidawaya was trying to do, I saw the vision and purpose. To provide a location, and I get it, I just heard my friend Nancy, my new friend Nancy, talk about other locations that I could go to and take my veterans. I get that. There's plenty of places, so don't go here. So there's plenty of rodeos, so let's not have CFD here. That just doesn't hold water in my head. When a partner like BiddleYO would love to share its land to help defend our service members who defended this country, the ravages of what they experienced that would make them even think about suicide to me i will gladly explore each and every single option i take my veterans out on retreats all over wyoming i know for a fact just like anyone in this room knows for a fact that the density of population of our veterans in wyoming are going to be found here in cheyenne If we're talking about safety first, I'm asking you to put the safety first of our veterans, who 22 a day is the magic number that people like to say. It could be as high as 44. I've personally witnessed 85 veterans' lives changed and saved through the work that my organization does, that my partner organizations do, And if I can have another partner in Bido.io in an effort to save their lives, not just once a year, not just twice a year, but literally they've offered, if this gets approved, unfettered access at no cost to our veterans. And yet, I keep hearing over and over these disputes about keep things the same. If we keep things the same, that number 22 or 44 is not going to change. We can make a difference right here, right now, in their lives. I just finished leading a retreat at Little America. You know one of the things that they said in their feedback reports to me? I wish there were more outdoor activities. I just don't have the budget to go to all these other places. And oh, by the way, I've already taken, not would be, I've already taken my veterans to Centennial, Wyoming, to Cody, Wyoming, to Burgess Junction, Wyoming. And these are veterans here in Cheyenne. Why can't I take them here in Cheyenne to enjoy the great outdoors with more private access to where they can share their stories and heal from their invisible wounds. Vision and purpose. I'm just going to keep it very simple. The vision and purpose stated by BIDOIO and the helping hand that they extended to my veterans, to your veterans, their voices, just because I'm not wearing a yellow shirt like many of these, those voices should not be silenced as well. I implore you to consider their voices crying out in agony. I'm pleading with you. Do not ignore the vision and purpose that their organization can provide for the safety and security of our community. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Any questions? Okay, next. Miss, I'm sorry, you have to get in.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

We don't take public comment back and forth.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Jason Wasserberger. I'm an attorney at Long River Weininger up the street at 2120 Cary. I represent Jake and Christina Barringer, and I'm here to provide some comments on their behalf. As you heard today from Ms. Rydell, there are numerous lists of people and entities that she has worked with. Not one of those entities was Table Mountain Ranches or Cheyenne Pass Subdivision. There's been no outreach to any of those groups to visit with them about the mitigating factors for the effects that they'll be feeling on their subdivision. After we met in April, one of the conditions for the CUP was that they needed to show proof of an approved and recorded easement agreement between the landowner and the BLM That has not been recorded yet. That has not been done. And it won't be done until January. As we stand today in September, it wouldn't hurt us to wait four more months to at least see that that process is taken care of. There's still numerous things that the BLM needs to take care of, including reviewing of the raptors, eagles, wildlife, anything else that they need to to make sure that this road doesn't affect anything. We also don't have any answers as to who has oversight to ensure that these conditions are met after this final site plan is approved. Who enforces violations of the site plan? Who enforces violations of the conditional use permit? There was also supposed to be a parking plan that was going to use shuttles to haul people up to this venue. Doesn't look like that's going to happen anymore. Has that been abandoned? There's numerous questions that need answered about this plan before it gets approved. We also heard statements about the guests and ensuring that they will manage themselves in a way that does not violate any speed limits through the roads on the subdivision. Who's going to enforce this? We're going to have officers out there. How do we deal with guests that are unruly? We've also heard that the road can't meet certain standards and there's going to be bump outs. My concern with some of this stuff is they agreed to these factors, these conditions when this was approved in April and now we're changing them in August. and September. I think that this site plan needs further consideration before it can be given final use. That's all I have today, and if you have any questions, I will stand for further comment.

think I just I do want to comment on like who enforces violations all those things we do and our planning office does and our nuisance office does so there are mechanisms in place to check and make sure that the road upgrades are to county standards like there are mechanisms in place with any approved site plan across the county or commercial site plan if there's violation that's reported our planning staff and our nuisance staff and there's remediation steps available through the county attorney's office. So I just wanted to make sure that was on the record. That's not that we approve it and just set it and forget it. We routinely check on violations of things.

Chairman Malm, how soon is that? Is that days, weeks, or months after a violation is reported?

I'll let Mr. Arnold speak to the time frame.

Mr. Chairman, through you, just real quick, I would note that I do believe, and maybe the applicant can clarify, but I do believe they were approved by BLM for a recreational permit, which is separate and aside, hence the proposal for the phasing of the two different portions of the project. When there's a violation of the Laramie County land use regulations, if it's an issue with life safety or public health, we can do a cease and desist immediately. and abate that issue generally our processes are we send certified letters to the property owner to ensure that they receive the correspondence outline what violations have taken place in accordance with the commercial site plan and or any other provision of the land use regulations give them an appropriate amount of time to abate the issue And then if they don't, we send a citation memorandum over to the county attorney's office as well as the civil division of the sheriff's department to which they service that citation. It is a must-appear in court, and the court of competent jurisdiction decides what the fines may be related to the violation at that point.

Chairman Malm to Mr. Arnold, has there been a right-of-way issued? Because you said there's a recreational permit issue, but has there been a right-of-way through the BLM?

So we can have the applicant. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, through you, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mrs. Riedel, that you have a recreational permit that allows the horseback riding, the minor type utilization, to use the road as it currently exists. And then the secondary permit will have all of the wildlife assessments approval by BLM, as well as the roadway improvements for the 20-foot width as part of that secondary permit.

Chairman Malm to Mr. Arnold, does that include wedding events or is it just for recreational events?

Mr. Chairman, through you, it is specific to the horseback riding, the date night, the low intensity uses as part of phase two, which would require all infrastructure improvements to include Brush Creek Road, the BLM, before the actual venue could open up for the wedding portion of it.

So we're still waiting on that final approval?

Mr. Chairman, through you, that's my understanding, Mr. Wasberger.

Thank you, Mr. Wasberger.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Justin Hesser. I represent Kelly Zimmerman of the KZ Trust and Lisa Locey of the LL Trust, who own neighboring property at 484 Happy Jack Road. My clients echo a lot of the comments and questions submitted by neighboring landowners in writing and those made today. I'm going to touch on two issues, but I want to just briefly address that where we left off. I understand that Ms. Riedel has been granted a recreational permit. But the fact remains that to get to the property, Brush Creek has to be used. And there's no, in the materials that I saw, there's nothing that says what's going to happen with Brush Creek. In fact, it's my understanding that you're going to, if you adopt the proposed resolution and motion, that you will allow her to use Brush Creek in its current state, not up to county standards.

So... That in mind, that issue I think needs more addressed.

But I really want to address two specific issues. And the first is that the site plan should not be approved until such time that the BLM easement is approved and executed. And if I may, I have a couple exhibits I just want to, just two pages each, if I could approach.

Certainly.

So as you know, this matter was originally set to be heard on August 4th. Prior to that meeting, I heard that it was postponed and reached out to, I believe, Mr. Davis first to determine if that was the case. In response, I got a straightforward and clear email from Mr. Arnold. That's what's before you, the first page. As you can see, it plainly states that the site plan will be, quote, postponed indefinitely until such time that the final BLM easement is executed. It goes on to say that Laramie County will provide notice as to when the hearing will take place after the finalized easement documentation is received by the applicant. Nothing has changed since August 4th, and certainly no new public notice has been issued regarding what appears to be a phased site plan. No response notice was given to me or my clients that this would now be up after this email was sent. As a result, you should follow Mr. Arnold's directive and postpone this matter until the BLM easement is approved. Second, if you do proceed and allow Riedel Ventures to open with Phase 1 activities prior to bringing Brush Creek Road to current county standards, then you will in fact be allowing her to violate the conditions you set in April for the Class C Conditional Use Permit. That's the second page that's before you.

And if you look at it, it very clearly states...

Following conditions, the applicant must bring Brush Creek Road to current county standards for a public roadway and the private access easement through Bureau of Land Management parcel to current county standards for private access. Nothing has changed since April, and Riedel Ventures should still be required to bring Brush Creek Road to current county standards. At the very least, if you approve her plan, there must be much more detail regarding what limitations and constraints there will be during the operation of the so-called first phase. Again, there are numerous issues with the site plan, most of which have been presented today or in writing previously. But until such time as the final BLM easement exists, no one knows all possible issues and it's premature to approve this plan. Therefore, I ask that you stand by Mr. Arnold's statements and postpone this manner indefinitely until the BLM easement is executed. I also want to raise another issue that I just based on some comments that were made both by Mr. Arnold and others here today. If I heard Mr. Arnold's report, There were a number of findings that I do not believe were in the publicly available document that comes out available on Friday. I could be wrong, but I heard, like, findings through, I think, D. And what I'm looking at, what's available online, only goes through, I believe, B or C. I'm concerned about that, concerned about other notice issues. And I recognize that you all have a difficult job and receive criticism. You're not going to make everyone happy. It's the nature of being a decision maker. I get it. The key is not the decision being made, but the process. Both applicants and residents must trust the commission and planning department will follow the laws, regulations, provide a transparent and fair process. When this trust exists, we can agree to disagree on ultimate decisions. However, when you lose this trust, The decision doesn't matter because the process is no longer fair. With all due respect to the Commission and Mr. Arnold, moving forward today despite clear notice to a neighboring landowner that this matter will be postponed indefinitely is not fair. Further, allowing Riedel Ventures to ignore conditions that you established in April for a conditional use permit would provide inconsistent resolutions and demonstrate a lack of desire to enforce basic requirements previously adopted by this body after public input. Whatever you do today, please ensure that it is fair and follows established regulations and processes that this commission and the county should follow. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? I think I'll address or note the difference in maybe what was read and what was publicly available. That was due to the county attorney wanting a little bit more kind of enumerated things that are already actually mentioned in that full staff report. but they're just referenced individually in the one that was read in the record by Justin Arnold, our planning director. So all of that information is available and was available on Friday. In regards to the notice, I won't speak to that, but I just wanted to address the difference in what you heard and what was on the packet.

Okay.

I appreciate that. Yep. Thank you, sir. All right, and before you guys come back up, I just want to warn, I don't want to get into like a back and forth, so I know that you're coming up in reference to something that was said, and so I just ask you to keep it brief, and let's really try not to go back and forth.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, Joe Zimmerman again, and I don't know if this is appropriate, but I am a disabled veteran. I have found many, many places in Wyoming to commune with nature, to heal, to be at peace, Biddlewild is not required for that purpose.

That's all. Thank you.

I'm Nancy Sleeper. I forgot to hand this in. Pull the mic down.

You can bring it on up. Thank you. So just for the record, she's handed me a petition signed by, I believe, residents of the area in regards to the proposed site plan. Am I correct? OK. Give it to Dale. We'll have Dale enter that into the record. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, just wanted to make a comment. The gentleman that spoke about veterans' resources. There are several combat veterans that live in Cheyenne Pass. We picked that place for the serenity and the solitude that it provides. And it's unfair to position this activity, this venture that he's proposing. As he mentioned, there's several venues across the state to counterpose that with the veterans, the combat veterans that live in Table Mountain and Cheyenne Pass who live there that is providing upset too.

Thank you, sir. All right. Anyone else?

Good afternoon. I'm Tom Bogsday. I live at 714 High Merritt Road out in Table Mountain Ranches, living there for 35 years peacefully. And I want to formally request a wildfire risk assessment to be required for the conditional use permit. Also, I want to formally request that a fire mitigation requirement be imposed on the business. Buffer zones, fire breaks, clearing of flammable materials, on-site suppression equipment, operational restrictions, including the road widening for all fire and emergency vehicles, to stop any potential fires from reaching Table Mountain ranches. These expenses should be paid by Rydell Ventures LLC and be repeated every fall throughout Brush Creek Canyon, as well as clearing the overgrowth on the shoulders of Valley View Drive. Table Mountain Ranches is situated immediately downwind to the east of their proposed entertainment project, and red flag warnings have been consistently posted for the area. Brush Creek, as its name suggests, provides serious fire dangers with dead timber, excessive brush growth, and tall grasses that serve like a fuse to quickly transport any fires directly into Table Mountain ranches. This serious and deadly threat to innocent residents, their homes, livestock, and belongings has not been addressed in any meaningful ways. Yet, hundreds of visitors are proposed to be transported to this entertainment area throughout the spring to fall seasons where deer, antelope, and cattle used to roam to instead party and celebrate, meaning often drinking, drugging, and smoking. The threats of fire naturally and dramatically increase and will burn with the wind driving them directly into Table Mountain ranches. Steep hills surrounding the creek will quickly spread the fire, but firefighting efforts will have poor or no access to contain many of these spreading blazes into the subdivision. Hence, the hundreds of people and their homes throughout Table Mountain Ranches appear to be in grave danger. This is especially true when we remember that the fire several years ago that started just east of the Bunkhouse Bar and burned for miles to northwest Cheyenne. While Table Mountain Ranches obviously stands in direct danger, Shadow Mountain and other new residential areas to the east may similarly face destruction. If we've learned anything from the northern Front Range of Colorado, we need to do everything we can to prevent such dangerous fires. In addition, while the business is making money, the homeowners in Table Mountain Ranches will likely have their home insurance rates double, as has happened in similar Colorado Front Range locations. In addition, further expenses for vehicle damages and insurance Windshield replacements often now cost more than $1,000, plus other repairs and cleaning expenses will further threaten residents' livelihoods. Will Rydale Ventures take any responsibility for covering these expenses that they are forcing on Table Mountain households? They have so far demonstrated no concern for the problems that they're foisting on Table Mountain residents. For instance, We can predict deaths and injuries due to their clientele inebriated from partying, driving unfamiliar narrow roads with blind hills, inviting head-on collisions, and steep shoulders leading to rollovers. Not only placing their clientele at risk, but more tragically placing innocent local residents, their animals, and local wildlife in danger as well. In addition, Our peaceful neighborhood will be disrupted by excessive traffic, noise, dust, and vehicle damages as you've heard others talk about. Residents of Table Mountain Ranches chose this quiet neighborhood to live in as attested to by everyone driving at least an hour each day to work to avoid these kinds of stressful circumstances. The benefits of this project go to the business, while the costs are irresponsibly forced on local residents who get no benefits, as everyone in Table Mountain meetings have been against the project. In their prior business venture, they were reported by neighbors to misrepresent and violate agreements so the neighbors would not allow this project to use the existing road from Happy Jack Road to reach their proposed business site. Now they're exploiting all Table Mountain as well as causing multiple expenses to Laramie County for road repairs, continued, grainy, sheriff and emergency services. Hence, They are continuing their poor neighbor practices, especially with Table Mountain residents. We ask that you be a good neighbor to Table Mountain ranches and protect us, at least minimally, with wildfire risk assessment and mitigation efforts as required conditions for their conditional use permit. Finally, if I were a county commissioner, and chose to not protect Table Mountain ranches and surrounding developments, especially with all the red flag warnings signaling predictable danger that may cost up to millions of dollars in damages and threats to many residents' lives, I plan to never be elected again. Privately, I'd likely struggle the rest of my life with the decision I made. Thank you.

Any questions? Thank you, sir. All right, anyone else like to come forward for the public hearing? One more time, public hearing? Public hearing having met its purpose, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners?

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve a Phase 1 site plan for the Biddle-Wyo Ranch and Events situated in a portion of land in the northeast quarter of Section 11 Township 14 North, Range 70 West of the 6th PM Laramie County, Wyoming with the following conditions. Condition 1. Applicant shall acquire and submit to Laramie County Planning Department the recreational access permit provided by the United States Bureau of Land Management which would permit the use indicated in the incorporated request by applicant of approval of the Phase 1 operation. Condition 2. Condition number two, applicant will obtain, if necessary, from Laramie County Planning and Development and the Cheyenne-Laramie County Environmental Health Department approval for activities consistent with phase one operations as described in the incorporated document. Furthermore, I would move to approve the Phase 2 site plan for Biddlewyo Ranch and Events as submitted in the application and reflected in the documentation contained in the project file in this matter, situated in the portion of land in the north quarter of Section 11, Township 14 North, Range 70 West of the 6th Principal Meridian, Laramie County, Wyoming. and will be considered approved upon completion of the following conditions. Condition 1, Rush Creek Road and the BLM easement, with final approval by the BLM, must be designed and built through a right-of-way permit with the acceptance by Laramie County Public Works and with approval by the BLM. They shall meet the requirements within the Laramie County Land Use Regulations for the roadways and floodplain crossings. The approved access easement from BLM shall be submitted with the right-of-way permit, as indicated herein in a reduction in which the due... in which due to the topography for brush creek road shall be permitted condition two the applicant must show proof from the environmental health that they have satisfied their standards for commercial use condition three the applicant must show proof of an approved and recorded easement agreement between landowner and the bureau of land management Condition four, the applicant must comply with the recommendations as outlined in the letter incorporated into this report from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Condition five, the applicant must resolve any outstanding agency comments including but not limited to those in the incorporated permit notes prior to final approvals for the commencement of operation. Condition number six, the applicant must show proof of an approved and recorded easement agreement between landowner and the Bureau of Land Management. And finally, the applicant must resolve any outstanding agency comments prior to final approvals for the commencement of operation for the sake of discussion.

Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Discussion by the commission on the motion.

Mr. Chairman, to you if I could, I would just like a little more maybe reasoning about the phasing of the project and why we would split it up into a phase one versus phase two. That's okay. I don't know. Sorry to put you on the spot there, Justin, but I think some clarification there would be welcomed.

Mr. Chairman, through you, Commissioner Zwanitzer, my understanding of it is that a recreational permit allowing the existing access road through the BLM to be utilized as is for a couple horseback riders or a date night or something to that effect is can be covered under the recreational permit while they work out the long-term easement. So they have basically phased approvals through Bureau of Land Management, which the applicant's trying to make commensurate. So initial phase with the horseback riding, minor operations, and then another document to be executed for the full shebang, the whole 20-foot wide roadway, which would be a condition of approval to commence operations per the motion.

And to continue through you, Mr. Chairman, it is also my understanding that without the approval of the initial phase one site plan, the applicant isn't able to do any kind of work on the property whatsoever to improve it, essentially. Not whatsoever, but she's required to at least have a phased site plan in order to even begin any improvements. And part of that was brought on through the Wyoming Game and Fish Study for the habitat to make sure that it doesn't interrupt the mule deer migration.

there's a lot but yeah mr chairman through you commissioners wonitzer yeah they look at that stuff so we're making it a condition of approval that any mitigation factors that can be that that widot would recommend would be incorporated into that um going to backtrack no there would be no commercial operations related to the event venue until unless we approved phase one now they can have private events which is i believe what happened with the the event that was mentioned earlier which was private it would be commensurate with the graduation party or something to that effect but full operations for bit of io as a commercial to service the public would require the the approvals maybe got you so furthermore you couldn't begin to improve the septic or anything of that nature without some sort of approval of a site plan whether that be phase one or phase two Mr. Chairman, through you, Commissioner Zwanitzer, so our building permit, we have to have a certificate of review and approved site plan to issue the building permits. It's a little bit more muddied because Environmental Health is their own agency. So there's nothing in their regulations to say that you can't pull a commercial building permit. All of this is at risk because it's subject to the other pieces of the puzzle, that being our commercial site plan, our commercial building permit, so on and so forth. So theoretically, I think from a legal standpoint, you can pull a septic permit to make improvements, but them designing it to a commercial standard and then doing any installations is completely at risk, given the fact that potentially the entire operation could be denied for commercial use.

Thank you, Commissioner. Anyone else? Commissioner Thompson?

Mr. Chair, so a lot to think about, a lot to consider here. I think the comment that we're rubber-stamped, don't think about any of this, I think was insulting at best. Because we do. We read every email. We read every letter. We read all of that. Bottom line is this is a property that's been here since the late 80s and through the 90s. We had weddings. We had trail rides. This is a business that has been out there and has been functioning. You can go on the Old Bit of Wild website and you can see the pictures from these events. I think to Mr. Hesser's comments and showing us the previous resolution, we do have the ability to come back and say, hey, listen, there's a different circumstance. So they've got the recreational permit. They want to do that. They have the ability to come and apply to us and say, can we do this in phases? So I think we're well within our rights to do that. And so I think it's appropriate to do that. We do have the ability to make those changes. The comment about being fair, a couple people said, let's make the decision that's fair. Well, what is fair? If I own property, do I have the right to use my property? If there's public roads, do I have the right to use public roads? I mean, to me, that sounds fair. You know, the easement in off of Happy Jack, which makes so much more sense, I think, for this business than coming through Table Mountain. Is it fair that they're no longer allowed to use that? Probably not. But that's what we're dealing with. And so is it fair for the owner to have to go through BLM? Is it fair for the BLM to give her access? I don't know. I think it is. I think it's fair for the owner to have the right to try to run this business, a business that has been existing since the 1990s. maybe in the 1980s. The question about waiting until January, again, I think given the fact they have the recreational permit through the BLM, I think it makes sense to allow them to do the Phase 1 things that we're allowing to do today. So, again, it makes sense to me to proceed with that. And then I want to... touch on one thing that Ms. Sleeper said, and to Mr. Bogstee, who says, you know what, I would expect to never get elected again, and you know, live with yourself. We deal with this decision all the time. I mean, usually it's not this contentious, but sometimes it is. And we get exactly what Mrs. Sleeper said. We are not opposed to business. We're not opposed to tourism. We just don't want it in our backyard. I get that. I understand that. But our job here is to deal with that very sentiment. And so how do we balance what somebody wants to do with their land? And we hear all the time, it's my land. Government shouldn't tell me what I can and can't do with it. And then we hear all the time the neighbors say, hey, this is my land. You've got to protect me from what my neighbor wants to do. all the time we deal with this issue and i would tell you i think by using our land use regulations by saying you need to improve this road to this standard by doing this by doing this by putting you know five conditions on the one and six conditions on the other whatever the number was i think that's how we do that to try to protect the neighbors so i i'm in favor of this i'm going to vote in favor of this today i think it's fair and i think it's appropriate for us to let these folks get this business back up and running to the way it used to be. So that's where I'll be today. Thank you, Commissioner Thompson.

Anyone else? Commissioner Heath?

I'm going to try and not get emotional here. I wish Carl was still here. I believe that was his name, and he was speaking about the veterans that he's able to take out and spend time with nature. We have a lot of veterans here in Laramie County. We have a lot of people in Laramie County that have got mental health problems, PTSD, TBIs, et cetera. It has been found that getting out in nature whether it's fly fishing, hiking, riding horses, dealing with animals, whatever is good. It helps to rewire the minds. And, you know, the comment was made that they can go to Cody, they can go to Centennial, they can go to here or there, but we have a heavy population of veterans here in Laramie County. Why should they have to go to Cody? Why should they have to go to Centennial, especially in the winter? to access that kind of treatment, that kind of available recreation to help them heal. We sent them to another country, and I know we've got some veterans in the room. We sent them to another country to fight, and they came home wounded. And it's a wound that's inside. It's not a wound that you can see on the outside. It's inside. They need our help. They need our support. And so from that point of view, I think that what Ms. Riedel is trying to do to assist our veterans, I admire her for that. There's an opportunity there to help these people heal. And as far as fire danger is concerned, I know when this came up in April, I spoke to this. We can't expect everybody that develops property, whether it's commercial or residential, to have fire protection equipment on site to prevent fires. The wind changes. Ask the folks that were involved with the fires and saw the fires up around Crawford this summer, the fires in the sandhills of Nebraska. The wind blew from every direction imaginable and kept moving those fires. It didn't just blow one direction. You know, you can do fire mitigation. We should all be practicing that. I don't care where we live. And it's not going to be a bonfire or a trash fire that starts it. It might be lightning, and you can't control where that strikes. That can strike any place. It could strike in my front yard. It could strike in Table Mountain ranches. It could strike any place. Fire is unpredictable, just like the weather. And the comment was made, we won't be elected. Well, I'm not going to be going into the general. So maybe I'm going to be stepping on some toes here. Maybe I've got the freedom to say some things that should be said. I know that the residents don't want this activity at Biddlewild, but I want to ask you a question. If Ms. Riedel wasn't working on this land and trying to bring it back to life, this property, what would happen to it? Would it become decayed and decrepit, fall apart? Then what would you have? I look at this as an asset to your community, to Laramie County as a whole, not just as you know, a commercial operation. I see an opportunity here for Laramie County to enjoy some land that, yeah, it's set back off the road, off the beaten path, but there's something to be said for being able to be out in that kind of an environment and enjoying nature. be in support of this.

Thank you, Commissioner Heath. Anyone else? Quickly, we do listen. As Commissioner Thompson mentioned, I've read every email, looked at every picture, completely understand. But when we listen the most is when we make rules. That's when this process is the most important, is when we make rules as it relates to land use regulations. And when we made those last time, this room was filled with 500 people until 8 o'clock at night telling us that they didn't want the government telling them what to do with their land. And those changes that we were trying to do were to protect rural residential neighborhoods from high-use businesses. And this room had no supporters of the rural changes that we were trying to make. Once we have rules, we need to be clear and consistent and transparent with how we apply them, though. This was a historical use for this property. There was a discussion about that there's more people here against it and the people for it are living in town. Protection of private property rights many times is protecting the rights of one against many people. Because that's the most fundamental thing. It's not a rule of the majority. Protection of private property rights sometimes requires you making an unpopular decision to many to protect the rights of one person. It's a public roadway, I understand. I understand that this is the not ideal situation for the table mountain ranches, and it's not the ideal situation for the owner. I've got to tell you, I'm incredibly disappointed that we're here right now and it's like this. Because I have people on both sides of this room that I respect a great deal. And I feel like we are here and this is this contentious because of two people who happen to maybe one of them got married at this site and now doesn't think that it should be utilized for a wedding venue. And to me that's insane, that they have stirred up neighborhoods against each other and people against each other in a way they don't even live here. And they've turned neighbor against neighbor, not Wyoming, that is not Wyoming. And it is disappointing to me as a commissioner, it's disappointing to me as a citizen of Laramie County that that's why we're here right now having people in different colored shirts and we have animosity and they haven't done this and they haven't kept their word and there's just so much tension. And I feel that it is all spurned and drawn about by people that aren't even from here. And I am disappointed because I think that this is a great asset. It was a good enough place to get married 20 years ago for some people, so why isn't it a good enough place to get married today? And so I will be in support of this resolution and this site plan. I think the phasing is the appropriate way to go. And I commend our staff for working with the applicant to try and address issues to make it a reasonable process, because I think that's what government should do, is work in a reasonable way with the people. So with that, roll call, please.

Commissioner Heath? Aye. Commissioner Hollingswood? Aye. Commissioner Thompson? Aye. Commissioner Schweinitzer? Aye. Chairman Mullen?

Aye. Is there anything else to come before us today?

Mr. Chairman, there's no further business.

All right. We are adjourned. Thank you.