Engineer keeps town ‘in the loop’ on subdivision project

by Trey Wilkinson

Another step toward a zoning change for the Old Brazzill Ranch phases V and VII came before the Pinedale town council at Monday evening’s town council meeting.

Richardson Development Inc. has submitted a zoning change application for phases V and VII of the Old Brazzill Ranch, located less than a mile south of town, which calls for rezoning 148.98 acres from agricultural (A-1) to rural residential (R-R) 6,000 square foot lot size minimum and 8.79 acres from A-1 to commercial (C-1).

Rio Verde engineer Mark Eatinger, hired by landowner and developer Cecilia Richardson, expressed his intentions of keeping the town “in the loop,” as far as the project was concerned.

According to Eatinger, there will be 348.11 acres of total development. There will be 219 lots with an average size of 1.6 acres per lot. One hundred eighty five of the lots will be residential. There will be 30 multi-family lots averaging .4 acre per lot size and 75 proposed town houses averaging just over 7,000 square feet.

“There is a diversity of lot sizes,” he said.

The commercial lots would average 2.2 acres per lot size. The commercial area would also include a church, deli, small school, restaurant, daycare and professional offices.

“The intent is to get rid of some of the traffic,” Eatinger said. “All of these things would be within walking distance.”

According to Eatinger, there would be 190 acres of open space for wetlands. The plan includes five separate parks and two locations for mailboxes as well.

Eatinger addressed access points next informing the council that the new subdivision (planned unit development) would use the same access as the one located on the north side of Old Brazzill II on Highway 191. He also said the project could be granted approval from the Wyoming Department of Transportation for a second access point on Highway 191 if the center turn lane is extended between the two access points.

Town Planning and Zoning administrator Meghan Jacquet read a letter to the council, written by Jacquet, clarifying the “Richardson County Zone-Change Request” heard at the Town Planning and Zoning meeting on March 5.

According to the letter, “The County did not request a formal recommendation on the zoning change request, despite the unofficial practice of Town review within the mile buffer. This change caused some debate in the meeting and ultimately the board made the decision to nonetheless entertain a motion. (In a vote of 4 to 1) the board recommended denying the zone change request. Reason for deny expressed were 1) Lack of a drainage plan, 2) Not proposing sidewalks, curb and gutters, 3) Civil complaints on covenant discretion, and 4) Too many unanswered questions.”

Eatinger said he had received legal determination that the covenants for the Old Brazzill Ranch did not apply to the new project.

At the March 9 Sublette County commissioners meeting Eatinger asked the commissioners to approve an easement for utilities (sewer and water going down the county road) for the project, which was approved unanimously.

At Monday’s town council meeting councilman David Smith asked Richardson if she would consider an easement for Pinedale South County Road as well.

“No,” Richardson said. “Just for the utilities, not the road.”

“If you have the easement (for the road) we’ll see that development happens,” Smith said.

Smith indicated a need for the easement for the county road in order to bypass industrial traffic.

“We’re trying to do the most logistic thing to get this to work,” he said.

“From talking to the commissioners they feel the same way,” councilman Gary Heuck said.

Smith expressed his thoughts on annexing the project.

“These developments should be annexed into the town immediately,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to build small towns outside of Pinedale.”

Richardson said she would be happy to annex.

The application for the zoning change will now go to the County Planning and Zoning board Wednesday for recommendation.