Unequal partners join forces in the fight for local control over state land

Wyoming county commissioners and an alliance of Casper-area residents are seeking to support Teton County in a legal battle over the local government's authority to impose zoning and safety regulations on private companies that lease land from the state.

The Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance joined a group of Teton County homeowners who filed an amicus curiae brief in a long-running legal dispute over state-approved development on a Teton County school site. The Wyoming County Commissioners Association also filed an amicus curiae brief to argue on behalf of Teton and other counties while defending local laws and regulations.

The involvement of the two groups turns the Teton County dispute into a Wyoming-wide dispute. State officials sued Teton County to prevent it from enforcing its laws and regulations on state land and won in district court. Teton County has appealed that decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court, and others plan to join Teton's arguments.

State dispute

The Office of State Lands and Investments manages more than 3 million acres of school trust land scattered across every county in the state. The state's position regarding the private development it has allowed on a portion of state land in Teton County – a glamping operation – is that the county does not have legal authority to impose its own zoning and regulatory rules on the private entity. That interpretation applies to state trust land in all counties, according to the state.

Like many other local agencies, Teton County's regulations protect residents from “undesirable industrial uses in the neighborhood” and the “risk of fires” while promoting modern safety standards, the County Commissioners Association said in its statement. “These protections are at risk not only in Teton County, but throughout Wyoming,” the group of commissioners explains.

Citizens for the Responsible Use of State Lands, a group of homeowners in Teton County, also filed an amicus curiae brief siding with Teton County in hopes of influencing the state Supreme Court. Separately, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and Teton Village Association have appealed the issuance of a state permit to operate an air curtain burner — an incinerator used to burn off debris from a tree service company — on the Teton school grounds.

Natrona County residents get on board

Hundreds of residents living near a cluster of state trust lands at the base of Casper Mountain were stunned earlier this year to learn that possible gravel mining had been approved on the property without direct notification to neighbors or the county. The mining threatens groundwater resources where hundreds of people rely on shallow wells and would essentially industrialize the residential area, they say.

Although the gravel mining is in compliance with Natrona County's zoning regulations, thousands of residents are urging the state to revoke the permits granted to the project's developer, Prism Logistics, while also demanding that the county impose operating restrictions in the form of a “conditional building permit” if the state allows the project.

The Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance joined Citizens for the Responsible Use of State Lands because “the issue raised is of national importance and there is no party that is listening to the concerns of Wyoming's landowners and citizens,” the letter states. The Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council are also involved in the organization's letter.

For too long, it seemed as though others in the state didn't care – perhaps because the county-state dispute over land use was perceived as a Teton County issue. Or they didn't understand that similar conflicts with state-approved private use of trust lands could arise in their backyard, says William P. Schwartz, an attorney who represents the Teton County-based organization Citizens for Responsible Use of State Lands.

“Nobody said a word,” Schwartz told WyoFile. “What's happening in Teton County is considered an outlier in many cases and not really relevant to the rest of the state. When the Casper thing started to pick up steam, people started to take notice.”

“I’m happy that we finally managed to get a few more people on board,” Schwartz added.

It is significant and should also convince the court that the working-class community of Natrona County – whose culture and economy is based on mineral extraction – has collected nearly 20,000 signatures to fight the state for the same reasons as Teton County, said Carolyn Griffith, chair of the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from – whether you come from Teton County, Natrona County or anywhere else – the whole [gravel mining] “The proposal has educated a lot of people in Wyoming about some of the existing practices that no one had really noticed because they weren't affected by them,” Griffith said.

Competition for cooperation between state and district

Teton County itself is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to declare that the State Board of Land Commissioners and its permit holders are subject to a county's land use or development regulations on state trust land. The basis of the disagreement is temporary use permits that the State Board of Land Commissioners — which consists of Wyoming's five highest elected officials — issued to two private companies to operate a stock barn and glamping hotel on a 640-acre school trust near Teton Village.

When Teton County demanded that the construction projects be reviewed for fire safety and other standards, Wyoming filed suit to prevent the action and won in district court.

The three briefs total 101 pages (excluding annexes) and focus on the concept of sovereign immunity, a legal construct that protects governments in the exercise of their official duties.”[B]because of “sovereignty” [state believes it] is exempt from compliance with any land use laws or health/safety codes such as electrical, fire or building codes,” Teton County stated in its filing.

“Failure to comply with land use, safety and health regulations has absolutely nothing to do with state immunity, which is appropriate when liability is at stake, not land use,” wrote Teton County Assistant District Attorney Keith Gingery. Invoking state immunity is a “ritualistic statement … better made in the 14th century than in 2024,” the letter said.

The state's group of county commissioners agreed. “Private companies that lease or use state-owned land to advance their own commercial interests should not be able to exploit state sovereignty to protect their businesses from the same local land-use regulations that every other private business is subject to,” the group argues.

Wyoming law does not support the notion that private citizens are entitled to “the 'protection of the king,'” wrote lawyers for Citizens for the Responsible Use of State Lands. The State Board of Land Commissioners' claim of sovereignty is “particularly bold” because the permits it issues “expressly require them to 'obey all … local laws,'” the organization's statement said.

The groups cite numerous cases and arguments to support their position. They also question the state council's decision to issue temporary use permits for the storage pens and glamping rather than special use permits – which they say is effectively a bypass of the council's own regulations.

Wyoming's legislature has given the state land agency the authority to issue special use permits as long as they comply with other state laws. The groups argue that there is no legislative authority for temporary permits, so they too must follow the law.

These laws give local governments control over certain aspects of development, the groups' statements say. This local control includes ensuring that developments meet fire and electrical codes, as well as inspections to ensure compliance.

In Natrona County, the state argues that the “limited” industrial mining operation planned there – although it will not be subject to a thorough environmental review by the state – is subject to other long-standing state and federal regulations designed to ensure that it does not interfere with the private property rights of neighboring communities or the county's zoning regulations.

If that were the case, said Griffith of the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance, the group of landowners would not get involved in the litigation.

“When we're told, 'Trust the process,' we trusted the process,” Griffith said. “That's basically where we're now trying to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay experts and lawyers.”

A response from the state to the objections is still pending.