Teton County Idaho Comprehensive Plan
Teton County, Idaho, ID, USA
Teton County Idaho Planning Department
A comprehensive plan based on on lessons learned from the past and from other western communities.
Services
Public Outreach & Engagement
Community Planning
About the project
Teton County, Idaho, is the gateway to Grand Targhee Resort, an international destination with 1,200 skiable acres. From 2000 to 2010, Teton County was one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. However, under a previous controversy-laden comprehensive plan, the County experienced its largest-ever development boom/bust cycle, resulting in inefficient, fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable development patterns.
The Teton County, Idaho Comprehensive Plan Update project started in 2010 and was completed in 2012. The update process emphasized an opportunity to outline a new direction for the county: one based on lessons learned from the past and from other western communities. This process represented western, grassroots planning at its best and resulted in a landscape-based approach to development levels and incentives and an implementation framework aimed at creating actionable change and an economically resilient county.
How we did it
Harmony Design & Engineering worked closely with the County staff and coordinated the consultant team which included AECOM, Jorgensen Associates, and Intermountain Aquatics. Harmony managed the public outreach component of the plan, facilitated citizen committee meetings, wrote several sections of the Plan and coordinated the final composition of the Plan. The Comprehensive Plan included information on the history of the County, community vision, goals and policies, future land uses and implementation strategies.
Extensive community engagement efforts included public workshops; open houses; stakeholder interviews; a mobile “plan van;” online surveys; special events; landowner workshops; newspaper articles; and a dedicated website. More than 4,000 comments and other input were received, with a significant portion of the County’s 10,000 residents participating. The plan was unanimously adopted by the Board of County Commissioners in August 2012. In October 2012, the plan was awarded the 2012 APA Idaho Public Outreach Award.
