06/30/2026
Contact:
Nate Martin
Save the Laramie Greenbelt
(307) 703-0198
[email protected]
๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ ๐ต๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ป ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐น
๐๐ฎ๐
-๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ
Save the Laramie Greenbelt Town Hall:
6-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 7th
Lincoln Community Center (365 W Grand Ave., Laramie)
Laramie residents are hosting a public town hall meeting to raise
awareness about a controversial proposed real estate development. The large-scale project is slated to be built with the help of public funding on the banks of the Laramie River.
Critics of the project have voiced concerns about its impact on flooding and homeownersโ flood insurance, the Laramie River and the Laramie Green Belt, and wildlife along the river corridor.
They also worry that there is no clear plan for a project that taxpayers are meant to help support, and that local lawmakers are potentially misusing a tool meant to finance development in โblightedโ areas.
โOutside of a handful of people who live nearby, nobody seems to have any idea that this is happening, even though it could have a huge impact on the Laramie Greenbelt and the Laramie River, not to mention neighborhood homeowners,โ said Gwendolyn Kristy, one of the event organizers. โWe want to do our part to make sure people are informed.โ
The free, public event is from 6 - 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, at the Lincoln Community Center in West Side Laramie (365 W Grand Ave.). It will feature a presentation about the proposed project and its potential impacts, a guided discussion to gather residentsโ feedback, and opportunities for people to get involved with the process of influencing the project moving forward.
It will also include a discussion of an alternative vision for the property in question: conservation.
โThe property they want to develop is between Optimist Park and the Green Belt, adjacent to land owned by Wyoming State Parks,โ Kristy said. โIt is a beautiful open space which should be preserved for the public. Thatโs what we want to see happen.โ
๐ โ๐ฏ๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ฒ๐ฑโ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐?
The property where real estate developers plan to build is an undeveloped field and river corridor that sits between the West Side Laramie neighborhood and the Laramie River, just east of the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. (https://cityoflaramie.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/22544?fileID=31555)
This spring, the Laramie City Council voted unanimously to designate the property as โblighted.โ This will enable the real estate developer to receive public funding in the form of โtax increment financingโ (TIF).
Public funds will be available to cover some initial development costs, and the landownerโs property taxes will be diverted from local government services to pay the loan back over 25 years.
TIF funding is a tool approved by the Wyoming Legislature that is meant to allow local governments to support the development of slums or blighted areas that are a menace to their communities.
(https://tinyurl.com/WyomingStatutesTitle-15)
But critics of the development project worry the city is misusing the tool.
โNo reasonable person would look at this property and think that itโs โblighted,โโ said Nate Martin, another of the town hallโs organizers. โI see deer grazing out there every evening, blue heron and bald eagles, beavers and mink. Itโs obviously a natural area, not blight.โ
๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐บ๐ถ๐๐๐๐ฒ
Many states allow their local governments to use TIF funding to develop blighted areas. However, many have also implemented restrictions on what they are willing to allow. This is a result of public perception of misuse of the TIF funding tool by local governments.
In Colorado, residents have successfully passed ballot initiatives restricting local governmentsโ ability to use TIF funding in places like Littleton after perceived misuse. (https://i2i.org/the-empty-promise-and-untold-cost-of-urban-renewal-in-colorado/)
Meanwhile, in Wyoming, where local governments have few tools to support housing development in the first place, the Legislature is working toward eliminating those that do exist.
In 2026, a bill to ban municipalities from charging โhousing mitigation feesโ to fund affordable housing projects passed the Wyoming House by a wide margin. (https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/politics-government/2026-02-25/house-passes-bill-at-the-center-of-checkgate) It died in the Senate only after becoming embroiled in the โcheckgateโ alleged bribery controversy. It will be reintroduced next year with increased support. (https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/legislature/byron-hardens-stance-against-housing-mitigation-fees-solidifying-split-with-teton-county-officials/article_f7e01c2a-68f1-46e0-855b-f9b312384ac4.html)
Martin, who is an affordable housing advocate and led efforts to transition a local Laramie elementary schoolโs demolition into a workforce housing project (https://laramiereporter.substack.com/p/as-old-slade-comes-down-school-leaders), worries that state lawmakers could restrict or eliminate TIF funding altogether if they thought local governments were abusing the tool.
โI want local governments in Wyoming to be able to help solve our housing crisis,โ he said. โI am concerned that when people start seeing the bulldozers tearing up the river, and apartment complexes going up across from the Green Belt, and they find out their tax dollars are supporting this, the backlash is going to be so strong that the Legislature might just decide that towns shouldnโt be using TIF at all.โ
๐จ๐ป๐ฐ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐
Laramie City Manager Todd Feezer explained to city council late last year that TIF funding could allow a real estate developer to build more than 80 housing units on the property, plus commercial development. (https://laramiereporter.substack.com/p/city-housing-efforts-could-bear-fruit)
The property sat for sale for more than a decade with no buyers prior to the councilโs designation of the land as โblighted.โ The flood plain made it too costly to develop.
The incentive of public funding was strong enough, however, that the property went under contract with a developer less than a week after the councilโs โblightโ vote.
Still, members of the public are in the dark about what, exactly, their tax dollars are going to support. At one public meeting, residents were asked if they would prefer a fast food restaurant.
This lack of clarity is especially concerning to West Side neighborhood residents whose homes have experienced flooding and who already pay high flood insurance rates.
โThe law requires a project like this, which receives TIF funding, to be developed by a team with โdemonstrated experience in completing projects of similar complexity to the proposed project,โโ Chavawn Kelley, another town hall organizer, said. โBuilding in a flood plain like this is extremely challenging. It compacts the soil and makes the land less able to absorb
water. We have no clue whether the developer who bought the land has any idea of how to not make things worse.โ
๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ
The town hall on July 7 will include discussion of plans to raise funds to purchase the property and transfer ownership to a nonprofit or public entity.
โTheyโre not making any more rivers,โ Martin, the event co-organizer, said. โPeople from all over Laramie come to the Green Belt to enjoy a little bit of nature after work, or with their families, when they canโt get away to the mountains but want that sense of calm you get on public land surrounded by trees and birds and critters and water. I totally understand the need for housing. Iโve spent a lot of time successfully working on solutions to our
housing crisis. But I think if we go forward on this project, weโll all realize that the cost is too high, but it will be too late.โ
