Home Page

Campaign Topics

About Christensen

Election Information

Campaign Support

Campaign Topics

Conservation:   My goals continue to be working with the citizens, developers, planners and staff to preserve migration corridors and habitat. While the mountains will remain, we must stay focused on clean air and water; healthy and available habitat; and migration corridors that allow the wildlife to move with the seasons, ensuring balance and diversity.  I support and have consistently voted to protect wildlife and open space.

Natural Resource Overlay: I believe the Natural Resource Overlay intent is to protect the irreplaceable wildlife and natural resources for which Jackson Hole/Teton County are world-renowned. We must not only apply it to our county, but also encourage our neighbors to apply it to the region. I have worked with the Alliance in redefining the NRO and believe this tool is critical in protecting and preserving our natural treasures.

Comprehensive Plan:  I also am very involved in making certain that the new Comprehensive Master Plan will have meaningful, quantifiable measures for understanding the impacts of development on wildlife.  I have been a part of a working group comprised of scientists, elected officials and planning staff that is focused precisely on finding a successful approach to this issue. To be successful, this plan must accurately reflect the community vision for the future as reflected in the independent surveys conducted over the last year.

Current Growth: Our current rate of growth is not sustainable: wildlife habitat and wildlife migration corridors are suffering; traffic patterns are impacting both the environment and our quality of life; available housing for the middle/ working class is very short. We are losing our middle class. It is going to take self-examination both in government and private business as we reinvent ourselves and close the gap between workforce supply and business demands.

Local Transportation Services and Infrastructure:  In respecting community priorities I believe we have made real progress with our START buses, Pathways, new development transportation systems and shared information. Our evolving transportation services and pathways are still not as connected as they could be; however we are moving in the right direction. The citizens' use of non-motorized and shared transit is making a difference. The impact on wildlife migration routes continues to be a challenge that needs community dialogue and action if we are to consider ourselves successful and respectful of our environmental heritage.

Energy:  I support energy efficiency as a top priority. The formation and support of the Energy Efficiency Board by the County Commissioners and Town Council is making a difference in local government by bringing new information to the community. The community wide recycling effort is outstanding.  The momentum of citizens' and government's teamwork is producing results.

Housing:  The commercial employee housing mitigation rates are overdue for change.   My fellow County Commissioners and I have taken dramatic steps this year to address the workforce housing issue.  Our focus has been on ensuring residential development mitigates the impact it creates.  Now it is time to focus on ensuring that commercial and resort development are appropriately offsetting their impacts and providing for the needs of their employees and Teton County working families. I support the requirement that resorts' and commercial developments' house most if not all of the employees they generate.  That is why my fellow commissioners and I have directed the Housing Authority to update our linkage study.  This study is used to determine how many employees each type of business typically generates.  Once the new study is complete, the Commission will act to ensure resorts and commercial operations are offsetting their impacts.

Planned Rural Development: The PRD is an important planning tool.  It has proven itself through this community's accomplishment of placing 20,437 acres under permanent conservation easement.  However, I feel it must be modified to decrease the density multiplier.  The clustering language should be significantly tightened so that it becomes a much better tool for creating and protecting wildlife habitat and migration corridors.

Build-out and Growth Rate:  I support the community conversation regarding a build out capacity and a growth rate.  The cap will surface through the new density zones in the updated Comprehensive Master Plan. I expect the new comprehensive plan will have a 10 year life span.  I don't believe we can understand today what the needs of this community or our environment will be in the next ten or twenty years.  That is why I am very interested in establishing a “growth rate” which will leave room for the next generation to improve upon our work. I am most concerned about making sure growth happens at a manageable pace that allows the community to make ongoing assessments and adjustments.