Who gets to decide what Johnson County becomes?

Johnson County is writing a new land use plan. That sounds important.

It is. But residents should understand that a land use plan without zoning is little more than wishing and hoping. And hope is not a plan.

The county can say it wants to protect agriculture. It can promise to preserve wildlife habitat. It can praise open spaces and the rural character that makes Johnson County special.

But if there is nothing behind those words, who actually decides what gets built?

The answer is the company writing the check. This is not a hypothetical. Wyoming already has a small nuclear power project in Kemmerer. Wind farms stretch across other parts of the state. Solar farms can cover hundreds or thousands of acres. Data centers bring enormous demands for electricity and potentially large amounts of water.

These projects can also bring jobs, investment and tax revenue. Johnson County should not hang out a “closed for business” sign. But citizens and

leaders alike should have the power to evaluate each project.

Welcoming development and giving developers a blank check are two very different things.

Imagine our view of the Bighorn Mountains obstructed by a line of giant wind turbines.

Imagine buying a home in a quiet rural subdivision only to learn that a large solar project, data center or industrial operation will be built just beyond your property line.

We already have gravel pits scattered across the county. They offer a glimpse of what happens when commercial land uses conflict with homes and neighborhoods because there are few, if any, rules.

Other communities use zoning to set reasonable boundaries. They decide how close a wind turbine can stand to a home. They regulate noise, height, lighting and industrial uses. They decide where large projects make sense and where they do not.

That does not mean Johnson County needs a zoning code so thick it tells a rancher where to park

a stock trailer.

There is plenty of room between overregulation and no regulation at all.

But citizens should recognize what choosing no zoning means.

No zoning does not mean there are no land use decisions. It means many of the biggest decisions are left to individual landowners and developers. The public will largely be left out.

A wind company will decide where its turbines make the most financial sense. A solar developer will decide how many acres it needs. A data center operator will decide where it wants its power, buildings and generators.

Those companies have every right to protect their interests.

Johnson County residents should have the same right.

That is why this land use discussion matters. If we care about agriculture, open space, property values, wildlife and views of the Bighorns, we should

decide what protections those things deserve before the next major project arrives.

Once the permits are sought, the land is purchased and millions of dollars are on the table, the conversation becomes much more difficult, if not impossible.

Johnson County does not need to decide today that zoning is the answer.

But it should quit pretending that having no zoning is the same thing as having local control.

It isn’t. If citizens do not decide where industrial development belongs — and where it does not — developers will make those decisions for us.

By the time we decide we don’t like the answer, it may be too late.

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