Park County denies amendment to Will’s Hope special use permit after neighbors raise safety, slope and land-use concerns

The Park County Board of Commissioners voted to deny an amendment to Will’s Hope Special Use Permit 176, which would have expanded a retreat property near Davis Draw and raised the maximum overnight occupancy from nine to 15.

The amendment would have added a 2,400-square-foot above‑ground addition and a 1,600-square-foot basement (three additional bedrooms for a six-bedroom total), renovations to the existing cabin, a 200-square-foot deck extension, two 4,000-gallon cisterns, a new septic sized for six bedrooms and upgraded mechanical and electrical systems. Staff told the board the project is on land inside a GR-20 zoning district and within crucial mule deer winter range; staff recommended approval only with conditions including a licensed civil geotechnical review, required permits for wastewater and building work, a weed‑management comment, and an avoidance window for construction in winter range.

Why it matters: neighbors and several commissioners said the requested change would alter the character and quiet of a residential and agricultural neighborhood, risk slope instability and increase traffic on a narrow private road. Several neighbors testified they bought properties for rural residential and agricultural uses and objected to a larger, effectively commercial operation next door. Commissioners cited the…