County initiates vacation of public alley/road near Garland at petitioner's request; viewer appointed

The Park County Board of Commissioners initiated proceedings to vacate portions of public roadways and an alley near the old Garland town site after receiving a petition from property owners represented by Pastor Legler of the Powell Church of God.

Bridal Edwards, county engineer, and surveyor Russell Blau (Morrison Merrily, as recorded in the transcript) described the petition and a plan to clean up unused platted streets and alleyways that were established in the original town plat but never fully developed. Petitioners said the church currently owns the adjacent property and intends to sell; the requested partial vacation would clear encroachments and align property boundaries. Commissioners were advised this process is governed by Wyoming law for street vacations (statutes discussed in the meeting included general references to relevant sections of Title 24).

The board approved a resolution initiating the vacation process (recorded in the minutes as Resolution 2025-08), appointed Russell Blau as the viewer to investigate and report on whether the vacation would be in the public interest, and required the petitioner to provide a monetary deposit to cover initial advertising and review costs. The resolution was amended during the meeting to add explicit language that the petitioner is responsible for additional costs that exceed the initial deposit. Commissioners discussed the possibility that further steps (for example, an amended plat or record-of-survey) could be required later in the process and asked planning and engineering staff to coordinate so the necessary surveys and any amended plat work would proceed as efficiently as possible.

During the hearing staff offered preliminary estimates about the property: the alley area to be vacated totals about 31,000 square feet (roughly three-quarters of an acre) and assessor-based estimates put the current value range of the added land at tens of thousands of dollars (staff mentioned a $70,000 to $110,000 range as a rough estimate) with a very small immediate county property-tax increase if the site remains tax-exempt; the county assessor estimated approximately $17 per year in additional county tax revenue on the parcel as structured today, though sale and development would change that calculation.

Ending The viewer will inspect the site, prepare a written report and the county will follow the statutory notice, objection and appraisal steps. The commissioners instructed staff to work with the petitioner on surveys and to return with any updated cost or platting requirements.