Town and county push YDOT for clarifications on Highway 22 design; staff to draft joint cover letter

Town and county elected officials on June 2 reviewed a staff memorandum to the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) about conceptual design options for Highway 22 and directed staff to draft a joint cover letter to WYDOT with clarifications and policy priorities.

Charlotte Frey, transportation manager, summarized staff’s role: the memorandum responds to WYDOT’s conceptual cross‑section and intersection alternatives for the corridor and flags concerns about footprints, design speed and visual impacts. Frey said the memo asks WYDOT to consider narrower footprints, context‑sensitive solutions and how cross‑section choices will affect wetlands, right‑of‑way and other community assets.

Council members and commissioners focused much of the discussion on design speed and intersection footprint. Staff noted that conceptual intersections at the Y could show seven or eight lane approaches because lane widths expand at intersections to provide turning and signalized movements; the town and county raised aesthetic and footprint concerns about such large intersections. Several elected officials suggested the corridor should be designed to reflect local context and to reduce design speeds where possible to improve safety and limit pavement footprint.

"If 45 miles per hour or less doesn't gain the narrower widths and safety benefits we want, maybe we should advocate for 35 or less," Frey told the boards during the discussion, summarizing staff thinking after committee review. Commissioners and council members debated whether a 35‑mile‑per‑hour design speed was feasible for WY‑22, with several saying a 35 design would yield a different roadway character than a 45 design and raise tradeoffs for throughput and travel time.

Elected officials also asked about jurisdictional and environmental impacts. Members reiterated prior recommendations that WYDOT use context‑sensitive design, make every reasonable effort to maintain continuity of existing shared‑use paths, and evaluate wetlands and conservation easement impacts early in the process. Commissioner comments referenced earlier joint letters to WYDOT advocating for design approaches that protect pathways and recreational connectivity.

Public commenters at the meeting urged elected officials to submit a strong, early local response. "It's really important to communicate our community's wants and needs for the Wyoming 22 Corridor to WYDOT early and often," said Sam Petrie, representing Friends of Pathways. Tim Young, a Wilson resident, urged adding more county villages into the study and recommended supplemental planning funds to extend the analysis beyond the town core.

Staff asked the boards how they wanted to proceed; the consensus was to continue endorsing staff’s technical memo and to prepare a joint cover letter for WYDOT that: (1) reiterates the town and county’s priorities for context‑sensitive design; (2) raises concerns about intersection footprints and aesthetics; (3) asks WYDOT to evaluate wetlands, conservation easements and right‑of‑way impacts; and (4) clarifies the board’s preference or guidance on corridor design speed after staff refines the language. Staff said they would return a draft cover letter for review; staff also noted public open house meetings for WYDOT conceptual designs were scheduled for June 4 and that written public comments and meeting records will be part of WYDOT’s documentation for the project.

The boards did not take a formal vote on the memo during the joint session but gave staff direction to prepare the joint cover letter and to clarify the design‑speed language for further review.