Wyoming county apologizes for wrongful fee, pays family back
In early March, Wyoming homeowners Shelby and Trey Scharp received an unusual letter from their county government. The letter began,
“Teton County made a mistake. We required you to pay an affordable housing mitigation fee that you did not need to pay. We are sorry… [and] regret every minute of distress this litigation caused you.”
That letter marked the end of a legal battle the Scharps had been fighting since 2023, when Teton County demanded the couple pay a $25,000 “affordable housing” fee for permission to build a small cabin.
The County justified this demand through an implausible train of reasoning. The initial premise was understandable enough—a building project would create jobs in the community—but the argument quickly fell apart. Because some jobs would not pay enough to afford the local cost of living, the County reasoned, the Scharps had to pay tens of thousands to fund its subsidized housing program.
Under Supreme Court precedent, the government can only impose fees on permits if those fees are specifically tailored to the anticipated public impact of a project. If the fee is unrelated to the project’s actual impact, then the fee is unconstitutional. That precedent was reinforced in 2024 in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, another PLF case challenging permitting fees.
The Scharps didn’t create Jackson Hole’s housing shortage, and they shouldn’t have to fund the County’s solution to it. Represented at no cost by Pacific Legal Foundation, the Scharps filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the fee they faced and take a stand against government overreach.
As litigation continued, Teton County abandoned its old rationale and announced that it had wrongfully imposed a fee on the Scharps. Rounding out this victory for the family, the County then agreed to cooperate with the Scharps’ legal team to fully refund the wrongful fee, plus interest.
“This settlement is a welcome victory for our clients,” said Austin Waisanen, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, who served as counsel for the Scharps. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the government cannot hold permits hostage behind such fees. We are pleased to see Teton County abandon this extortionate behavior rather than try to defend it, and we are ready to challenge similar fees in the future.”
