Cheyenne City Council sets goals for 2024

Jan. 10—CHEYENNE — Railroad and West Edge-related projects were among the main topics of conversation Tuesday evening as Cheyenne City Council members met to evaluate the work they did in 2023 and to set goals for 2024.

Among their top priorities for the new year are:

— Investing in solar farms

— Recreational access to Belvoir Ranch

— Identifying next steps for the old pumphouse at Ames Avenue and West Lincolnway

— Bringing rail cars to 15th Street

— Continuing to develop the Reed Avenue Rail Corridor

The council members discussed each issue in detail and assigned one council member to champion each item. They also considered the potential of designating a continued focus on low-water landscaping as an official council goal.

Solar farms

Currently, Cheyenne uses around 300 megawatts of energy a day, which is twice as much as a decade before. By 2030, that usage is expected to quadruple to around 1,200 MW. To address this increase, the city has identified solar farms as the best solution.

Council member Tom Segrave is championing this goal, and has identified two separate projects to meet the expected demand.

First is a community solar farm development at an old landfill. If a business or individual wants to utilize solar power, but has nowhere to place their panels, the community solar farm would allow them to subscribe to a set amount of energy. Currently, the farm is set to generate 5 MW a day, which could power around 1,000 homes in Cheyenne.

Segrave said there are a plethora of grants that would help fund this, as it is both a renewable energy investment and repurposing of a landfill site. The city is currently working with Rocky Mountain Institute to evaluate the site, and Segrave said he is confident this goal will be met.

The governing body also discussed a much larger commercial solar farm development.

A 4,000-acre proposal for a solar farm will come before the Industrial Siting Council for approval later this month. Paired with an existing 1,000-acre solar farm project, it will generate an additional 900 MW, meeting the projected demand.

"We've nicknamed this as our coal mine," Segrave said of the potential revenue for the city if they were able to own a large portion of the solar farm.

They also discussed sites on the Belvoir Ranch that would be good for solar farm development of around 700 or 800 acres, but this still needs more analysis.

The boom in energy demand is fueled by commercial development, Mayor Patrick Collins said, citing Project Cosmo and Project Jade, as well as a few potential new Microsoft data center locations.

Belvoir Ranch

On Tuesday, the city learned it had received nearly $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds through the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation for investment in a trailhead at Belvoir Ranch. The 18,800-acre property is about 16 miles southwest of Cheyenne, and the city plans to add 17.4 miles of trails.

The biggest obstacle, however, is what Collins refers to as "The Great Wall of China" — a Union Pacific-owned railroad track that runs through the property, separating the ranch from the Big Hole — one of the main attractions of the property.

Collins said that a bridge over the tracks would cost $4.5 million, and Union Pacific Railroad has denied use of one of the existing tunnels under the track. However, he hopes they can access a 16-foot tunnel to connect the two sides of the property.

Between existing grants and revenue the city receives from leasing the property to cattle ranchers, Collins said they have around $1 million in the bank to start this project. They discussed seeking a memorandum of understanding with Wyoming State Parks to manage the property. If that falls through, they will have to figure something else out.

For now, the governing body hopes to begin work on six miles of trails north of the tracks, the side currently accessible to the public.

Pumphouse

In continued efforts to beautify the West Edge District of downtown Cheyenne, the council decided to split the large idea into smaller goals. One of those is investing in revitalization of an old pumphouse, located at Ames Avenue and West Lincolnway.

Built in 1892 by Union Pacific, the Romanesque Revival architecture-style structure has sat empty and decaying for years, besides occasional squatters.

"We're at the point where we have to do something with that building right now, or it won't be there this time next year," said council member Bryan Cook. "I mean, it's going to disintegrate."

Most members of the governing body identified this project as one of the top goals in the West Edge beautification efforts.

"My thought is let's save the building and stabilize it, and let's go find a partner that wants to do something there, and we can partner with them to redo that building," Collins said.

Council member Pete Laybourn volunteered to champion this project, with hopes to secure the building as soon as possible and find a tenant.

15th Street

In March, the city received a donation of four rail cars for the 15th Street Railroad Experience Project. However, council members said they feel there is no clear vision for the project.

"I don't know what the plan is," Segrave said. "I just don't know what the plan is."

The council came away with three caveats to this council goal, which is championed by council member Jeff White.

First is to support the efforts in place to get the rail cars refurbished, out of storage and on the street. Collins said they are on track to have that done by June 2026 and have a deadline of May 2027 from the Economic Development Administration. Second is to set up a contract with DHM Design, which is designing many of the West Edge redevelopments, to create a vision for the street. Finally, they hope to conduct an analysis of this design to figure out the best next steps forward.

"Unless we get a lot of grants, I think the ongoing costs of storage of train cars, refurbishing cars and all of the other pieces that need to make the 15th Street and the Reed Corridor flow and happen the way we envision it isn't going to be feasible with the funding that we currently have," council member Michelle Aldrich said.

Overall, the attitude of the council seemed to be that they have already invested too much in this project and have the rail cars now, so they don't want to give up on it.

Reed Avenue Rail Corridor

The final piece of the West Edge developments is continuing efforts to restore the Reed Avenue Rail Corridor. In October, the first potential designs for the pedestrian entertainment district project were presented to the public. The $10+ million project would convert the dirt path along the railroad tracks into a pedestrian district between 17th and 23rd streets, with an underground pedestrian connection under Lincolnway to 15th Street.

"When we combine the West Edge with the Reed Avenue Corridor, there has to be some type of flow that naturally draws people off Lincolnway toward that area," said council president Ken Esquibel.

This project has been in the works for years and looks to continue to gain traction in 2024.

Low-water landscaping

For the past 10 to 15 years, Cheyenne's annual water consumption has remained around 14,000 acre-feet, even with growth and new developments. At the meeting, the council members discussed whether they want to continue their goal of focusing on low-water landscaping to reduce water consumption in town.

"I am not willing to continue on with low-water landscaping personally, or as a community, as long as we're not being good stewards of the water we currently have as far as collecting and making sure that everybody's following even the minimum that we've asked everyone in our community to do so," said Aldrich. "I think it's a nice thing, and it's a nice thought, but I would be for taking it off as a goal unless we're going to address the elephant in the room, which is South Cheyenne Water and Sewer District."

In 1970, the city signed a deal with SCWSD, which puts no limits on the amount of water it can buy from the city. "It's a very one-sided agreement," Collins said.

"But just because that is an issue doesn't mean that we can't be responsible on our end," said council member White. "As this community continues to get bigger, and we continue to get these data centers that are coming in and are using voluminous amounts of water, and experience continued drought, despite what great wet season that we had last year, this is a problem that isn't going away. So, I think that we do need to be as responsible as we can and set as good an example as we can."

Council member Richard Johnson, who is championing this goal, and the council decided to wait until the Cheyenne Water Summit hosted by the Board of Public Utilities on March 14 to evaluate the situation and decide whether they want to keep this issue as a goal.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.

Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.