Albany County planners to review wireless tower, ranch land-use requests

Wireless coverage, ranch lodging rules and a Wild Horse Ranch community center proposal landed before Albany County planners in Laramie, and each item pointed to a different kind of change on the ground. A Union Telephone Company tower at 103 Circle Drive could alter service reach and the county skyline, while the Wild Horse Ranch Property Owners Association sought approval for a community center inside a residential subdivision. County staff also pressed commissioners to examine whether guest and dude ranches should be allowed more dwelling units than current density rules permit.

The Albany County Planning and Zoning Commission scheduled the meeting for 5 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Room at the courthouse, with the public able to attend in person, register through Zoom or watch live on the county YouTube channel. The agenda put citizen comments, staff updates and commissioner comments alongside the two applications, underscoring that the county was handling the matter as a public land-use decision rather than routine housekeeping. The commission, chaired by Mikell Platt with Merav Ben-David as vice-chair, regularly opens hearings and votes on recommendations that shape development in unincorporated Albany County.

The guest and dude ranch discussion grew out of questions received by planning staff on June 4. In a memo prepared by Planning Director David C. Gertsch, the department said the public had asked whether guest and dude ranches should be allowed additional dwelling units beyond current residential density standards. Under county rules, the use is allowed in Agricultural zoning, requires a conditional use in Agricultural Residential, Rural Residential and Ranchette districts, and is prohibited everywhere else. Staff said the use is meant to support tourism-related lodging and recreation connected to an active ranching or agricultural operation, but that more dwellings on smaller parcels, including 40- or 80-acre tracts, could also intensify rural residential use, increase pressure on roads and utilities, and blur the line between ranch tourism and conventional housing.

The Wild Horse Ranch filing carried its own land-use consequences. County records identify CU-01-26 as the association’s conditional-use application, and the narrative says the HOA wants to build a community center within Wild Horse Ranch Property Owners Association, at parcel A and zoned residential. A related State Engineer’s Office letter dated March 11 referenced the proposed Wild Horse Ranch Phase II subdivision in the SENW of Section 35, T15N, R76W, showing the site has already been moving through multiple layers of review this year. If approved, the project would add a new shared building inside a developing residential area and could change traffic, access and common-space demands for nearby property owners.

The tower request points to a different set of winners and losers. Albany County’s project list identifies LUCT-02-26 as the Union Telephone Company tower application at 103 Circle Drive, and the county’s application forms show it also handles tower permits, temporary tower authorization and co-location requests. In a 2023 Union Wireless case, commissioners raised co-location and nearby-tower concerns, while the applicant said an existing tower had interference and cabling limits that kept it from supporting the proposed antenna. The June 10 agenda also said the commission could table action if the applicant or representative was absent, a procedural detail that could slow decisions on infrastructure that affects coverage, business operations and day-to-day connectivity across Albany County.