What Bondurant's Resort Fight Reveals About Building on Ranch Land in the Hoback Basin

In the spring of 2024, construction crews broke ground on a luxury resort along Upper Hoback Road at Jackson Fork Ranch, Joe Ricketts' 1,300-acre property near Bondurant. They knew their stop date before they started. Under the county resolution attached to the ranch's rezone, exterior work was prohibited from Nov. 15 to April 30, so that season's work had to be finished by Nov. 14, as the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported from WyoFile's coverage.

Two and a half years later, the same ranch is back before Sublette County. A scaled-down project called The Confluence is on the table, and the county has started a process that could return the property to agricultural zoning. If you're weighing ranch ground in the Hoback Basin and picture it someday holding more than a house, barn and pasture, this case shows something a listing won't. The limits that decide what gets built around Bondurant are mostly written into county approvals for a specific parcel. The state's wildlife maps aren't where they come from.

Where the winter stop on Upper Hoback Road came from

The Nov. 15 to April 30 window did not come from a countywide ordinance or from a state migration rule. According to the News&Guide account, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department asked for it, and the county wrote it into the resolution that came with the Jackson Fork Ranch rezone. The restriction applies specifically to moose and elk on "crucial" winter range overlapping the ranch, which runs for miles along the Hoback River just upstream of the McNeel elk feedground.

The same report explains how the state's best-known wildlife designation fits in. Parts of the 150-mile Sublette Mule Deer Migration Corridor, which carries deer from the Red Desert to the Hoback River basin, cross the ranch. The state's migration policy has no effect there, because the ranch is private land.

Game and Fish says the same thing in its own words. The basin is also summer range for a second herd. On its Sublette Antelope Migration Corridor page, the department describes pronghorn moving each fall from summer ranges in the foothills of the Wyoming Range, Bondurant and Jackson Hole down to winter ranges near Pinedale, Green River and Rock Springs. Governor Gordon announced that corridor's designation on June 26, 2026. The department's FAQ answers the question "Does a designation apply to private lands?" with a single word, "No." The FAQ also says mineral development on private land isn't restricted by the designation, that existing grazing and the trailing of cattle through the corridor aren't subject to it, and that "all private land activities are outside the scope of the Executive Order."

So the newest and most publicized wildlife designation in the basin leaves private ranch ground alone. A rezone resolution for one ranch is what set the construction season there.

Three layers, three different reaches

When you read a Bondurant-area property, it helps to keep these layers apart.

Sublette County's Zoning and Development Regulations cover "all of the privately owned unincorporated lands within Sublette County," and the current document reflects an amendment dated March 3, 2026. The bottom row is the one that cost the most money and drew the most attention.

What a five-and-a-half-month stop costs

WyoFile called the winter stop a ban on construction during "the coldest 5.5 months of the year." That leaves a building season from May 1 through Nov. 14. On a big project, the lost months pile up. According to the News&Guide account, Ricketts' agent told commissioners in June 2024 that without the restrictions the build could be finished in three years, compared with six. He offered mitigation in exchange: daylight-only construction, a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit on Upper Hoback Road, a "wildlife friendly migration corridor" across the ranch, and screening for a cement batching plant. The Game and Fish regional wildlife coordinator spoke in support, saying the shorter disturbance would reduce the overall impact on wildlife. The commission still voted the request down 3-2.

Cowboy State Daily reported that Ricketts later told commissioners the shortened season would add $60 million to $100 million in costs and three years of construction, and that he halted the project a month after the vote.

Even the state wildlife agency's support couldn't undo the condition once it was in the resolution. The county got to decide. For any buyer, that means a condition already attached to a parcel's approval can outlast the reasons someone has for wanting it changed.

The two-year clock behind October's vote

The resolution set the conditions. A separate provision in the county regulations sets a deadline. Section 2 says a change in a zoning district boundary is conditioned on two things: compliance with any conditions the commissioners attach, and "substantial development" on the site within two years of approval. If those aren't met, the zoning change is terminated and "the prior zoning classification shall be in force." Termination is started the same way a rezone is.

That clause is what made 2026 different from 2024:

1. In September, Cowboy State Daily reported a building permit application for The Confluence. The plan totals 94,141 square feet, with 47,302 square feet of heated space on three levels and a 46,839-square-foot underground parking garage. That is about 59% smaller than the 230,000-square-foot Homestead plan.
2. On Oct. 6, commissioners voted 3-2 to start reverting the property to agricultural zoning, citing the two-year deadline for substantial construction, according to Cowboy State Daily. WyoFile's report, carried by Oil City News, quoted Commission Chairman Lynn Bernard saying "the time period on that zoning had expired." The county attorney told the commission that termination "has to go through a public hearing process."
3. The Sublette County Planning and Zoning Commission has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale. Ricketts' team can present evidence there on whether substantial construction took place. P&Z will then send a recommendation to the county commissioners, who make the final decision. If the property goes back to agricultural zoning, a resort would need a new zone change and a new building permit.

A Ricketts spokesperson told Cowboy State Daily the team plans to "follow the next steps outlined by Sublette County."

What this means for a buyer looking at Bondurant ground

Every use besides ranching and residential that makes Hoback Basin land worth more depends on an approval, whether that's a lodge, a guest operation or a commercial facility. The county regulations list uses like guest ranches and riding arenas, each with its own requirements. The Jackson Fork Ranch history shows an approval can come with a fixed construction window and a two-year deadline, and both stay with the entitlement. A listing that mentions past approvals or "development potential" tells you something real only once you've read the resolution behind it.

The private ground itself is also limited. The Jackson Hole Land Trust protected 280 acres on Jack Creek, northeast of Bondurant, with a conservation easement that took effect Nov. 22, 2021. That ranch supports grazing and wildlife migration and is surrounded by Bridger-Teton National Forest. One common assumption needs correcting. The Trust for Public Land's 2013 deal with PXP covered oil and gas leases on 58,000 acres in the Hoback Basin. The organization bought the leases, not the land under them, and most of those leases sat inside the Wyoming Range Legacy Act boundary, where they could be permanently retired.

Demand from Jackson is part of the picture too. In 2024 a Sublette County commissioner told Cowboy State Daily that the county has become something of a bedroom community for Jackson and that "there's more people who make that commute daily than most people probably realize."

For horse-property buyers, the practical takeaway is narrower. If your plan is a home, a barn, fenced pasture and a riding area for your own horses, the corridor designation isn't what you need to research. If your plan includes boarding, a guest operation or anything else that needs a rezone or a special approval, the parcel's file at Sublette County Planning and Zoning matters as much as the barn. Ask what conditions have been attached to nearby approvals, and ask Game and Fish whether the parcel overlaps crucial winter range.

This post is general information about public records and news reports, not legal advice. Confirm how the regulations and any existing conditions apply to a particular parcel with the county planning office and a Wyoming land-use attorney.

Quick answers

Does the Sublette antelope corridor designation limit building on my private land? Game and Fish's FAQ says a designation does not apply to private lands, and that all private land activities are outside the scope of the executive order.

Is there a countywide winter construction ban around Bondurant? The Nov. 15 to April 30 restriction in this case was written into the resolution for the Jackson Fork Ranch rezone, at Game and Fish's request, to protect wintering moose and elk on crucial winter range.

Can a rezone expire in Sublette County? Under Section 2 of the county regulations, a rezone is conditioned on substantial development within two years. If that doesn't happen, the zoning change is terminated through the same process used to approve it.

When is the next step on the Jackson Fork Ranch zoning? The Planning and Zoning Commission hearing is set for Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at the courthouse in Pinedale. The county commissioners make the final decision after that.

If you're looking at ranch ground in the Hoback Basin with plans for horses, outbuildings or a business, Premier Horse Property can go through the land, the facilities and the county file with you before you make an offer. View Horse Properties.