Sage grouse stymie Kanye West’s plans to build a meditation ranch in western Wyoming
Kanye West’s plans to build a meditation center in Northwest Wyoming have hit a small, bird-shaped snag.
According to the Cody Enterprise, West’s project is on hold while officials determine whether it would impact crucial sage grouse habitat. The birds, which are considered near threatened, have lost numbers in Wyoming, Idaho and other Western states in recent years after officials declined to protect them under the Endangered Species Act in 2015.
The Enterprise reports that the rapper has bought several properties around Cody, including one southeast of the town that he has named West Lake. On Tuesday, the Park County Commission held a public hearing for a variance request on behalf of Psalms 2019, which the Enterprise has previously reported is an LLC belonging to West.
Attorney Colin Simpson, a representative for West, on Tuesday withdrew the request, which asked commissioners to allow West to deviate from zoning requirements for his meditation project.
The National Resource and Energy Explorer, a Wyoming landscape assessment map, shows that West’s properties fall within “core population areas” — habitat that’s home to the bulk of the state’s sage grouse. Those areas can also be home to leks, or breeding grounds.
Core population areas are protected under an executive order issued by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon in August. West’s project may be subject to a density and disturbance analysis before it can move forward — but commissioners still aren’t entirely clear on what the executive order requires, the Enterprise reported.
Simpson, West’s representative, reportedly told commissioners, that “because of that ambiguity, because the applicant wants to do things right, and we’re trying to figure out how to do that, we’ll just withdraw the request.”
It’s not the first time the plans for the “meditation structure” have been put on hold. In November, West altered plans for the site to include a residence — which requires different zoning. Simpson also withdrew that addition.
It’s not clear what’s next for the project, which reportedly will be built largely underground.
Lately West has spent quite a bit of time in Idaho’s neighboring state. In 2018, he held an album listening party near Jackson Hole, and ahead of the release of his gospel album, “Jesus is King,” in October, he held Sunday Service performances in Cody.
The rapper’s representatives aren’t the only ones pushing back at development restrictions to protect sage grouse. Both Wyoming and Idaho on Monday filed notices to appeal a court ruling that kept in place Obama-era restrictions to protect sage grouse. The states, as well as the Interior Department, are on the side of the Trump administration, which hopes to ease development restrictions in sage grouse habitat.
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 4:17 PM.
