SHERIDAN — The city is currently in the process of annexing the Story House property, which would extend city limits to surround the property.
The annexed lot is the shape of a backward C, extends 175.56 acres and is located at 2423 E. Fifth Street. Current proposals have the lot broken down into several uses. Currently, 24.56 acres are planned for commercial use. There will be 150 residential lots on the property and 73 acres are planned for residential use. There are 52 acres set aside for park land and open space; 26 acres are currently designated as “other,” which would allow construction of various buildings, including a school.
The portion of land that will likely be annexed is smaller than originally thought.
“(Story House’s) original proposal showed the entire parcel coming in, however, there’s an active quarry in that section that’s carved out,” Public Works Director Hanns Mercer said. “The city doesn’t have a quarry permit so they actually had to remove that from the annexation.”
Mercer also said the annexation is contiguous with other properties within city limits.
In 2021, The Sheridan Press reported Story House intended to use the land to build a film studio, a public park and a subdivision for workforce and artist housing. Included in the subdivision would be the Veteran Village, a project started in 2020 that would build homes for unhoused veterans.
The land will be zoned as a B-2 Business district. Uses for land zoned as B-2 can include residences, businesses and commercial uses. The list of restricted uses is largely manufacturing-based and ranges from soap manufacturing and paper and pulp manufacturing to slaughter and dressing of animals and a crematorium.
The annexation is an ordinance and therefore requires three rounds of approval. Sheridan City Council is expected to vote on whether to annex the Story House property during each of its next three regular meetings.
The city will also build the northeast water transmission line, which provides high-volume water to northeast Sheridan and the Story House property.
The city voted May 15 to accept a grant from Wyoming Water Development Commission to help pay for design and preconstruction costs. The grant is for $213,060 and pays for two-thirds of those costs. The city pays for the remaining one-third, which is $104,090 and comes from the water fund rate revenues.
“It’s anticipated when (the design) is done, we’ll be able to request in this next September construction funding because (WWDC) should have more funding… for the construction part of it,” Utilities Director Dan Roberts said.
The transmission line design process will begin in July. The line itself will be about 11,000 feet of 16-inch PVC pipe to provide water to northeast Sheridan. The project is identified in the city’s current master plan as the No. 1 priority transmission project.
The city has requested a total of $3,441,157 from WWDC; the remaining $3,228,097 requested will go toward the construction of the transmission line. The city has also applied for an American Rescue Plan Act grant to fund construction.
Should the city only receive the additional WWDC funds, it would pay one-third of the construction cost — or $1,135,581.81 — though half of that would be reimbursed by Story House Management because of a developer agreement with the city. The remaining half, $567,790.91, will be paid for by the city’s water enterprise capital reserves.
