Interim building limits may be extended
Council to consider six-month
plan Thursday
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Ketchum’s interim building regulations—which limit
buildings’ height and bulk further than the city’s existing
ordinances—could be extended for six more months.
The city council’s controversial move to limit construction of large
buildings in the city’s downtown will be the topic for discussion at a joint planning
and zoning commission and city council meeting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.
At a March 27 meeting, the P&Z unanimously endorsed the six-month
extension, which would be adopted to limit construction while the city attempts to revamp
its design review standards.
Design review standards, in part, regulate architectural style and size of
downtown commercial buildings.
The six-month regulations would be modeled after the city’s interim
ordinance, which reduces allowed floor area ratios (FARs) and building height in the
city’s downtown.
FARs are a means by which planners can calculate a building’s size
relative to lot size.
The emergency ordinance, which lasts for 120 days, was adopted Feb. 7. It
would be canceled by adoption of the six-month ordinance.
The city has received two proposals from design review consultants who are
interested in working with the city to draw up permanent design-review ordinances, one
from Boulder, Colo.-based Winter & Co. and one from Pasadena, Calif.-based Elizabeth
Moule & Stefanos Polyzoides.
Ketchum planning staff, members of the planning and zoning commission and
a representative of the city council are scheduled to interview the applicants on Thursday
morning.
