In-lieu parking dried up
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
In 1979, Ketchum began a progressive parking experiment, but it lost
momentum in the mid-1990s.
The citys in-lieu parking fund was created to give developers an
alternative to providing parking on-site at new developments as ordinances dictate,
Ketchum city administrator Jim Jaquet said Friday.
Developers simply pay the city, and the money is put in a pot to fund
parking-related projects elsewhere in Ketchum.
Ketchum residents have recently raised questions about the in-lieu
funds status and about what happened to the moneys collected.
Heres what the Mountain Express learned:
Until 1981, developers paid the city $2,000 per parking space they
didnt provide on site. However, the city recently bumped the cost per space up to
$20,000, which, Jaquet said, more closely resembles the land costs in downtown Ketchum.
The last time a developer contributed to the fund was in September 1993,
and the capital dried up in August 1996 when the city paid $27,000 to widen three blocks
along Second Avenue to accommodate parking spaces, according to an in-lieu fund revenue
and expenditure list compiled by the city.
The current cost, Jaquet said, is probably the reason developers
arent choosing to contribute to the fund anymore.
"Now that its realistic. Im not surprised that were
not seeing any in lieu, " he said. "It was used when the price was cheap, and it
was not used when the price was realistic."
From 1979 through 1993 the in-lieu parking program garnered $125,083. From
1979 through 1996, $130,750 was spent on parking and parking-related projects from the
fund. The additional $5,667 in expenditures came from the citys general fund, Jaquet
said.
"We certainly used the money as we could for providing parking areas
and widening streets," Jaquet said.
The most substantial downtown parking expansions have been financed by the
general fund, Jaquet pointed out.
From 1989 through 1996, the city purchased two lots and improved a third
to accommodate 60 additional parking spaces at a cost of $519,000, which also came from
the citys general fund.
In considering the draft Ketchum Comprehensive Plan, the Ketchum City
Council has asked the citys planning and zoning commission to review the future of
parking in the growing downtown.
At a meeting last week, the council decided to carry out a study on the
downtown area, its parking, vehicle traffic, and pedestrian and bicycle activity.
Language in the comprehensive plan will be vague enough to allow future
decisions to be made based on the study, council members decided.
In previous meetings, the city council has endorsed the idea of installing
parking meters in the downtown to better manage the parking spaces the city has, rather
than expand parking further.