For the week of March 27 - April 2, 2002

Citizens speak up on Town Center

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

The debate surrounding Ketchum’s town center affordable housing concepts has engaged the minds of hundreds of valley residents. More than 100 of those residents attended a meeting March 20 of the Ketchum City Council to either be heard or to monitor the project’s progress.

Opponents’ arguments include the project’s perceived insufficient on-site parking, an inappropriate city subsidy of commercial space, loss of views, and the length of the proposed 50-year lease needed to fund the project using tax credits.

Proponents continue to cite the need for affordable housing wherever the city can get it, the building’s conformance with city zoning regulations, and the suitability of housing in the city’s downtown.

Specifically, here’s some of what they had to say.

• "There’s got to be a better way," said Woody Bryant of Ketchum. "Lets don’t give away our land. It (50 years) just seems like a long time."
  
  

• "People who don’t want it at that site, get up here and admit that you do don’t want it at that site," said Tom Kennedy of Ketchum. "Don’t throw up all these smoke screens."
  
  

• "I’d like this council to look intensely at other sites," said Bruce Hinckley of Sun Valley. "If you can’t do a better job with this site, you should leave it in trust for future councils."
  
  

• "I get frustrated a lot, because this process is taking so long," said Steve Horowitz of Ketchum. "The people who want it and the people who don’t want it usually don’t change their minds in the process. Getting the Fields project built was like pulling teeth, and this project is like pulling teeth."
  
  

• "The public process on this was not great," said Pam Ritzau of Ketchum. "The inclusion of commercial in this is bad. There is too much empty commercial space in town now."
  
  

• "When I worked for the housing commission and housing authority, I don’t think I had the guts to propose something like this," Karl Fulmer, former housing director, said. "A more realistic question for the future than, ‘Where are the views?’ is ‘Where are the real people?’"

 

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