For the week of June 25 - July 1, 2003

‘Petite’ Bald Mountain Lodge proposed

As city reviews its rules, 
proposal to go before P&Z

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Modified plans for the Bald Mountain Lodge—an upscale hotel proposed for 151 Main St. in central Ketchum—are being advanced by the developer without the possible benefit of new hotel-design parameters being drafted by city officials.

Ketchum attorney and developer Brian Barsotti on Wednesday, July 2, will formally present to the city Planning and Zoning Commission his plans to build a scaled-down version of a previous building design rejected by the Ketchum City Council in January.

The plans being advanced for consideration are the same as those presented by Barsotti at a pre-application design review hearing conducted by the P&Z on April 28.

Barsotti has requested that the city consider approving his revised project, despite the fact that city Planning Director Harold Moniz and other city officials have been directed by the City Council to revise elements of the zoning code that pertain to hotel construction.

However, Moniz and City Attorney Margaret Simms last week said Barsotti is not required to wait for the new regulations to be adopted, and, in fact, has closely followed a general protocol for hotel applications established by the city years ago.

"The developer is following the course set out for him by the city," Moniz said.

At issue is Barsotti’s plan to install an 84,650-square-foot, three-story hotel—called the Bald Mountain Lodge—on the site of the existing Bald Mountain Lodge motor inn. In his new plans, Barsotii calls the project "The Petite Bald Mountain Lodge."

The plan calls for three stories, rather than four proposed in the original design. The roof line of the project would reach a maximum of 47 feet, while a proposed tower feature would reach a height of 59 feet. The existing city height limit for buildings in the downtown area is 40 feet.

The new design features 80 rooms—one less than the 81 originally proposed—with an overall square footage that is essentially the same as the original design. The square-footage of the structure is limited by set maximums on floor-area ratio, a figure ascertained by dividing the square-footage of the building by the square-footage of the building site.

The ground floor would include a banquet room, retail store, bar, dining area, fitness center and a courtyard that would be located adjacent to Washington Street.

Simms last week noted that city officials in 2001 officially altered the design standards for buildings in the Commercial Core zoning district, mainly in response to a series of large-scale developments that were proposed and built in the city center during the late 1990s.

The new rules set the floor-area ratio maximum for hotels at 1.75, a figure that is in compliance with Barsotti’s proposed 84,650-square-foot structure, Simms said.

Because the revisions in 2001 to the city’s Commercial Core zoning district regulations did not address every nuance of hotel construction, an amendment to the zoning code specified that a hotel developer can apply for a planned-unit development, accompanied by requests for waivers to certain restrictions. Waivers could be granted "at the discretion of the Council," the code states.

Simms and Moniz said Barsotti has essentially followed the PUD process city staffers expected to see from prospective hotel developers. The Bald Mountain Lodge proposal is the first hotel PUD proposal to be advanced under the 2001 zoning code amendments, they noted.

Moniz, however, noted that granting waivers can be viewed as problematic, mainly because one developer might feel entitled to the same waivers given to the developer of a separate, unique land parcel.

Still, the code does make provisions for several types of waivers, he said. "The PUD process allows any hotel to seek the same waivers Brian Barsotti asked for," Moniz said.

In his new proposal, Barsotti is requesting three waivers, with the most controversial being a waiver to the 40-foot maximum building height.

The proposed height of the Bald Mountain Lodge became a focal point in the long, contentious review process for Barsotti’s first proposal. The proposal was approved by the P&Z, but the council eventually opted not to approve the project and remanded it back to the P&Z level.

Meanwhile, Moniz and four other members of a sub-committee appointed to draft a set of changes to the hotel section of the zoning code are expected to bring a proposal forward on July 14. Moniz last Thursday said the committee may propose a new 47-foot height limit for hotels, if built under certain conditions.

"I’m seriously looking at how to change our rules to allow more flexibility in hotel design," Moniz said.

The new Bald Mountain Lodge design would likely comply with draft regulations being discussed by the committee, he said, noting that any new changes to the code would take several months to approve.

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