Wednesday, June 30, 2004

P&Z opens door for Papa tours

Commissioners endorse plan to permit historic-site visits

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Amid an ongoing debate over access to the former residence of acclaimed author Ernest Hemingway, Ketchum Planning and Zoning commissioners this week endorsed a proposal that would allow the city to permit limited public use of historic sites throughout the city.

The decision Monday, June 28, was a victory for the Idaho Hemingway House Foundation, a Ketchum-based organization that hopes to conduct tours and educational programs at the Ketchum house where the Nobel Prize-winning writer took his own life in 1961.

However, the endorsement by the P&Z serves merely as a recommendation to the Ketchum City Council, which will likely consider the proposed policy changes later this summer.

At issue Monday was a city proposal to amend the regulations of all zoning districts in Ketchum. Essentially, the proposed amendments provide for the city to issue conditional-use permits to organizations seeking approved public access to historic sites.

Specifically, the proposed language in the zoning code would allow the city to review and potentially approve plans to conduct public tours, workshops and educational programs at sites in Ketchum that are deemed by the City Council to have historic significance.

The P&Z voted 3-1 in favor of the proposal.

Commissioner Anne Corrock voted against the code amendments, noting that she believes the city should first determine what structures could be permitted for public use before a policy to use them is adopted.

Commission Chairman Greg Strong said he hopes the proposal will help preserve historic sites.

"Hopefully, this will allow some of them to exist instead of being torn down for development," Strong said.

The proposal to establish a policy for the use of historic sites was prompted by an application from the Idaho Hemingway House Foundation to conduct public tours, writing workshops and various educational programs at the Hemingway residence. The plan also called for restoring the site.

Located northwest of central Ketchum off Canyon Run Boulevard, the rustic hillside house sits on 13 acres of pristine land overlooking the Big Wood River.

Hemingway’s widow, Mary, in 1986 granted the family’s Ketchum property to The Nature Conservancy. TNC last year signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hemingway House Foundation to allow that group to manage the site.

A group of Hemingway property neighbors have actively opposed the plan to use the site.

Canyon Run resident Jonathan Neeley said Monday that he is concerned the use of historic sites such as the Hemingway home would create "an attractive nuisance."

Terry Ring, a Hemingway House Foundation board member, disagreed.

"It’s not an attractive nuisance," he said. "It’s something that’s part of out cultural heritage."

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