Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Neighbors offer to buy Hemingway site

Much-anticipated decision on historic property's fate could come next week


By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

The Ketchum house that was Ernest Hemingway's final residence was built circa 1953. The concrete structure was designed to resemble the Sun Valley Lodge, the famous resort hotel located just a few miles to its east. Geoff Pampush, director of The Nature Conservancy of Idaho, has been soliciting public comments on what his organization should do with the Hemingway House.

Slug: 05-02-16 papa's house

A group of neighbors who oppose a plan to conduct public tours of Ernest Hemingway's onetime Ketchum retreat have made an offer to buy the late author's 13-acre estate and give the house away so it could be relocated.

The offer was made Thursday, Feb. 10, just two weeks before The Nature Conservancy of Idaho—the Hailey-based land-preservation organization that owns the historic property—decides on whether the house will be sold or conveyed to a nonprofit group that wants to open it to the public.

Gary Slette, a Twin Falls attorney who represents four families who live adjacent to the Hemingway House and oppose public access to the site, said he views the offer as a "solution" to an enduring and sometimes-bitter conflict that has arisen between his clients and TNC.

"If the structure is located to an area that can accommodate a public museum-type use, the goals of the Conservancy will have been met, while preserving the inherent property rights of the neighbors," Slette said in a press release circulated Monday.

Slette's clients include Jonathan and Rebecca Neeley, Gene and Judy Whitmyre, Don and Joan Anderson, and Jack and Elizabeth Bunce, all of whom live in the Canyon Run Boulevard neighborhood where the Hemingway House is located.

Geoff Pampush, TNC Idaho director, said Monday that the offer will be considered but must be measured against several other options for managing the prized property overlooking the Big Wood River.

"I agreed that if they did make a good-faith offer, I would take it to my board, which I will," Pampush said.

However, the group that has proposed to manage the Hemingway property while opening it to the public has stated it has little or no interest in doing so if the house is moved.

At issue is the future of the final residence of one of the United States' greatest literary figures. After purchasing the property in 1959, Hemingway made the house his part-time residence until July 1961, when he killed himself with a shotgun in its front room.

Hemingway's widow, Mary, in 1986 bequeathed the property to TNC with instructions that it be maintained as a nature-related reference library and wildlife preserve.

Recently, TNC determined it would not continue to manage the house, largely because doing so would not fit in with its overall mission of protecting natural areas.

In 2003, a group including part-time Ketchum resident Mariel Hemingway, the writer's granddaughter, formed the Idaho Hemingway House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that reached a nonbinding agreement with TNC to manage the property.

The foundation's plans called for restoring the house to its 1959 condition and conducting strictly limited public tours and cultural events in its confines.

Last winter, the foundation applied to the city of Ketchum for a conditional land-use permit to allow limited public access to the Hemingway property, which is located in the city's Limited Residential zoning district.

During the proceedings, a group comprised mainly of the Neeleys, Whitmyres, Andersons and Bunces opposed the concept, claiming that public tours of the site would lead to unacceptable levels of noise and disturbance in the neighborhood. Vehicular access to the Hemingway House is achieved via a private neighborhood road.

After negotiations with the neighbors broke down last spring, TNC withdrew the application to allow public access and allowed its 2003 agreement with the IHHF to lapse.

Then, last December, TNC announced it was considering a short list of options for managing the Hemingway property and solicited public comment to help shape its decision.

The primary TNC options called for either conveying the house to the IHHF or selling the house to a private buyer, with both scenarios including a plan to maintain the surrounding land as a nature preserve.

This week, Pampush said public comments taken at a community meeting and via e-mail have overwhelmingly favored the plan to convey the house to the IHHF.

Nonetheless, Pampush said, he and the 23 members of the TNC Idaho board of directors will also consider selling the property through an international auction house or selling the property to the disgruntled neighbors.

In essence, the neighbors' offer proposes to buy the entire property at market value and in turn donating the house to TNC, which would be given two years to relocate it, possibly to a place where it could be operated as a museum. One acre of the property would be reserved as a residential building site, while the remainder would be placed under a conservation easement.

After the offer was made, the IHHF this week reiterated its position that it would not likely be interested in managing the Hemingway House if it was relocated.

"Our board has felt very strongly that the house and the site are inseparable," said Jim Jaquet, an IHHF board member. "You can't experience Hemingway in that house without being on that site."

Pampush said he will meet with TNC directors on Friday, Feb. 25, when he will recommend a course of action and will ask the board to render a decision on the matter. He said he has not decided what his recommendation will be, but noted that selling the property through an international auction could be more lucrative than selling it at "market value," which might range upward from $5 million.

In addition, Pampush said, TNC currently has "no viable location for the house nor a viable entity to manage it," if it was relocated. On the other hand, he added, TNC must consider that the neighbors have threatened to sue the organization if it promotes the IHHF agenda.

If a decision does not come out of the Feb. 25 TNC board meeting, Pampush said, one would come shortly thereafter.




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