The Warm Springs side of Bald Mountain is not getting the attention it deserves, said some members of the Ketchum City Council.
Council members at their Monday meeting discussed the Bald Mountain master plan proposed earlier this year by Sun Valley Co.
"We have an opportunity to comment on what they're proposing and how that will affect the surrounding area," said City Administrator Ron LeBlanc.
Sun Valley's proposed improvements could induce a 30 percent increase in skier visits, according to a city staff report. This past season, Sun Valley Co. recorded approximately 387,000 skier visits.
Changes that could affect Ketchum are commercial competition, traffic, parking, water use and public safety needs, according to LeBlanc.
Ketchum Planning Director Harold Moniz suggested the city consider additional items: a trail connection from River Run to Warm Springs; the consolidation of cell-phone towers; future power needs and the undergrounding of power lines; and the noise impact of snow-making machines.
Councilman Baird Gourlay questioned why Sun Valley Company wants to shut down the Challenger lift on the Warm Springs side of Baldy and put a gondola in its place.
"Why do you have to take something down that's working?" he asked. "It's the number one used chair. It doesn't seem like it's the best usage of funding."
Planning & Zoning Commissioner Anne Corrock, who said she was commenting as a citizen, said that gondolas are not skier-friendly.
Councilwoman Terry Tracy expressed several concerns with the plan. She noted that affordable-housing options are not part of the plan, even though the intensified uses proposed would require more employees. In addition, she said, the Warm Springs side of the mountain doesn't figure prominently in the plan.
"These are problems that arise from what they've proposed ... but as far as I can see in their master plan, they have not addressed them," she said.
Council President Randy Hall agreed that Warm Springs wasn't getting the attention it should in the plan.
"I don't see how it can be a master plan when it focuses on half the mountain," he said, adding, "I want to be sure this is not seen as overly critical. This is a joint effort on both our parts to reinvigorate Warm Springs."
Sun Valley's proposed master plan calls for a long list of projects, including installing two new bottom-to-top gondolas, remodeling the Roundhouse restaurant and expanding the ski-area boundary.
The Forest Service, which owns most of the land on Baldy and leases it to Sun Valley Co., is accepting comments on the plan until mid-May.
The city will draft a response to the plan and submit it to the Forest Service for consideration.
The Warm Springs side of Bald Mountain.
