With one commissioner dissenting, the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission this week recommended a development agreement rezone document be drafted for the site of the proposed Wood River Community YMCA.
Commissioner Anne Corrock argued during the meeting Monday, May 9, that all the uses being proposed for the recreational facility are already allowed on the lot under its current zoning, General Residential-Low Density, or GR-L.
But the P&Z voted 3-1 to recommend that the City Council approve the rezone agreement for the parcel at 101 Saddle Road, better known as the Park and Ride lot.
Commissioner Greg Strong was absent from Monday's meeting.
When Corrock asked why the P&Z was considering a Tourist designation, Ketchum Planning Director Harold Moniz said the City Council directed city staff and the commission to study that designation. He said that Tourist zoning was more appropriate for the proposed uses for the Park and Ride lot.
In general terms, Tourist zoning allows for more varied and denser types of development. The City Council has been considering a plan to develop affordable housing, a parking garage and possibly a small community center on the Park and Ride lot around the YMCA.
City Attorney Ben Worst said the rezone document helps guide development of the parcel.
"This document spells out what can happen on this property," he said. "It's not an 'anything goes' T zone. It's a T zone with certain caveats. I think it would be a mistake to proceed without a document that limits what can happen there."
Commissioner Jack Rutherford agreed that it was in the city's best interests to have such a document.
"It's part of the development agreement process," he said. "The T zone will provide the city with more flexibility on the north end of the site and give us better opportunity for housing or whatever else." Corrock said that rezoning a parcel of land to give an applicant—the city in this case—more flexibility is an unfair application of the city's own ordinance.
She also cited a city code that says detailed analysis of building bulk is necessary, but conceptual plans in front of commissioners do not fit that criterion.
"The city should hold the same standards on its own development that it would on any other private development," she said.
"I know we were told to look at (the development agreement rezone) but I don't see the need for this," Corrock added. "I ... see this project going ahead without this."
She said the lot could be given a conditional-use permit for public use rather than being rezoned.
Rutherford argued that a permitted use is a better status for a project to exist under.
He added that if the project is part of Ketchum's master plan, the city should create zoning and a development agreement that would accommodate it.
Commission Chairman Harold Johnson said he initially agreed with Corrock but was persuaded to vote for the rezone agreement by Worst's comments.
