What Ketchum and Blaine County have produced to date in the way of workforce housing is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. Without it, cracks in the valley's economy may become canyons. Local government and health services could be severely limited.
With a need for at least 650 community housing units, according to the 2002 Blaine County Housing Needs Update, it's time for decisive action. It's time for wide consideration of the "L" word: linkage.
Linkage is a word planners use to describe a requirement that community housing to be built into new subdivisions, commercial buildings and residential complexes. It's also called "inclusionary zoning."
It is exactly what it looks like: government intervention in the private sector.
Government intervention is not something that generally pleases the private sector, which likes to be left to its own devices to decide how to surf waves of risks and rewards in any market.
But the private sector—admittedly constrained by severe limits on building heights and lot coverage in Ketchum—has failed to produce significant workforce housing inside the city limits. And why should it?
The city offers a paltry density bonus to developers who include community housing in commercial buildings. And, it offered that only after it shrank the size of new buildings by 25 percent. The bonus is an incentive in name only.
The shrinkage also made buildings more expensive because the land cost is distributed throughout a smaller building. That wasn't good for businesses or workers in need of affordable space.
Neither Ketchum nor Blaine County also require anything of development in residential zones, even though large homes can generate as many jobs as some small businesses.
Clearly, pitiful incentives and requiring nothing haven't worked. The valley has a greater need for workforce housing today than a decade ago.
The city of Sun Valley led the way last spring when it enacted a requirement that 15 percent of the units in new residential development be dedicated to workforce housing. It was a small, but significant step in the right direction.
With Ketchum and Blaine County in the midst of development moratoriums, it's time to take more than baby steps.
It's time to eradicate fear of the "L" word. With the help of good planners, wise developers and sharp pencils, linkage could help revitalize the valley by creating housing for people of ordinary means.
