For a moment Saturday morning, downtown Ketchum was a "tabula rasa."
Onto that "blank slate" valley residents poured ideas of the future.
The parking lot at the corner of Fourth Street and East Avenue, at first devoid of life, blossomed into a central square replete with activities and a welcoming pedestrian streetscape.
"Everything in the surrounding area is important, but we're really mostly developing the plaza and looking at how it attaches (to other areas)," said work group participant Dave Hausmann.
Approximately 50 people attended "Designfest," a workshop to get residents' direct input on what they want Ketchum's downtown to be.
"This is about a celebration of the physical place of the community," said economic development consultant Tom Hudson, under contract with the city to help revitalize the core. "We're in a historic moment ... We need to think of ourselves as stewards. Your ideas are tangible; they're meaningful. We're working very hard to take your ideas and move them forward."
With a nod to Ketchum's target markets—residents, tourists, second-home owners, the arts and education—participants got down to work.
The table at the back of the makeshift meeting room—the gym at Hemingway Elementary School—was the focus of four minds at work.
"This is the kind of space that shouldn't be so dedicated that it can't be used in the off-season," said Derek Ryan.
Several hours and many sketches later, the group, dubbed "Louie's Piazza," presented their ideas to other attendees.
The city's historic First Congregational Church, commonly known as Louie's after a pizza restaurant that formerly occupied the building, was relocated to the site. With a stage opposite it and historic ore wagons on either side, as well as open-pit fireplaces and boxed trees with benched seats, the area transformed into a hub of the community.
Another group solved—on paper, at least—the city's parking and circulation troubles: Parking is eliminated on Sun Valley Road and Main Street, replaced by back-in diagonal parking on side streets, and an RV lot situated at one end of town with bus service shuttling people to and fro.
Another group revived a design imagined 25 years ago for Fourth Street and Leadville Avenue that incorporated a sundial into the streets' intersection.
The group dedicated to "branding" Ketchum, or creating its own image, arrived at the slogan, "Small Town, Big Life."
"There were some real challenges here," said group member Peter Everett. "How is Ketchum unique when the whole area is in the customer's mind?"
The group's guiding principles of synergy and distinctiveness helped form identity while not alienating other valley towns.
Balancing the needs and wants of a diverse community isn't, and won't, be easy, Hudson said.
"People say, 'We don't want to sprawl and we don't want to go up, but we need more housing,'" he said. "There will be costs but the tradeoffs will be very positive."
Although turnout for the six-hour event was less than expected, interest of those who did attend was high.
"It's my chance for the thoughts that I've been carrying around for eight years or more," said Ketchum resident Elaine Charlat. "There's so many good ideas here. If everybody here came to a City Council meeting on these topics, then they would become a force for creative change. We haven't had a force to change; we've had a force not to change. These are talented, future-thinkers who have shown up."
Louie's Piazza group member Baird Gourlay, a Ketchum City Council member and co-owner of Paul Kenny's Ski & Sports, recognized the importance of the day's activities.
"It looks like a powder day, so it was really tough for me to be here," he said. "But thank you all for coming. It sure makes my job easier to have all this (input)."
Participants in a work group hash out details Saturday before presenting their ideas at the city of Ketchum's "Designfest". Approximately 50 people attended the all-day event.
