The Ketchum Historic Preservation Commission has agreed in theory that a voluntary system of transfer of development rights can help save the city's fast-disappearing heritage.
"This is the only tool that I've seen come out of a Historic Preservation Commission meeting that has a real ability to impact those old buildings," said Commissioner Andy Sabel.
Commissioners, however, left details of the system to the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council.
An economic development consultant and city staff have been working since October to gather public input, study needs of the city and put it all together in a long-range plan.
TDRs will be considered, along with other regulatory aspects of the downtown master plan like inclusionary zoning and form-based codes, in multiple public meetings next month.
"They're under a tight deadline to move this forward," Commission Chairman Jim Ruscitto told fellow commissioners during their July meeting.
TDRs, and the accompanying TDR map, are two of the elements under consideration for the master plan.
The TDR map includes "sending" areas—which have height allowances to sell—and "receiving" areas—in which property owners can buy development rights one floor beyond what is currently allowed. Commissioner Ned Hogan said several people have approached him with concerns about adding height and density to a town already beset with growth.
"We need to define this precisely and not overstep our boundaries," he said.
Ruscitto said the idea is to trade density in some areas for preservation of heritage and smaller-scale buildings in other areas.
Hudson said he included heritage preservation as one of the goals of the master plan after citizens identified it as important.
The map is at the heart of the TDR program because it will define, block by block, and even building by building, what areas are better prepared to handle additional height and what areas should be encouraged to remain as they are.
"At the moment, my goal is to get a TDR program that's simple and easy to administer and get that adopted," said Planning Director Harold Moniz. "Let's see how it fits, see how it works, and come back and tweak it if we need to."
Initially, the proposed TDR area is the downtown commercial zoning district. That could be expanded to other zones later.
