Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Ketchum building construction ordinance


By REBECCA MEANY
Express Staff Writer

Construction sites around Ketchum, such as this one on First Avenue, may soon be subject to increased mitigation regulations. The city is working on a new construction mitigation ordinance to appease residents and visitors who are affected by construction, while not hampering the building industry that is driving so much growth. Photo by Willy Cook

Growth in Ketchum has been a boon for many segments of the economy. As new buildings rise, the city benefits from local option taxes on building materials, and the Urban Renewal Agency will capture tax increments and reroute that money to infrastructure improvements.

Construction has also put to work many area laborers.

But along with the development phenomenon come traffic and circulation problems, fewer available parking spaces and an increase in dust and noise.

At the direction of Mayor Randy Hall and the City Council, a construction mitigation committee formed a few months ago to tackle the issues and address residents' concerns.

"Ketchum is not what it was 10 years ago," Police Chief Cory Lyman said at a packed hearing in City Hall Thursday. "We're seeing a lot more dirt (moving around). We're seeing a lot more wear and tear on the streets."

Leading the discussion were committee members Lyman; Mike McNeil, assistant chief of police; Brian Christiansen, street superintendent; and Dennis Keierleber, building official.

The committee has been meeting weekly to find ways to deal with construction-related problems. The outcome of the meetings is a draft ordinance, which was presented to the group of nearly 50 people Thursday.

Major topics in the draft are construction site standards, traffic safety, transportation, cost recovery and definitions of words to help clarify meanings and expectations.

"We want to make the citizens of the community happy, and we want to mitigate some of these problems we've been having for five or 10 years," McNeil said.

Contractors attending the meeting expressed concerns about taking responsibility for issues like speeding, which some believe should be the city's to deal with. They also expressed concerns about the costs associated with additional mitigation requirements such as screening devices, and the fairness of targeting a specific industry for its impacts on the city.

"(Why not) extend it to other businesses?" asked builder Brian Poster. "Atkinson's ... has a whole street closed for delivery. You're talking some serious impact there. You're targeting the industry (construction) that in my opinion fills the coffers more than any industry up here. I agree there's room for improvement, but you've got to spread the pain."

Among the committee's suggestions are:

- A resolution on the books should be changed to put the responsibility on general contractors for abiding by city laws.

- Contractors should submit detailed construction management plans to the city. That would generate a project-specific checklist for enforcement of violations. The contractor should provide a deposit that can be used to enforce ordinance compliance.

- The city should create a few parking spaces for each project, marking them off for permitted vehicles. All other construction project vehicles would have to park elsewhere, like the River Run parking lot, and carpool or take the bus to the construction site.

- People parking inside that zone would be subject to tickets.

- Repercussions for violations should include punitive fines, criminal citations or suspension or revocation of permits.

- Storage of materials should be on-site.

- The city's noise ordinance should be moved into the nuisance ordinance to make it easier to enforce.

The idea of screening a site with an 8-foot fence met with some resistance, although screening options could include existing shrubs, fences or structures.

The committee also suggested creating a construction mitigation officer position to monitor and enforce construction violations.

The new ordinances and its provisions could apply to existing construction projects.

"These standards haven't been here in the past, so we're not pointing fingers at anybody," Lyman said.

The committee is looking for more input on the draft ordinance before sending a recommendation to the City Council.

"Our goal is to have it in front of the council by March," Lyman said. "We want to have this all spelled out for (this) construction season."




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