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Rendering courtesy Trail Creek Fund LLC The Hotel Ketchum would be a 73-foot-tall hotel built at the southeast intersection of Main and River streets in Ketchum. The Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission, however, is still wondering where such projects would house their employees.
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A hotel would house guests, but where will its employees live?
The Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission continued to wrestles with this question Monday evening.
After hearing a pre-application design presentation for the Hotel Ketchum, one of several efforts in the works to build a major, quality hotel in town, the P&Z decided it needed a workshop to get more information about employee housing for all of the proposed projects, specifically whether it should be on- or off-site.
Dovetailing with where dozens of employees for major hotels would live, was the question of where will those employees come from?
City contract planner Lisa Horowitz, the city's former planning director, urged the commission to wait for another presentation from a different applicant to gain more insight. Planning Director Harold Moniz said hoteliers want to be able to negotiate the solutions.
"Every (hotel) site is unique," Moniz said.
Moniz said the commission needed to make a recommendation to the City Council on housing policy because the council was hearing "disorganization" from hotel applicants. We may end up with a policy, he said, adding, "I'm not sure what we end up with."
Ketchum architect Dale Bates, who is involved with a Warm Springs hotel proposal, also thought there was confusion.
"They (hotels) don't know what the rules are," he said.
Horowitz asked if hotels are "so different" for off-site housing, or should every new project in town be required to provide employee housing?
"They are different," said Commissioner Sam Williams. "Where are these employees coming from?"
Those discussions came during a public hearing on amendments to zoning regulations over community housing requirements for hotels within the Community Core. The amendments were shelved after commissioners decided to convene a workshop.
Horowitz suggested that any housing policy be applied across different zoning areas especially if it were in the form of a resolution, adding that Ketchum hotel applicants had differing opinions on the matter. Commissioner Deborah Burns said there needed to be a distinction between workforce and community housing.
Jack Bariteau, whose Trail Creek Fund LLC is proposing the 73-room Hotel Ketchum at Highway 75 and River Street, sounded a caveat to the commission. If the housing issue gets too big and unwieldy it will discourage hotel builders, he said.
"The deals are dead," he said. "They simply can't afford it."
Bariteau said on-site housing for his hotel could be impractical because their site is smaller than other proposed hotel locations such as Warm Springs. Commissioners noted that even hotel applicants with ample land might not wish to have on-site employee housing.
Hotel Ketchum would require 90 to 100 employees, Bariteau said.
"We need to provide workforce housing," he said, adding his team was not sure how to do it. "We can't do something too extreme."
Hotel Ketchum is a complicated project, and it could be three years from the start of construction before any heads land on any pillows, Bariteau said. He suggested that perhaps the city could contribute the land for an employee housing project.
Vail, Colo., sold a 500-unit housing complex to developers for employee housing, Horowitz said. But the idea of concentrating employees in one massive housing complex did not sit well with some.
That is not a "good solution," said Moniz, adding that employee housing would be better "dispersed" through the community.
Commissioner Rich Fabiano agreed. "Not in my backyard," he said.
Before a separate public hearing on the Hotel Ketchum design, Commissioner Curtis Kemp recused himself and took a seat in the audience because he owns property in the area.
Horowitz and Bariteau gave a design presentation for the hotel with the help of the architect, Mark Hornberger, of the San Francisco firm, Hornberger + Worstell. Some commissioners and local residents praised the design but some thought it too large.
"It's a very large, massive building," said P&Z Chairwoman Anne Corrock.
Commissioner Fabiano also liked the design but not the size. "In my mind, proportionately it looks a little tall," he said.
Commissioners decided to have a walking tour of the Hotel Ketchum site, and the developers will come up with some 3-D models.
Brad Cleveland, a homeowner in the area, praised the design but thought a hotel property line might cut through his driveway. He suggested there may have been an illegal lot split years ago, and he asked the commission for some legal clarification.
