It's one of the largest undeveloped pieces of land in the northern Wood River Valley, and development proposals for the Warm Springs Ranch Resort are correspondingly grand.
Anticipated for the 77-acre site are a 380,000- to 540,000-square-foot hotel including condominium suites and fractional-ownership units. The development would also include 75,000 square feet of townhouses, a spa and fitness center, meeting and banquet space, high-end restaurant, nine-hole golf course, hiking and biking trails, up to 400 above- and below-ground parking spaces and up to 41 units of affordable housing.
Building heights would push 90 feet, a full 60 feet above the grade of Warm Springs Road, and the development would range between 600,000 and 760,000 square feet of gross floor area.
Developers with the Warm Springs Ranch Resort returned to the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday, Nov. 13, during a regular P&Z meeting, for their second pre-application design review hearing. Pre-application design review gives developers an idea what P&Z commissioners are thinking before they return to the drawing board to draft more detailed plans.
About 100 Ketchum residents packed City Hall for the hearing and expressed a range of views on the large proposal, and it took them nearly 90 minutes to voice opinions on the plan. Opinions ranged from dismay at the project's size and scope to reception of the improved economic vitality such a project could generate.
Developer Helios Development and DDRM Greatplaces LLC have proposed two design alternatives, which they labeled 8A and 8B. Both scenarios establish very different mixtures of hotel rooms, condominiums and amenities.
"The Warm Springs Ranch Resort project will commit to build a five-star hotel resort project somewhere within the range of these two programs, 8A and 8B," according to a summary of the projects submitted to the city by the developers.
Ketchum contract planner Lisa Horowitz summarized concerns from area residents and P&Z commissioners by saying height, bulk and traffic were cause for the majority of concerns. That said, "everyone liked that it would be a very progressive green building project," Horowitz said.
From a planning perspective, the project is unique in most every regard.
The site properties are made up of several lots, and of the 77.04-acre total, 65.51 acres are in Blaine County. As part of the approval process, the developers wish for all of that acreage to be annexed into Ketchum.
Approval would also include endorsement of a conditional use permit for a planned unit development, zoning designations for newly annexed land and a formal hotel application. The developers are also seeking waivers to road right-of-way width for Bald Mountain Road, which accesses the site, and front yard setbacks.
Further, the development is in-part contingent on the Bureau of Land Management's transfer of 1.62 acres of public land that splits Warm Springs Ranch along the northeast toe of Bald Mountain. The majority of the private property is north of Bald Mountain, but 18 acres are on the east side of Baldy facing Ketchum.
"The next steps in the processing of the sale proposal include acquiring an updated appraisal and a new environmental analysis once a final design from (the developer) is received," writes BLM Field Manager Lori Armstrong in a July 18 letter to the city of Ketchum.
Armstrong said a third party has been contracted to complete such work.
Further, the project anticipates restoration of riparian areas along Warm Springs Creek and preservation of the old growth Douglas fir forests in the area. Electric vehicles are anticipated for on-site transportation. Energy efficient lighting and heating are planned.
"The developers realize that this project will impact housing availability in the community due to its employee needs," the developers write. "We are proposing an aggressive workforce housing program on site. We acknowledge the need to provide workforce housing for the success of the project."
Plan 8A anticipates 30 community workforce housing units with a total of 32,800 square feet. Plan 8B anticipates 41 units with a total of 40,600 square feet.
"We recognize the city's preference for workforce housing on site and we concur," the developers write. "We also know from experience and research that many hotel employees, especially senior and some mid-level managers, to not like to live on the property where they work, especially if they have families."
For that reason, Warm Springs Ranch Resort also plans to address housing some employees off-site as well.
P&Z commissioners displayed a range of concerns and feedback.
Commissioner Anne Corrock expressed the most concern over the development's proposed size and scope.
She said in a follow-up interview that it's unlikely the project would ever get her support as proposed this week.
"It's too big," she said, "especially for its location, which is right in the center of a residential part of the community where we have working people and full-time residents living, and I don't want to run them off."
Commissioner Sam Williams said reducing some of the underground parking would enable building heights to come down.
Commissioner Deborah Burns requested more thorough computer-generated renderings of how the development would look from nearby Warm Springs Road.
Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall did not attend the meeting, but in a Thursday interview he restated an oft-heard theme of late, and that is that Ketchum is interested in getting a new high-end hotel development off the ground.
"We desperately need hotels in this community to help revitalize our town. That much is clear," he said. "We have a great opportunity with the Warm Springs Ranch property to make that work and to keep a golf course."
Hall said there are so many moving parts to the proposal that it is difficult at this early stage to opine.
Plan Key
3 Townhomes (26 units)
4 Warm Springs Restaurant / golf clubhouse
5 Warm Springs Hotel entry court
6 Warm Springs core hotel buildings (75 guestrooms, 45 condominium suites, 30 branded fractional units, 35 residences)
7 Workforce housing (41 units)
Warm Springs Ranch is now a sleepy 77-acre property, but its development potential was revealed Tuesday night before the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission. The site could be home to a hotel, condominiums, new golf course and considerable workforce housing. Photo by David N. Seelig
