In an attempt to bring one or more new hotels to Ketchum in the near future, the City Council has approved an ordinance that will exempt them from the city's community housing requirement.
At their meeting on Monday, Dec. 17, Ketchum council members sought to attract potential hoteliers with the housing waiver, but also emphasized the short-term aim of the ordinance by including a sunset clause mandating that a developer must obtain a building permit by June 1, 2010.
"The waiver is an incentive to get hotels in as soon as possible, as shown by the deadline," Councilman Baird Gourlay said.
Without the waiver, a hotel developer would be required to provide community housing equaling 20 percent of the gross floor area of the development.
However, the ordinance does not exempt hotels from providing housing for their own employees. Hotel developers will have to house 25 percent of their employees, calculated by a formula of one employee per hotel room or bedroom.
The city will require hotel developers to submit employee-housing plans that outline the number of employees and the income categories provided for with housing.
While members of the public voiced concerns regarding the potential development of a five-story hotel and traffic problems on Warm Springs Road, the council found it imperative to approve the ordinance without further delay to show that the city is serious about construction of a hotel. However, even with the ordinance in place, council members expressed anxiety over the possibility of Warm Springs property owners' creating residential developments instead.
"This is purely an incentive ordinance," Gourlay said. "There's nothing keeping someone from coming in and building entirely residential."
Mayor Randy Hall asked City Attorney Ben Worst to look into the possibility of instituting another building moratorium at the Base of Warm Springs, stating that the creation of retail space, and the presence of hotels to support it, is necessary to the vitality of the area.
"We are at a tipping point," Hall said of the challenge to make Warm Springs an economically viable part of town for retailers. "If that block becomes all residential, we might as well give up. Every time we lose the opportunity for retail space, it's the kiss of death down there."
In other Ketchum news, the City Council appointed Larry Helzel and Curtis Kemp, both of whom will begin terms on the council in January, to the Ketchum Renewal Agency. The pair will replace current council members Terry Tracy and Steve Shafran.
Baird Gourlay
