The question that faces Ketchum regarding construction of new hotels is if not now, then when?
If the city listens to those who oppose new hotels on any number of scores—wrong place, breadth, height, traffic, worker housing—it could seal the valley's fate for decades to come. For as Ketchum and Sun Valley go, so goes the Wood River Valley.
Next week, the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission will review, take public comment, and decide if to recommend annexation and construction of the proposed Warm Springs Ranch Resort.
It's critical that hotel supporters appear and testify at the public hearing set next Wednesday, June 11, at 5:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church on the corner of Warm Springs and Saddle roads.
The project is to include a five-star, 75-room hotel, 45 condominium suites—all to be offered as hotel rentals. In addition, plans call for 30 fractionally owned units, 35 residences, 25 villas, 27 townhomes and 2 estate houses of 6,000 square feet each, workforce housing units for 71 employees, a restaurant, pool, conference space and parking structure. Of 78.39 acres in the project, 70 acres are to be open space.
If Ketchum will not allow the first new construction of a luxury hotel since 1936 when the Sun Valley Lodge was built, how much longer will it wait? How much longer can its economy hang on after losing more than 300 hotel rooms in the last few years?
Can the lovely aging dowager of ski resorts be as attractive for another 72 years and be as effective in a highly competitive arena and in difficult economic times with no eligible partners to aid her as she faces newer and bolder competitors?
Along with hotel rooms, Sun Valley has seen skier days drop since they hit their peak in the early 1980s. At the same time, other mountain resorts have expanded upscale lodging, added amenities and assured that workers have affordable places to live. These resorts have prospered.
If in the face of the difficult economic times facing the nation and the country, Ketchum will not embrace opportunities to shore up the very foundation of its economy, when will it?
If Ketchum will not support reinforcement of the foundation of its resort-based economy, what will it support? And a better question, where will it find the taxes to support public services?
On one hand, the city is already eliminating jobs to save money yet having difficulty filling others because of its high cost of living.
We can't imagine a better time for Ketchum to stimulate the local economy with construction of new upscale hotels. We can't imagine a better time for local We can't imagine a better time for residents to try to save the jobs that may be their own.
