After receiving the green light for its new gun club subdivision earlier this year, Sun Valley Co. is now turning its focus to its 160-acre property at River Run.
Resort General Manager Wally Huffman presented his preliminary vision to the Ketchum City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as members of the public, at a workshop held at the River Run Day Lodge on Wednesday evening.
Huffman said that the plans for the land closely resemble those that were first presented in 2004, including a hotel and various types of residential units.
"We're not looking to overbuild," Huffman said. "But we want what we think the land can support."
However, in order to build any of what was discussed, the company must go through Ketchum's planning process, as mandated by the area of city impact agreement between Ketchum and Blaine County, where the parcel is currently located.
As well, one of the major moves by Sun Valley Co. would be to have the property annexed into Ketchum in order to take advantage of the density allowed by the city's tourist zoning.
"We want this to be a neighborhood of Ketchum, not and isolated resort village," said Becky Zimmerman, president of Design Workshop, the Denver-based resort-planning firm contracted by Sun Valley Co.
"The capacity of the land will determine what we can build and how much," she said.
Zimmerman described how the property would be broken up into separate zones, largely along geographical contours, for the various products.
One zone would include a hotel at the base of River Run in close proximity to the existing lodge and chair lifts. Huffman said that he anticipates it would house 150 to 170 rooms, and have minimal retail space in order not to compete with businesses in downtown Ketchum.
On the bench to the east, incorporating the land now known as the upper parking lot, would sit multi-family condominiums, along with community housing. Zimmerman said these would likely be kept to two or three levels to fit in with the existing neighborhood to the north.
Directly south of this zone, on the land now used for snow storage by the city, would be townhomes. And in the southeast corner would be large, single-family lots.
New for this iteration of the master plan is a potential nature preserve in the southwest corner of the parcel.
As well, the plan includes a community park with playing fields, although the location has yet to be determined, and a large parking structure.
In total, Zimmerman said only 83 acres of the property are suitable for development. The remainder is either protected wetlands or within the city's hillside ordinance.
While no specifics were given on Wednesday in regard to the numbers or sizes of the different development aspects, the master plan from four years ago called for up to 478 residential units, a four- to five-story hotel and parking for 1,500 cars.
However, it wasn't the potential size of the development that garnered the most comments during the meeting, but rather the potential of creating a gondola to connect River Run to downtown Ketchum and the Sun Valley resort village.
"It's funny that we have a development of hundreds of hot beds and it keeps circling back to the gondola," Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall said.
Councilman Curtis Kemp suggested looking into a trolley system as an alternative, noting that this would have a lower development cost than a gondola and also provide ties to Ketchum's history with the Pacific Union Railroad.
While the economy is not conducive to large development projects right now, Huffman said that this is the perfect time to begin the annexation and entitlement process in order to be prepared for development when the economy rebounds.
Ketchum Community and Economic Development Director Lisa Horowitz said that thought the annexation and entitlement process could possibly take around a year and may start in February or March of 2009.
The Ketchum City Council and Planning & Zoning Commission listened as representatives from Sun Valley Co. explained the preliminary plans for the annexation and development of the resort’s 160-acre parcel at River Run. The plans include a hotel, residential units and a large parking structure. Photo by David N. Seelig
