The owners of 271 Main St. in Ketchum, the vacant lot that used to house Dirty Little Roddy's night club, now have two years rather than six months to retain the "grandfather" status of the property.
At a meeting on Monday, the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission approved an application by George Kirk and Robert Kantor to amend city code regulating the reconstruction or restoration of non-conforming buildings.
The applicants' building was destroyed in a fire in September that also claimed the neighboring Whiskey Jacques'.
Because of the age of the buildings, which helped characterize Ketchum as a Western-style town, they were not subject to Ketchum code requiring on-site parking and the creation of affordable housing.
Before passage of the amendment, the owners would have had a mere six months from the time of the fire to commence reconstruction and another six months for completion. That means they would have had to start breaking ground on a new building by March 15, a deadline Kirk called impossible during an interview last month.
Instead, they now have two years to obtain a building permit, one year more than that generally allotted to new construction. A similar allowance was recently granted to Ketchum developer Jack Bariteau for his Hotel Ketchum.
"This modernizes this section of the code and brings it up to a timeframe reasonable in this day and age," Ketchum City Planner Sid Rivers said.
Ketchum attorney Ed Lawson, representing the applicants at the meeting, said six months is barely enough time to engage an architect and develop a design for a new building. As well, he said that with the state of the economy, it would be difficult to acquire the necessary financing.
After receiving a building permit, a developer has two years to complete construction.
Though Kirk said in the previous interview that some preliminary plans have been drawn up for a new building, one would not be built until the owners obtained a commitment from a tenant.
Rivers said any additional square footage above the approximately 5,600 square feet of the original building could require some parking and affordable housing, determined by the additional square footage and the use of that space.
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
