Sun Valley Co. cleared the first hurdle toward building its 138-acre River Run base village when the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission made a unanimous recommendation Thursday to annex the county land into the city.
But many more hurdles remain between the company and its first shovelful of dirt at the base of Bald Mountain.
The P&Z's recommendation now awaits approval by the City Council. That decision will most likely take two to three meetings and is tentatively planned for the second week of December, said Lisa Horowitz, Ketchum community and economic development director.
The P&Z also still needs to review the developer's planned unit development proposal for 19 acres within the annexation where the 110-foot-tall hotel would be built along with 35,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants. The commission will either recommend for or against the PUD on Nov. 10. And just like the annexation, the PUD will also need City Council approval.
"After that, the ball's in Sun Valley's court," Horowitz said.
The company will bear the arduous task of designing all the condominiums and cabins, not to mention the hotel, its plaza and amenities. So far, every building is entirely conceptual. On the design plans, singularly colored blocks represent each structure.
Sun Valley Co. designers have said that even when designs are created, current economic conditions could stall construction for possibly 15 years.
Even though Sun Valley Co. is looking at a long stretch of road ahead, Thursday night was a time for celebration on the part of the commission as well as the resort. After the unanimous vote, Co-Chair Deborah Burns described the "collaboration" as "Ketchum and Sun Valley connected," while holding back her tears.
Co-Chair Rich Fabiano defined the recommendation—arrived at in a trio of three-and-a-half-hour public hearings—as "historic."
"I think we're all going to look back on this and smile," he said.
Despite the P&Z's fervor following its approval, neither the commissioners nor Ketchum residents let the proposal pass without addressing concerns in detail.
Commissioners took particular interest in community housing options, how the resort might compete with downtown Ketchum businesses, and people's demand for an "active" park.
Commissioners and developers heard an earful on Tuesday and Wednesday night from paragliders and soccer players who all said Sun Valley Co. should provide a few acres for a flat, grass-covered park. The city calls these kinds of parks "active" parks because they're used for activities like soccer, Frisbee and football.
The city's Parks and Recreation Department demanded a three- to six-acre park somewhere on the property for that purpose. And the soccer community submitted a petition, signed by about 40 Ketchum residents, asking for the same thing at last Wednesday's meeting.
Sun Valley Co. development consultant Becky Zimmerman originally said at the onset of the meetings that the company "can't accommodate that here or bear the cost of that anywhere."
But two days later, Zimmerman and Sun Valley Co. came to the P&Z with a compromise.
She said the company would donate, to Ketchum a 1.2-acre bare parcel at the northern edge of the property west of Third Avenue to be made into a park. The land is next to the city boundary and existing apartments.
Zimmerman, president of Denver-based resort-planning firm Design Workshop, said the company was originally going to use that space for community or workforce housing for 38-50 people. She said that under the change, new housing would be built somewhere else on the base village property, elsewhere in Ketchum or in Sun Valley.
Commissioners said they wanted the option to purchase two adjacent acres to assure that the park is big enough. Whether that happens is up to the City Council and Sun Valley Co. during their annexation deliberations.
However, a park wasn't what most worried the P&Z in granting its annexation recommendation Thursday. Commissioners wanted assurance that the 35,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants wouldn't take business from Ketchum's downtown, and proposed an 800-square-foot maximum on each retail business. Businesses could go beyond that limit but would need approval by the P&Z.
"This will kill the project," Zimmerman said. "When a city government becomes a retail-leasing agent, that doesn't work."
She said the resort needs "flexibiility" to respond to what's popular and argued the business Sun Valley Co. brings would benefit everyone.
"The rising tide is going to affect everyone," she said, countering commissioners' arguments that guests would get all they need at the resort and would never come into town.
Zimmerman said guests go out to dinner more than once and will venture into town.
In the end, the commission dropped the square-foot limitation.
"But we need a guarantee that this thing isn't going to suck the life out of town," Burns said.
The end compromise was wording in the commission's "Recommended Conditions of Approval" that retail space must relate to hotel guest needs, which Zimmerman agreed to.
Another demand of the P&Z was a real-estate transfer fee, which would take 0.5 percent of each residential unit at the time of a sale. That money would be handed over to the city for building community housing. Horowitz said estimated total revenue from that would be between $3.9 million and $7.9 million, but it's a "very preliminary estimate" since properties aren't even designed yet.
Just like the active park, whether that happens will be up to the City Council and Sun Valley Co. at their annexation meetings. All the demands coming from the P&Z are only "recommended conditions of approval." The council will have the final say next month.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
