Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Imagining the future for Friedman land


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

What they lacked in numbers they made up in a blizzard of ideas.

Only a handful of Hailey residents—seven, to be precise—showed up for the first of two public brainstorming sessions to share their ideas on how Friedman Memorial Airport's land should be developed once the airfield is closed and a replacement airport is opened.

Friedman's land is a hybrid mass. About half the 211 acres was donated by the pioneer Friedman family to the city of Hailey in the early 1900s, the other half has been bought over time with Federal Aviation Administration funds. The FAA half will be sold off to help pay for a new airport and the Friedman family half will revert to family ownership under terms of the donation.

Heirs of the Friedman family reportedly have indicated to the city that some of the land would be donated for public uses.

Ultimately, however, the city of Hailey's land-use and zoning policies will control how all the land—perhaps the largest single, soon-to-be-vacant urban tract in Idaho—will eventually be developed.

For more than two hours in a virtually empty Hailey City Hall meeting room, City Planning Director Beth Robrahn led the seven-person audience to offer ideas on how the airport property should be developed.

The seven—engineer Jason McIlhaney and his wife, architect Gurmukh Khalsa; real estate agent Mark Reinemann; architect Jay Cone; developer Jamie Coulter; former Hailey Mayor and current Friedman Memorial governing board member Susan McBryant; and Friedman Operations Manager Peter Kramer—responded with rapid-fire suggestions.

Ideas ranged across the spectrum of business, social, economic and environmental possibilities.

They included a business park, a discovery center for learning adventures, a public greenhouse for growing flowers and foods, lodging and convention center, venues for music and entertainment, soccer fields, retail core, a separate, self-contained "community," college campus, small spaces for incubating new businesses and industry, a network of pedestrian, bike and shuttle routes and a greenbelt.

Another public discussion on the airport land's future will be held Thursday, Dec. 17, from 6-8 p.m. at the Hailey City Hall's second-floor meeting room.




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