Brothers Chip and Whit Atkinson, owners of Atkinsons' Market, have sat quietly at repeated Ketchum city meetings while others voiced their opinions on allowing a competing grocery store in town.
Neither brother had said a peep until Monday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. This remained true throughout the meeting, but Chip sent a letter to the P&Z the same day voicing his objections to the proposed Ketchum Market.
Chip said he's against the market not because of the added competition but because of the repercussions to the city.
The market is proposed on the former Stock Building Supply property between Lewis and Tenth streets on Warm Springs Road in the Light Industrial zone, an area of the city that doesn't allow grocery stores.
Jim Laski, attorney for Ketchum Market developer Valmark Inc., has suggested an amendment to the zone that would allow retail—such as a grocery store—as long as the business employs at least 25 full-time workers and operates all year. The amendment would also require businesses to be under single ownership and provide community housing equal to 20 percent of floor area.
Chip argued that allowing the grocery store in the light-industrial area would hurt the zone, and the city.
"The new ordinance essentially creates an 'anything goes' zone," he said. "Hire enough employees at minimum-wage jobs, meet the housing requirements and one can operate virtually any business."
He argued that the city would lose its light-industrial businesses if Valmark's amendment goes through, and said the commercial core is where grocers belong.
All commissioners agreed that the LI zone needs to be retained for traditional uses, but the P&Z was split on Ketchum Market, and if it can be allowed without watering down the LI.
Commissioners Michael Doty, Rich Fabiano and Deborah Burns were adamant against the grocery store in the Stock Lumber location, regardless of how tight-knit the exception may be in an attempt to exclude retail from creeping into the LI.
"I have a problem, period, with a grocery store there," Fabiano said.
He said he remembers when the LI was full of businesses—and retail of any kind shouldn't be allowed to fill currently empty space as an economic fix.
"You have to look at the future," he said, adding that the LI must be allowed to come back.
He, Doty and Burns argued that the commercial core—where Atkinsons' Market is located—is the place for grocery stores regardless of a perceived lack of parking.
Burns said the town is always talking about "vitality, vitality, vitality." She said the Fourth Street corridor and Ketchum Town Square are finally finished, and this would move people away from the downtown area.
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Chip Atkinson was of the same opinion.
"The town plaza is finally complete," Atkinson said in his letter, "so it makes no sense to lure shoppers away from it by creating a satellite retail core."
He argued that grocery stores belong downtown, such as at the former Williams Market site on Main Street.
But the city doesn't "outright" allow a grocery store in the commercial core either. In fact, no area of the city automatically allows grocery stores as a permitted use. Even in the commercial core, a grocery store is only a conditional use, meaning they're not allowed as a matter of right and must go through the public-hearing process.
The P&Z needs to decide in which zone it wants grocery stores, said Lisa Horowitz, Ketchum's director of community and economic development. She said staff recommends the commercial core and also allowing grocery stores in the LI as a conditional use.
Laski said Valmark Inc. is willing to explore these options and possibly narrowing the amendment to only allow grocery stores.
The P&Z will return on Aug. 9 to discuss the zoning issue.
If the P&Z decides not to allow a grocery store, period, in the LI, the Ketchum Market plan is dead in the water.
However, Commissioner Steve Cook said he's "very open" to a grocery store at the proposed site, as did Commissioner Sam Williams, as long as the details are ironed out to retain light-industrial business.
Only half the story
Ketchum Market brings to light another overarching city issue: Warm Springs Road.
Engineers proposed at the last P&Z meeting on June 28, that a peanut-shaped roundabout be added to Warm Springs Road to solve the road's awkward intersections at Tenth and Lewis streets, and mitigate expected traffic increases to the already busy road.
City Engineer Steven Yearsley presented a timeline on Monday, and said the Lewis Street-Warm Springs Road roundabout would be constructed immediately, and the other half of the peanut would be constructed in 2014, in Phase 3.
All commissioners except Burns were in favor of the roundabout.
However, Phase 2 of road changes still hangs in the air surrounded in contention. This phase entails severing Warm Springs Road's connection to Main Street and rerouting that southbound Warm Springs traffic down Seventh Street.
Warm Springs Road would no longer be north Ketchum's connector to downtown. Yearsley said that job would fall to Tenth Street, another reason for a roundabout at this intersection. He said Tenth Street would be re-graded to a more gradual decline from Highway 75, and a stoplight would be added there.
But investigation has shown that re-grading the 10-percent-grade road would be more difficult than anticipated and harmful to adjacent businesses because of the fill needed.
And, Yearsley said, the plan calls for lowering the grade only 1 percent using 1 foot of fill.
"It's a tough situation," he said, adding that to get to 7 percent grade, about 5 feet of fill would be needed, hurting businesses even more.
Greg Moss, owner of Moss Garden Center near Seventh Street and Warm Springs Road, said he travels Tenth Street every day, and making it the main connector would be "an absolute disaster."
Commissioners Doty, Burns, and Fabiano were also of the opinion that Tenth can't become the new Warm Springs Road.
"I think Tenth is terrible," Fabiano said, adding that a 1 percent grade reduction "doesn't solve a thing."
Regardless of Tenth Street being changed, Yearsley advised the roundabout be constructed on Warm Springs Road.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
