The pre-application for Ketchum Market shows a 31,500-square-foot grocery store and a stand-alone, 3,155-square-foot drugstore. About 7,300 square feet of affordable housing, or 10 units, are proposed above the store, with about 98 parking places on site. Courtesy graphic
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Ridicule rose the second that Ketchum resident Neil Bradshaw stepped behind the lectern and impassionately spoke into the microphone, as he'd done several times on the issue.
"You must consider the unintended consequences of a cheaper tomato," Bradshaw said at Ketchum's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Monday, claiming that allowing grocery stores in Ketchum's light-industrial area would push out industrial businesses and lead to the downtown's demise by creating a satellite retail area.
An inordinately large audience filled City Hall, every chair occupied from front to back wall. And the crowd's rumbling remarks, rivaling Bradshaw's in volume, made something abundantly clear. The audience disagreed.
Public comment for the night numbered 13-4 in favor of a zoning amendment that would allow grocery stores in Ketchum's largest light-industrial area. The ratio of P&Z support was similar. The P&Z voted 3-1 in favor of the zoning change. The fifth commissioner, Michael Doty, recused himself because he's working on Roxy's Market, at the former site of Williams Market downtown.
The amendment must be approved by the City Council to become policy. If approved, that wouldn't mean any and all grocery stores would automatically be permitted in the light-industrial area, spanning north to south from Saddle Road to Tenth Street and east to west from state Highway 75 to a little west of Lewis Street. This amendment would make grocery stores a conditional use, meaning the city could enact certain requirements case by case as it sees fit, on top of the base requirements. Those would include parking.
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Under the base requirements included in the amendment—as proposed by developers of Ketchum Market at the former Stock Building Supply site on Warm Springs Road within the affected area—are that the business meet the city's definition of a grocery store. This definition has yet to be determined but will be taken up at the P&Z's Oct. 11 meeting. This limitation is meant to exclude other retail from creeping into the light-industrial area. The store must also employ at least 25 full-time equivalent employees and provide deed-restricted community housing or payment to build it.
Without this zoning amendment, Ketchum Market couldn't be built. Its developers presented preliminary design plans to the P&Z early this year, but design review has been on hold pending consideration of the zoning change.
The amendment originally limited grocery store ownership to one person, but City Attorney Stephanie Bonney said that couldn't be done. She also warned that if two stores are exactly the same in layout and fit the city's grocery definition, the city can't discriminate against one because it's corporation-owned and not family-owned.
This needed to be emphasized because Commissioners Deborah Burns and especially Rich Fabiano, the only dissenting vote, repeatedly stated they don't want a "Walgreens" or "Wal-Mart" in Ketchum.
"I don't think we can regulate how someone runs their business," Commissioner Sam Williams told Fabiano and Burns. "That's not our call."
Bonney said a big-box store could be legally prevented within the grocery definition, outlining prohibited uses, such as clothing sales.
Even so, Commissioner Fabiano said the LI zone shouldn't be sacrificed to create economic stimulus in the short term. He argued that once the light-industrial uses are lost, it can't be regained.
"It's a big mistake," Fabiano said. "Trust me."
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
