For the week of May 29 - June 4, 2002

Council rejects hillside moratorium

City to work on mountain overlay ordinance

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum’s hillside property owners may continue to propose new homes and construction projects—at least for now.

The Ketchum City Council Thursday declined to institute a 120-day emergency moratorium on construction of buildings in the city’s mountain overlay zone. A motion by Councilman Randy Hall to enact the moratorium, which was suggested by Mayor Ed Simon at an emergency noon meeting, died without a second.

But just an hour earlier, the council had expressed unanimous support for the idea. Public comments, including those from a man who contended the city was reacting to his pending proposal, swayed most council members’ opinions, they said.

For more than a year the city has been struggling to keep abreast of the rapid pace of residential construction in hillside areas, particularly along Sage Road in Warm Springs canyon. Two years ago, city leaders took notice when a Knob Hill home was built, complete with a 59-foot-tall facade facing Walnut Avenue. The city revised the way it calculates building heights in response.

And last winter the city’s hillsides fell into the limelight again when a company called Hillside Ventures excavated a massive hole along Sage Road before fitting a duplex into it. Residents, fearing rock slides or avalanches and upset with the massive eyesore, demanded the city take action.

Ketchum’s leaders have since adopted a resolution requiring developers and contractors to submit construction mitigation plans delineating parking, materials storage and probable traffic routes, to name a few.

But the combination of massive excavations, added construction, potential hillside stability issues and another, recently discovered loophole in the city’s height restrictions spurred Mayor Simon to propose the moratorium.

Also, pointed out Planning Administrator Lisa Horowitz, up to three new Sage Road duplexes may be immanent an another six units could soon be proposed in other hillside areas of the city. Two new Sage Road projects were approved last winter.

"I think that we’ve heard things for some time, but yesterday we got some serious indications that things were coming," Horowitz said.

Lawmakers pointed to the potential for a glut of projects in a relatively small neighborhood as evidence for a moratorium and ordinance changes.

"What we’ve learned from this is that we have serious deficiencies in our ordinance," Simon said in defense of the moratorium. "I believe in this case we’re trying to protect the public health, safety and welfare."

However, the emergency ordinance was proposed just a day after Michael Carpenter asked the city for advice regarding the pending construction of a Sage Road home.

"I’m really struggling with that," he said. "The moratorium happens the day after I am open and honest with our planning department. If I had played hide-and-seek, if I hadn’t come forward, there would be no moratorium meeting."

Mayor Simon emphatically said the moratorium meeting was not in response to Carpenter’s proposal.

"The intention is not to stop your proposal," he said.

Moratorium aside, the city council and the public generally agreed that the city should further investigate the adequacy of its ordinances regarding hillside construction and construction in concentrated areas.

"Whatever happens today, I think we all agree that we need to roll up our sleeves and get some things fixed," Councilman Maurice Charlat said. "The contractors have got to come to the party, and they aren’t there yet."

Charlat said the city needs to orchestrate a discussion between contractors, hillside property owners and policy makers.

Ketchum-based engineer Dick Fosbury spurred that discussion.

"Give us an opportunity to work something out," he said. "It just doesn’t seem like there is an emergency."

 

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