The lead developer planning to build a community-housing project in downtown Ketchum has changed the date for an online event to gather public comment on the concept and design of the project.
GMD Development, in partnership with the Ketchum Community Development Corp., will conduct an online event via Zoom at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9. Go to the project website, www.bluebirdketchum.com, for the Zoom link and/or dial-in information.
GMD Development plans to release a design for the project on Saturday, Feb. 6, on its website.
The developer had planned to release a design on Jan. 30 and to hold the Zoom event on Feb. 5. Those dates no longer apply.
The development team has already held two Zoom meetings to gather public comment on the project. It is using the feedback to refine the applications it is preparing to submit to the city of Ketchum, said lead developer Greg Dunfield, of GMD Development.
The project calls for 56 units of workforce housing at 480 East Ave., the site of Ketchum City Hall. The city plans to move its operations to a new site on Fifth Street later this year. The development was awarded federal tax credits last year, enabling it to move forward with the city application and review process.
The city of Ketchum has developed an informational page about the project on its website, which can be viewed at https://www.ketchumidaho.org/planning-building/project/bluebird-village-project.
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You guys should do some actual reporting rather than free advertorials for the developer. If you were on the city council meeting on 2/1 where they voted to proceed with the Marriott, you would have learned that the Marriott will only house 23 workers on site. Note that Ketchum has 2.1% unemployment, and these are low paid hotel jobs. Where will those workers come from? Not many from our community. they will come from miles away and will need housing. But the Marriott doesn't need to worry where they will be housed.
The Mayor/Council have given the land away to build precisely the number of beds the Marriott needs to house the rest of the workers--its' Bluebird! And the income restrictions for Bluebird housing will match up nicely with the low pay scale of the hotel. You cannot make this stuff up.
It's a neat little package. Well not that little. It's really quite massive. We get a massive 6-story hotel on a 1 1/2 acre lot at the entrance to town, that thousands of people have told the city they don't want, and then we get the privilege to pay for the massive apartment building in our retail core to house the imported hotel workers at subsidized rent.
Why does the City Council go along with all of this? Only one city council member, before voting to approve it, acknowledge that the community is against the hotel. Another Council Member said that we elect them to make the decisions for us, and our opposition to these kinds of things is not germaine. Who do they work for? The people or developers?
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