I look forward to the day that workforce housing projects are not viewed with fear but with excitement, expectation and opportunity. For we all know that the character and soul of Ketchum is not just about our mountains and our buildings, it is about the people who live here and contribute to everyday life. It is about the folks who are integral to our community, enrich our day and bring a smile to our faces.
With every attempt to bring workforce housing to our town, complaints are voiced about location, density, traffic, parking and noise. Are those really the reasons we resist a project? Or is it a thinly veiled attempt to hide true prejudice? We are better than that, Ketchum. Rest assured, we are committed to addressing issues of real concern, but it starts with being willing to put the needs of others before our own.
We came together as a community and developed a comprehensive plan that states that “housing should be integrated into the downtown core.” We came together as a community to adopt a code that creates incentives to achieve additional housing density in the core. Furthermore, we identified the use of low-income housing tax credits as a meaningful way to produce affordable rental rates while providing the at-risk private developer a regulated return that is independently audited. Now we need to come together as a community to show that this was more than lip service and that we have the fortitude to implement our community’s vision. We can’t simply settle for words in a plan; we can only rest when the plan is realized.
I believe that we all want to find a way to allow our teachers to be able to stay on after school so that they can play in the softball league, attend trivia night, volunteer for a nonprofit or contribute to our community in many other ways. I believe we want our volunteer firefighters and paramedics to live closer so they are quicker to respond to an emergency situation. We want our service workers to avoid a long drive home and be able to help with a youth soccer team, play in the local band and participate in town life. Finally, I know we want our health-care workers to stay in our town so they can get that extra hour of sleep and be rested and better able to cope with the trauma case that they may face the next day.
Diversity is the essence of vibrant societies. It provides fresh ideas and perspectives that enhance our lives in countless ways, allowing us all to grow and thrive together. It is not only more inclusive, it is more innovative, more productive and economically more sustainable.
Housing policy is also climate policy and adding housing in walkable locations will reduce emissions. When addressing housing, much attention is focused on construction materials, energy efficiency and green building standards, all of which are needed. Yet, as we face a climate crisis, we cannot create development solutions that put more cars on the road, increase air pollution and unfairly burden lower- and middle-income communities. Land-use policies that create sprawling, auto-dependent communities exacerbate economic disparities and amplify public health problems.
As the cars stream south at the end of the workday, our lifeblood is being sucked from our core. All those vital and essential workers are leaving our town. How we treat opportunities to build affordable housing will define our community just as much as our hillside ordinance or our preservation policy. I hope we can all support our workforce housing projects so we can keep a few more smiles in Ketchum. I hope we can open our hearts and provide a warm Ketchum welcome to those needing affordable housing and to those trying to make it happen.
Neil Bradshaw is mayor of Ketchum.
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(31) comments
Blah, blah, blah. What is affordable housing? Give me a dollar amount, for a two-bedroom, bath and a half house, or condo? Is it the sole responsibility of the buyer or is there a government subsidy? Is there first-time buyer grants?
People commute an hour to an hour to an hour and half one way all the time to their place of employment to avoid the high cost of living around the eclectic in crowd, but they can visit anytime they want. Is living in the ambiance of the WRV juice worth the squeeze? It is an individual choice.
"As the cars stream south at the end of the workday, our lifeblood is being sucked from our core." What's sucking the life out of Ketchum is the endless growth, realtors and banks that create/finance the gentrification which has driven small businesses and people, to Hailey, Bellevue, Shoshone, Carey, TwinFalls anywhere but here. And don't forget the bankers from Utah that hire snarky local lawyers to distort the facts about the impact of their monstrous projects.
People comment about a vibrant community, that's what Ketchum used to be. It's not coming back.
Anyone with insight into the financing of the "Bluebird", your comments would be greatly appreciated. Are rents going to be subsidized by local tax payers forever?
The simple answer is yes. The primary vehicles are:
1. Free land worth about $5mm
2. $2mm in cash subsidies from the City and KURA
3. Forgone property taxes
4. Forgone LOT taxes
5. 40 year requirement to be low income housing
6. Developer seeking to extend that to 99 years (source: developer)
Mayor Bradshaw. We would like you to take one for the team vs. taking it from everyone else. How about putting large hotel projects or affordable housing next to your house. Oh, are you still living in Ketchum or the Valley Club?
Be careful, a tiny bit of your NIMBY-White Privilege is peaking out. Might want to cover that up before anyone else notices.
Just sayin.....
You can’t choose who you love. Just because his family lives in Hailey doesn’t mean he’s not eligible to by mayor of Ketchum.
I'm not sure that is quite fair. I would be that Mr. Bradshaw would be fine with public housing next to his condo. Frankly, so am I. Just not something that massive and out of character with Ketchum. But I get your point that Mr B seems pretty free with his spending of your money to achieve his own agenda.
So, you do a editorial about affordable housing without providing one number pertaining to the cost or how it will be funded? Is this really the mayor? If it is then I assume your goal is to make my housing UN affordable by expecting the tax payer to cover costs, is that correct?
How about next time you try and sell this you provide a little more info, besides we have affordable housing it's called Carey.
They don’t know how much it will cost. When they applied for the tax credits, they thought it would be in the $20-25mm range. Since that time constructions costs have gone way way up. They can’t answer the question because they just don’t know the answer. And yes, Ketchum taxpayers will end up massively subsidizing Bluebird with free land, direct cash payments to the project and foregone property and LOT taxes. I hope Neil thanks you for your share of the costs, but with your Carey comment I am sure he thinks he is justified with calling his opponents “prejudiced.”
Anyone out there answer this. What good ever came from affordable housing? All affordable housing does is make socialists feel good about themselves and removes the need for the ultra rich to pay a market based wage. Cheap labor for the ultra rich. That's all democrats want.
Affordable housing can keep the lifeblood of a town in the town—if done right. If done wrong, like Bluebird, it becomes a massive subsidy for an out of state hotel developer to house its underpaid staff. That is the epitome of bad mayorship—he is being “had” by the developers. He is supposed to be smarter than that.
Calling your opponents prejudiced because they disagree with you is what people in DC do, not in a real town like Ketchum. Traffic, cars, density, cost to taxpayer, etc are not prejudice. They are reasonable items to discuss openly at the community level, not behind closed doors with developers. Kind of ironic the Mayor approves the Marriott that will bring in 100 low wage jobs to Ketchum (while hotel occupancy has never warranted a 6-story hotel like this one) and it will only house 23 workers. Are the rest of these brand new residents of Ketchum (who are not teachers or EMTs or healthcare workers) moving into Bluebird? Seems like just the right solution for Marriott to solve their worker housing problem off the backs of the Ketchum taxpayer, including the teachers and healthcare workers who are struggling to stay in Ketchum. Bluebird with no parking and no windows in the bedrooms. Bluebird that will cost the town over $7mm plus lost taxes. Way to go Neil. Way to go. Was this ever about actual Ketchum workers?
"I heard a doctor say that the best medicine is is stable housing." I heard a doctor say that over crowding is bad for mental health and promotes disease.
It is time to stop fighting change and to support this project.
I get support community housing, but what makes you think Bluebird is the best of the myriad of options for this kind of housing? It's not even on a bike path or bus line! What about the hole in the ground--Build a community parking garage down low, then a floor of commercial/retail, then a floor of community housing and then a floor of penthouses. The covered city parking could charge, plus commercial rent plus luxury housing profit will pay for it all. No tax credits. No free land. No loss of property taxes. Seems a lot better for Ketchum than another big hotel on that location that the city will need to build more worker housing for low paid jobs. And lets the city realize the multi million $$$$ value of the city hall lot. Why no creative solutions and options out of the mayor? Why my way or your prejudiced?
Ketchum needs more affordable housing and the location of the Bluebird project is just right. It is walkable to all the amenities that downtown Ketchum has. I appreciate the Mayor's leadership in moving this project forward. I remember when City Hall was on Main Street and the Chamber was in the A frame in front and there were 3 or 4 gas stations there as well. It is time to start fighting change and embrace this affordable housing project.
And drivable to all the recreational activities that people who move here come for. Affordable housing in Ketchum like so many of the other units distributed through town sure--but segregated housing with a lot of cars and no parking--seems not smart.
Can I forward the increase in my taxes to you since you feel this is such a great idea? Thanks!
Do you think this is about fighting change? Or is it about fighting terrible mismanagement of city resources that could go to better community housing than units with no parking and no windows in the bedrooms in what will be the largest structure in the middle of town? If you like Bluebird, why stop at 4 stories and 56 units? Why not ask for the Mayor to build a 10 story building at this location. Seems logical per your argument.
Cities don't normally build low-income housing in the center of their tourism district. Just saying.
I support Mayor Neil's efforts to bring more affordable housing to Ketchum. Instead of the sprawl we see in so many communities, let's champion walkable, livable, sustainable towns. Bluebird Village provides an economic anchor for our town, as well as including design options such as a car share program, e-bike charging and storage, and solar power. I heard a doctor say that the best medicine is is stable housing. Decent, affordable, long term housing, means more worker productivity, better education outcomes for our children, a healthier population, and a thriving community.
What efforts? The lack of effort to build where the fire station is going up? the lack of options as if this is the only way to do it? Calling people who disagree with him prejudiced? Those aren't very respectible efforts.
Someone posted a very well reasoned argument against your position on the public comment on Bluebird at the city website. You should check out the comments there as pretty much every goal you cite will not be furthered by Bluebird. And the developer himself said on 2/9 there will be no children in Bluebird. The car sharing is an interesting one, as Bluebird is making no provisions for car sharing in the actual plans—they talk about it but have not incorporated it into the design. Smoke. And who bikes to work in the winter in Ketchum? Do you? Per the developer on 2/9 there are no current e-bike installations spec’d for Bluebird. More smoke. And they can’t seem to fit the solar panels on the roof. The elevations have them flat on the roof. The developer said on 2/9 that they would be angled like those at Northwoods. If that is true, there is no way the 4-story building is under the height limits. They will ask for a waiver for that. More smoke. As the newspaper said, Community Housing-Yes. Bluebird-No. see Ketchumidaho.org for more on Bluebird. Lots of public comments and FAQs there. None on the bluebirdketchum.org site—I wonder why?
what do you think about the parking "solution" that Jade Riley sprung on people on 2/18? Pay to park in the downtown core unless you are the beneficiary of a special parking permit. You know where they do that kind of parking? New York City. San Fransciso, Los Angeles. VAIL. What the heck are they trying to do to us?
Wow. . .. Neil sounds like an banker/out of town developer with the "Yes in My backyard" crap. Over population is not the making of a quality community. 56 unit of low income housing will do little to address the situation that the Mayor describes and will add to more congestion in Ketchum. Next year there will be a 100 new people who need housing and the next year the same. It's insulting that the Mayor puts forth this gibberish about a magical community, again he talks like a banker.
Of course, Warmspings ranch is not part of the housing solution, it's for the uber wealthy with open space to make them feel more privileged.
Also, all the businesses mention who benefit from this short sighted housing scheme, but put nothing toward work force housing. St Lukes could help solve its employment problem, but why, let Ketchum and Hailey provide housing at their tax payer expense.
Not surprisingly, despite the Mayor asserting that businesses in Ketchum want Bluebird, they don’t. He has done no public survey of them. He just says it, so it must be true? Don’t facts matter?
The problem Neil, is that the Bluebird project, as well as the new city hall location, was negotiated and signed off on by you with little to no public discussion. Now you get to write an editorial trying to shame the citizens of Ketchum. You may have swayed the public if you just would have been more honest about your private negotiations.
We need to take all of his backdoor deals including backdoor communication, verify his residence and package it for the Idaho AG The residents are not well organized enough to stand up to the Mayor, but there are legal options
We can vote him out in November. We need a new Mayor who listens to his constituents.
Working under the radar seems to be a feature, not a bug, of this Mayor. Please participate in the 2/18 “town hall” on Bluebird. I bet you
1. that we don’t get answers to the most important questions about costs and who will live in there given that teachers and firefighters make too much,
2. We will be told that we wanted housing built with no parking—its our fault
3. That a building 3x as big as the recently rejected Solstice is consistent with all the Ketchum Municipal Code because, unlike with Solstice, the Mayor wants this one built.
It will be a travesty of transparency
I found this in a August 2017 interview with the Mayor as a candidate by this newspaper:
“The reason I ran is that I see City Hall being a partner with the community, not a gatekeeper,” Bradshaw said. “I want to foster social, economic and cultural vibrancy so that we can be a city for all seasons.”
“We have incredible resources in the community,” he said. “We need to do this in City Hall, too. We need to listen and we need to partner. We need to put that welcome mat outside City Hall.”
3000 people against the Ketchum Tribute. Yet the Mayor is pushing it forward.
65% of the town opposed to the Bluebird in an IME poll. Yet the Mayor is pushing it forward.
I wonder what happens when he doesn't listen?
But he certainly has "partnered." Not with Ketchum residents, but with out of state developers GMD and PEG.
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