This past week, I decided to listen in on the city meeting pertaining to the proposed, and now accepted, boutique hotel slated for the southwest corner of River and Main streets. I didn’t hold many opinions on the project, but that changed during the meeting when I realized that it ignored many zoning restrictions the city has. The key word I heard, over and over again, was “waiver.” It has become so apparent that this project, as well as the Bluebird project, rely on waiver after waiver after waiver. So, I have to ask, why does Ketchum even have zoning, or for that matter a city plan, if the mayor and City Council can blatantly ignore everything on the books?
It also became apparent that these two projects could very well be intertwined. Consider the fact that the new hotel will have 100 low-paid employees, a few of whom will be housed in a “dormitory” in the hotel’s basement. So where are the others slated to stay? Perhaps the Bluebird? And if that’s the case, why are Ketchum’s residents paying more for this than “any other project in Idaho”? Shouldn’t the hotel’s owners pay for it?
Some have made this out to be the working-class heroes versus the wealthy in Ketchum. It isn’t! It’s about good government, something the present mayor and City Council seem to forget about. The vast majority of the comments were opposed to the hotel construction proceeding, so giving waivers is the last thing that should be done.
And, as to Bluebird, it is not sounding like a scam that is going to be footed by the taxpayers in this town. What is the count on waivers for that project?
Geoff Isles, Ketchum
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Agreed! Instead of Variances, they opted for waivers, much to chagrin of most residents. This lets them sidestep zoning requirements. In effect, its 5 gallons of crap in a 1-gallon bucket. They bought a substandard site/lot for its intended purpose and the only way to make it pencil is by seeking zoning waivers. The whole process has been a story of shady negotiations and misinformation campaigns. The City Council didn’t know how to ask the right questions and the developer supplied misleading numbers, graphics, images, criteria, etc.. When they shared flat-out incorrect info, the Planning staff (or anyone with knowledge) did not speak up to correct it or redirect it. This is partly due to the fact that when public comment closed is when they got down in the weeds and those who knew how to address questions and concerns were precluded from speaking, yet city staff didn't respond as they should have. It passed because of ignorance and complete disregard for the Zoning that exists today (and the reason it exists!).
we have zoning to protect us from a bulding like this. A 6 story 100 room hotel that would normally require at least a 3 acre lot. But we have a Mayor who thinks its a great idea to build a hotel owned by out of staters to compete with our existing hotels in a market with chronically low occupancy. And where the developer has told us that the workers will come from all over the country because there is not enough people in the WRV willing to work for the low wages they will pay. Something smells.
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