ISSUE #3-- PARKING PLAN REVEALED

Parking Plan Revealed

As I previewed in Issue #2, big-city parking bureaucracy is coming to Ketchum. The City is creating a parking crisis by saturating the commercial core with potentially of hundreds of low-income housing units (the Bluebird projects—see the Ketchum Housing Action Plan) that increase demand for parking yet permanently eliminate the supply of parking. Then there are the 25 spots coming off of Main Street, the 10 spots lost at Formula Sports, and the four spots to be eliminated on Second—-it all adds up to the planned loss of over 100 parking spaces in the commercial core, with increased permanent demand from potentially several hundred more cars.

In 2021, the City hired a consultant to work on a parking plan. Why does it take three years to get a draft plan? The City Administrator unveiled the draft at this week’s KURA meeting. It has not been made available to the general public and is not on the “Project Ketchum” website (the City’s site to keep us informed)—the parking project hasn’t been updated there for over a year. The staff plans to share the plan with the Council on April 1, conduct a couple more focus groups, and then have the Council adopt the plan on May 6.

One of the things we all like about living here is the small-town character of Ketchum. We like the lack of bureaucracy. We value the ability to park easily near restaurants and businesses and to easily find a space near the grocery store (especially in winter). That is all going away as the City continues the Aspenization program. Yet, in the City’s survey, parking was the #3 concern of residents after dissatisfaction with housing and planning for growth. It was #1 for citizens over 65. No one is listening in City Hall. Why would you listen if your ideal for Ketchum is a car-less, world-class destination ski resort?

The key flaw in the City’s rationalization of its parking goals is a false choice of people versus parking in the commercial core. The City has chosen people over parking for the commercial zone, with Bluebird 1 displacing a 20-car parking lot, Bluebird 2 eliminating 66 spots, and Bluebird 4 slated for the lot next to the 511 Building. All three of these projects will increase demand for parking in the core while reducing supply. This is bad for business and bad for quality of life. It’s also suboptimal for the residents of those housing projects, who could get parking and housing if the projects were located in less congested areas.

As our 2014 Comprehensive Plan says, the commercial core needs to be preserved. Commerce requires parking. Let’s keep parking in the commercial core and put housing projects elsewhere (like the underutilized City property in the industrial park or near the WTF). Or maybe we sell valuable land slated for more Bluebirds and acquire cheaper land in better locations—like a trailer park.

How did the City come up with this plan?

• benchmarked data with other mountain towns

• benchmarked with national standards

• focus groups with businesses and residents

As we discussed in last week’s edition, the City is turbocharging the demand for parking while eliminating parking spots in the commercial core. Thus, parking will have to expand beyond the current footprint into more residential neighborhoods, and that is part of the Plan. It is already happening as construction workers park on Knob Hill.

The core principles of the Plan make sense to me:

• Customer Parker is the #1 priority.

• Long-term resident parking is #2. 

• (Where does employee parking fall?)

The plan is based on bad data. The Administrator stated that Ketchum has more public parking per capita than other towns. That ignores the supply of parking from commercial parking lots and doesn’t account for the demand of non-residents. The data ascribes zero demand for parking in Ketchum from the people of Sun Valley and North Valley—yet Ketchum is their commercial district. This analysis is statistical garbage used to justify a particular housing agenda. Bad data leads to bad analysis, which leads to bad decisions.

The Administrator cited national standards that say 85% utilization is a practical limit, and most areas of Ketchum fall below 85% utilization. Why is a national standard relevant to Ketchum? Why isn’t the standard the quality of life of locals, and the standard for parking what we want—not some arbitrary standard imposed on us that ignores the character of our community? Why doesn’t the City ask its residents what utilization cap they want? Big city bureaucracy has come to our small town.

The current status of parking is that, in the commercial core, we have 2-hour parking during business hours, or no time restriction, or the two pay lots. Problems that need addressing:

• employees and business owners taking timed parking spots so customers can’t use them

• construction workers doing the same

• full utilization of some areas during peak periods

• accommodating parking for the several hundred new residents slated for the commercial core

• shifting parking to new places from the places that will be eliminated with the Main Street project and Bluebirds 2 and 4.

The City has a Plan to address all of these issues:

• conversion of non-timed spots in the core to timed limited spots

• conversion of long-term spots at the edge of the core to timed-limited spots

• reduce the 2-hour limit to 30 minutes or 1-hour in some (most?) locations to discourage non-customer parking

• extend time limit enforcement from 6 PM to 7 PM to discourage restaurant workers from using customer spots

• parking permits for residents of Bluebird 1 and 2 for areas on the edges of the core

• parking permits for commuting employees to park on the edge of the core

• increased enforcement

  • license plate readers: the City will know exactly who parked where for how long and be able to fine by mail for transgressions

• drop off zones to unload passengers while the driver searches for a parking spot

• Improved parking data: Using license plate readers and parking spot sensors, the City will know if employees or customers are using parking spaces and what kind of parking utilization is occurring.

• explore the feasibility of a parking structure

• explore the feasibility of park-and-ride

What is missing from the Parking Plan?

Any consideration of the quality of life for current residents. This plan is designed to maximize existing capacity to accommodate the Aspenization program of continued growth in tourism (two new hotels), increased density (FAR of 2.25 or more), and additional block size four-story low-income housing projects.

There is no demand reduction parking plan. Per the Administrator, almost all commuters to Ketchum come alone in their cars. Perhaps we could do some work to find out what incentives would lead them to carpool or to take the Mountain Rides buses that Ketchum pays more than half of. Maybe, instead of paying Mountain Rides just for hours of service, we could build in contract terms that incentivize them to optimize their routing and get people out of cars into buses. Maybe Mountain Rides could use some of the money we pay to Keep it Sunny to provide seamless airport connections that line up with flight times.

The City has committed to irrevocable decisions without testing their impact beforehand. For example, if we are going to permanently eliminate 93 spots in the commercial core, why don’t we do a test run, block out 93 spots during peak demand periods, and see how customers, employees, and business owners are impacted? Maybe City Hall is right, and we won’t miss them at all.

The plan to increase supply is to push core parking for employees, contractors, and low-income housing residents out of the core onto nearby residential streets. That means Knob Hill and West Ketch get more cars on their streets. And we all get to walk a little farther because a minority in City Hall think the people of Ketchum should give up parking in the core to bring in low-income housing projects (that we subsidize) to the center of the commercial core.