Issue #51: Ketchum Council Should Trial Run Before they Permanently Eliminate Lot

Isn't that basic common sense?

When you can try before you buy, for free, shouldn’t you do that? Especially if you will spend tens of millions of your constituent’s resources on something they have been loud and clear that they don’t want?

Here is a way for the Ketchum Council to legitimate their decision to permanently eliminate parking with a value of over $8mm at the Washington Lot to build a four-story, lot-line-to-lot-line housing project that will require public services but will add zero to Ketchum’s tax base.¹

The F3c! You to Ketchum’s Business Community

On November 18, the controlling votes on the Ketchum City Council (the Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/Hamilton) informed the public that the originally proposed Washington Lot development, without the parking requested by Ketchum’s business community, would proceed as planned.

Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Cordovano objected, but the Troika rules Ketchum with an iron grip. The meeting was packed with people opposed to the project. Only two people spoke in favor—one who lives in public housing in Ketchum and a non-resident who described herself as a “tourist.”² The meeting was held at the request of the Ketchum Business Advisory Council (KBAC), comprised of local businesses. They presented a petition of over 2,000 signatures opposing the Troika’s plan. It was ignored. Unacknowledged.

The Troika’s decision will permanently eliminate 65 parking spots, which have a value of over $8 mm, based on the lowest KURA number for building a parking space. The Troika has no plan to replace the parking elsewhere in Ketchum and has already eliminated 27 downtown spots worth $3.3mm with the Mayor’s Main Street Project.

Will The Troika Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is?

The City staff position, frequently repeated by Troika members, is that Ketchum has more parking than any other mountain resort city. Why do they always justify their actions by comparing us to places we don’t want to be?³ Why are they so hellbent on turning Ketchum into Aspen? But more importantly, if they don’t think parking has value, why don’t they test it?

This winter, just close off the Washington Lot. Don’t let anyone park on it. No one. Not the public. Not workers sleeping in campers. Not construction staging work. Treat it as if the new building was on it.

If the Troika is so sure that local businesses will not suffer from the loss of the parking lot, they could put up money to make the businesses whole if there is a shortfall. If the Troika is correct, this should be costless.

Then, see what happens.

The Troika Does Not Care About Locals or Local Businesses

They won’t try before they make us buy because they know they are not right and do not care about us.

They do not care about local business in Ketchum in the Ketchum core.

What’s the evidence? Just look at the Mayor’s campaign HQ site. His developer buddy has put in a Faherty and a Johnny Was.⁴ These are national mall chain stores, not local businesses. Not a peep out of the Troika.

They don’t care about local residents trying to park in the Ketchum core.

What’s the evidence? Despite multiple assertions that contractors who overstay 2-hour parking in Ketchum get their permits pulled if there are three strikes on them, the City chooses not to enforce parking limits on their favorite developer—GMD. Meanwhile, local residents get to circle Atkinson’s looking for a spot.

This is Part of the Troika Aspenization Program

They are on a mission to eliminate not just parking but middle-class locals and replace them with better-paying tourists. They have already gotten rid of hundreds of long-term rental units for Airbnb and are trying to get more Airbnbs in Warm Springs. They have a $350mm+ plan to build taxpayer-funded dorms⁵ to keep wages depressed for the large tourism companies the Troika works for.⁶

1. I cannot understand how this is legal. This is being done under the Urban Renewal Agency state statute. That allows the Ketchum URA to borrow money to pay for improvements in Ketchum’s blighted urban core and to pay back that debt with the tax increment from improving the value of the core.

That is precisely what KURA is NOT doing with the Washington Lot project. They are building something that will be TAX EXEMPT. It will require normal city services but will not pay for them. It will provide not one dollar in property taxes at all. So, where is the property tax increment to pay the debt?

One way to potentially stop this project is to make the bondholders aware of how KURA will be deteriorating its creditworthiness with this project. Another way would be to have the Idaho Attorney General investigate KURA for ignoring its fiduciary responsibility. The new regime in Boise might find this a particularly appealing situation to look into.

2. Why does the Council permit non-residents with no connection to an issue to take up public comment time at public meetings? This one felt like a plant. But I thought her description of herself as a tourist in Ketchum was apt, and indicative of how the Troika prioritizes the interests of tourists over the interests of residents.

3. I think it is because they aspire to be those places. Why don’t they just move and leave the rest of us alone?

4. For the record, that’s Dave Wilson, friend and supporter of Mayor Bradshaw.

5. Read the Ketchum Housing Action Plan at projectketchum.org

6. While they may not be W-2 employees of these companies, they certainly are working for them in terms of providing them millions of dollars in Ketchum resources as corporate subsidies.