Thanks for your analysis Perry. The idea of spending $343 million to create 572 housing units over 10 years is, of course, ludicrous. That amount is nearly the same estimate of how much it would have cost to relocate Friedman Airport to a foggy plateau north of Shoshone. In 2016 the Airport Authority wisely put that bad idea to rest, largely due to the cost and no one wanted the impacts the newly arriving 737s would bring. Now 10 years later, with some great work from Fly Sun Valley Alliance, Friedman remains a great airport option for a community of our size.
Today's Ketchum City Council could learn a lesson from the Airport Authority of 2016:
"Live within your means and do the best with what you do have" The Ketchum Housing Plan of 2025 is a misguided attempt to solve a 2022 housing crisis. Building more dormitories and taking away public parking is a dereliction of duty and, financially, a fool's errand.
Despite Mr. Gorham's misrepresentations, I will assume simply out of ignorance, Friedman has clearly outgrown its Hailey location as continuing expansion of the footprint and added flights with exponentially increasing passanger loads are in violation of the Dual Path Mandate which given these circumstances demands the airport be relocated. A long-term resident and friend retired from his career in the aviation industry informed me the the FMAA Board and folks at Friedman and Atlantic Aviation have consistently LIED about foul weather south of Timmerman being an issue given the advanced ILS systems now available. Huh, local officials LYING, imagine that!
Just like the FMAA Board, Dan conveniently ignores the entirely inadequate evaluation of the toxic exposure to fumes and high decibel abuse of citizens living across the street directly impacted by expanding airport operations which may now include a redundant FBO if the corruption and incompetence of the local establishment with regard to possibly ILLEGAL airport expansion is allowed to stand. The aggressive expansion strategy at Friedman perfectly mirrors the accelerated and abbreviated "rubber-stamp" approval of every real estate development proposal brought forward since Covid provided cover for all manner of corruption of the analysis and review process effectively eliminating public participation, which the local establsishment just simply ignores anyway these days as Mr. Boyle is now keenly aware. Any seious consideration of environmental realities attached to the malignant growth agenda destroying our fair valley now subjugated to the whimsy of the oligarchs and the obsequious greedy sycophants willing to throw the rest of us under the bus for a commission, Dan.
Dan Gorham doesn't give a rat's rear end about the peasants living across the street from Friedman being poisoned and terrorized, half of them Hispanic or Latino and willing to cram like sardines into whatever housing is available. This makes makes it difficult to ascertain whether these conveniently ignored environmental realities absent any legitimate studies and associated data with regard to possibly ILLEGAL expansion represent environmental racism, environmental classism, or both. My Spanish is limited, but I have interacted face to face with many of these brown neighbors when it is one hundred degrees both outside and inside stifling 1,000 sq. ft. residences occupied by ten residents, closing the windows not an option, the Jet-A fuel exhaust and deafening roar of jet aircraft inescapable in the summer, both known contributors to degenerative disease.
Not totally sure what you're getting at, but the idea of building a bigger airport to accommodate huge commercial jets certainly sounds like a bad prospect for the valley, that is - if you're worried about overdevelopment.
Annie, when the FMAA Board made the decision to relocate the airport in 2006 to protect the health, safety, and welfare of citizens of Hailey and Bellevue, the process had advanced to the Site Selection phase with a preferred location south of Timmerman Hill. Instead, Hailey and Bellevue are considered and have been made sacrifice areas for north valley moneyed interests and officials happy to make those communities to the south responsible for their failures and poor decisions. Below is the real reason Friedman Memorial Airport has not been relocated. It was not EIS constraints attached to declining Sage Grouse populations despite the introduction of that false narrative into the discussion.
The following paragraph is from the attorney who constructed the Charter creating and providing direction to the FMAA Board which replaced the Commission assigned responsibility for decisions governing the airport.
"Bill Sailor, who was Sun Valley Company’s director of visitor affairs at the time, testified at a forum held prior to the election, that SV Company did not consider FMA (Friedman Memorial Airport) a suitable facility for the kind of airplane service they needed and, therefore, the company favored the regional approach. Over the years, Dick Fenton, and his band of predatory realtors, have been the driving force for retention and expansion of FMA. They speak of “service to the Greater Sun Valley Community and the tourist industry" when, in fact, they don’t give a damn about the public at large or the tourist industry. Their interest is entirely parochial. No high-end resort community in North America has a private-jet qualified airport just a mere 15 miles away from the Palaces they build and have built in the S.V. area. That is a little known but lucrative boon to high-end realtors who aggressively pursue the multi-millionaire and billionaire clients willing to shell out $10 million for raw land and another $20 million to $40 million to build a monument to their avarice. If you have the bucks, you can land your private jet at FMA and be at your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th vacation home in Chocolate Gulch, Adams Gulch, etc. in a matter of minutes. If you purchased a similar home in Park City, Utah, the drive from the SLC airport would take 45 minutes to an hour. Just think what the standard real estate commission is on a $10 million real estate transaction. The Dick Fentons of this world and the real estate industry could care less about the good of anyone other than themselves."
Annie, an airport south of Timmerman Hill would organically produce an abundance of affordable housing opportunities with unlimited space for parking allowing the evolution of transportion options such as a Park and Ride to provide relief for our congested and gridlocked highway. The CONVENIENCE of the few dozen members of billionaire class and economic aristocracy owning private jets takes precedence over the thousands of citizens severely impacted by airport operations. The 20 to 30 minutes of additional ground travel relocation would require is still much less than most resort areas. But never mind Annie, you live in Ketchum and are above it all, at least on the map!
Local priorities and values IDENTICAL to those eminating from the Executive Branch of our federal government and White House these days. Hence Perry's escalating frustration with the Troika and their similarly retrograde agenda, absent any accountability to the people.
I don’t like private jets and I don’t like their toxic pollution to neighborhoods. But I don’t like the idea of building a Boise or Park City 2.0 into the desert, with endless suburban sprawl. In an ideal scenario they’d limit private jet traffic. It’s absurd and hugely wasteful and irresponsible and disgusting.
Perry Boyle continues to accurately describe a process of entropy and chaos in Ketchum and the WRV that mirrors the suburbanization of communities all over the US. The economic imperatives being imposed on a once classic American mountain town will erase the economic, social, and environmental proportionality that made the community unique and Climate Change is likely to be the coup de grâce. Forget sustainability, better to practice slowly committing suicide as a lifestyle choice.
The impacts of the Sun Valley Company's financial interests on the social, economic, and political relationships perpetuate a shallow and inauthentic social fabric and a kind of ersatz Disneyland mentality. Ironically, the profit incentives behind catering to tourists will cheapen the tourists’ experience further and also serve to commodify local character and culture. It’s a form of highway robbery, a free-market/trickle-down nightmare and a Realm of False Promises. In politics, being deceived is no excuse.
Rather than treating this deterioration as an end-point, business interests will treat it as an opportunity for further profiteering. Local residents’ inability to reap the supposed benefits to be conferred on them by the grand plan of a dimwitted Troika, conjoined with an anachronistic Planning and Zoning department, reflect an abstract, universalized, paint-by-numbers conception of well-being. It’s a form of "Father Knows Best" patriarchy that's sanctioned by Idaho state laws and tax policies and it shamelessly ignores local residents' preferences and undermines social stability. (Btw, Neil Morrow needs to retire to greener pastures rather than tell Perry Boyle to give up because "big money" is coming to town.)
It won't take long before Bradshaw’s gaggle of Bluebirds, if built, will be perceived as naively well-meaning but profoundly misguided follies, out of place suburban ghettos that serve to sequester people into apartment blocks rather than encourage integration. Neil and his crew are not bad people, they're merely the tools of much bigger players that they are largely unaware of on a daily basis. To put it unkindly they're unwitting shills, basically.
Perry’s metaphor of lipstick on a pig is very apt. Be careful what you wish for, good people. SLOW.IT.DOWN.
PS. You have to hand it to the SVCo for perpetuating its local brand as Ketchum’s Beneficent Savior, a version of The Second Coming (after the ore wagons) regarding the town's welfare and its very existence. Yeah, maybe it is in a sense but when you get right down to it, for a corporation that touts itself as the town’s very taproot, the menu of potential contributions is a little anemic. I'm not saying that SVCo is miserly but I wonder about the expansion of possibilities if they put more of their mouth where their money is.
Why is there not a long-standing foundation that channels a small percentage of the corporation’s top line into projects that help to de-stress the community it feeds off (and that in turn gets fed by it). Seems to me the relationship is epiphytic at best; in reality, it’s fairly parasitic in the current socioeconomic environment. Over the course of twenty years, a well-managed foundation might manage to disperse tens of millions of dollars to support the town’s infrastructural needs.
The scariest part is the federal funds. As I recall from news reports at the time, Ketchum was the only resort town foolish enough to seek federal funding for housing. The other recipients were all big cities. That is because of all the strings attached.
Because of the federal funding, the YMCA build will be a stone-cold “project” and nothing like the workforce housing we were promised. It will stigmatize Ketchum while setting a disastrous precedent and emitting radiation throughout the wood valley.
Shocking that the Ketchum City Council fell into that obvious trap.
I also note the projected building costs. The City of Los Angeles and assorted NGOs attempted to install a massive housing project on Venice Beach’s Grand Canal at a cost of nearly $2500 per square foot. We beat that back, but it took eight years, recalling a city councilman, and four expensive lawsuits.
There is no predator more rapacious, unrelenting, or destructive than the NGO / Government Axis behind the affordable housing fetish. It is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Sad that it has already sunk its talons so deep into our unsuspecting community.
I agree. Federal funding comes with regulations that do not meet our small resort town needs.
About 20 years ago Ketchum had some success at creating housing through code agreements that gave Floor Area Ratio (FAR) increases in exchange for deed restricted housing units that were built within the proposed projects. Those agreements were between the city and the developer with no state or federal regulation, creating housing that fit our needs. It's a shame the powers that be got greedy and went from units built to offering fees in-lieu. Now the in-lieu fees are being used to leverage federal funds and create Bluebirds.
Given that the City of Sun Valley and Ketchum have collaborated on things like emergency services, I am surprised that they do not do so around all projects with cross-jurisdiction impacts. Is Ketchum really in cahoots with SVC and the City? Is there a regional Advisory Planning Commission?
Another thing pops to mind- which is the history of the Holden family ownership and their remarkable generosity in supporting the viability of Sun Valley. I am wondering what personal entreaties have been made to their representatives and management?
I am from Bowen Island, near Vancouver BC, and in my mid-seventies. I first skied SV in 1958 (but my parents had been coming down since 1951?) Our family became involved in Whistler's development in 1963 as investors and buying one of the first cabins up there. But in the early 60s, SV was the go to ski area, and my parents, being European, appreciated the strong Austrian/Swiss ambience and personnel, as well as it being a bit of a cultural magnet. The author of the Gidget series, Frederick Kohner, lived there seasonally, knew Hemingway well, and became a family friend. Folks like James Arness walked among the non-glitterati quite easily. I dated Muff (Joan) Hemingway as a teenager....
I became a politician, on our local island Council and Islands Trust, https://islandstrust.bc.ca but also on the Metro Vancouver board. I was the equivalent of a County Commissioner, and gained lots of experience in land use planning. As well, I watched Whistler grow from being a 3 lift local ski hill to a pre-eminent year round resort.
Sun Valley is unique in North America, not because of its terrain, amenities like the terrific mountain lodges or snow, but because of its history and ambience. Obviously the expansionist goals of SVC will collide with the interests of Ketchum as a community, and you are absolutely correct to push back against their 'dumping' of their 'externalities' like environmental impacts, housing, traffic and other servicing. Where I live, AirBnb / VRBO have wreaked havoc on long term rental supply, and we are having a very hard time countering this. You alone can do very little other than 'blow the horn'. It will take the Ketchum community to resist offloading of responsibilities. I am not clear about who has what authority, beyond Ketchum Council and that of Sun Valley City. As well, unclear about the relationship between SV City and Ketchum. I presume SVC owns not just the mountains and the residential/lodges/golf courses etc, but do not understand the limits of the Corporation. At Whistler (ski area now owned by Vail), all land use authority is vested with the Resort Whistler Municipality. The SVC equivalent, Whistler/Blackcomb has obligations but no inherent rights except those granted first by the Province and then by the Resort Municipality.
Getting the word out is paramount, but 'someone' will need to lead the charge of community action. Presumably there are NGOs in Ketchum and Hailey, plus the air and road regulatory bodies. Whistler has no airport unlike your situation (or Jackson Hole for that matter). As well, there are ingrained constraints against sprawl, number of 'pillows' ie a de facto buildout population cap, taxation on non-occupied by owner units. Your community can look at the various tools in the box, and choose which ones to use.
I was shocked at the traffic, overall 'busyness' of the area recently. But the charm remains, and prices to stay- eg at the Best Westerns or even the Limelight, are well below those at Whistler.
Thanks for the comment. The way Idaho works, 3 votes on the city council and you can do almost anything you want—except regulate STRs. Our troika are using there votes to Aspenize Ketchum against the will of the community, using a variety of slimy tactics. We need a new council.
@PF - Baldy is owned by the U.S. government and is federal land under the jurisdiction of the USFS. Sun Valley Resort is the permitted operator. Ostensibly, ski passes and daily use tickets are regulated by the Forest Service, although locals haven't heard much from the Feds in several decades concerning the process nor rates presently employed. Locals will tell you it is one corporation chumming another corporation (if you get my drift). Skier days and revenues are kept secret. Ketchum's charm, or what's left of it, is not a factor in lift ticket prices. Nor are impacts on Ketchum and its residents compensated by either SV company or USFS.
I think the lease terms are all that the USFS regulates, no? Not the details of the economics of SVC. The argument I get for justifying all the taxpayer subsidies SVC receives is that there is no Wood River Valley economy without SVC. My counter argument is that may have been true in the past but it’s the forte we need to manage from this point. The economy benefits from the presence of a ski area, not the specific company. There can be a better balance between the interests of the residents and the resort operator, one that is not so exploitative.
@PB - In brief, public lands lessees are statutorily required to provide OPEX and CAPEX annually before USFS gives its blessing and approves ski rate prices. Expect a daily bike rate in the future.... Further disagree that local economy would fold if The Resort were to leave/sell Baldy operation and surrounding private lands. Agree economic scene would be different and, further, agree someone - if not "we" - should have voice in economic goals effecting Blaine. But when public lands are involved, we are without a voice - at least until we create one and make (political) noise.
Usually, your financial analysis is excellent. In this case, you are underestimating the cohort size that will provide financial support for these Bluebird projects. While year-round residents may occupy 1800 homes, this does not include part-time residents who also pay local property taxes.
I'd like to learn how much of the Ketchum property tax base is composed of people who receive their property tax bills elsewhere and may be unable to vote locally. These people will also pay for the Bluebirds.
The saving grace may be that the current administration in Washington, as it has in other areas, may hold up housing grants, delaying these misguided housing projects and allowing the community to consider other, more practical alternatives.
Also, I'd like to point out that there is an issue of externalities here. Most of the Sun Valley Company's activities happen in the City of Sun Valley, not Ketchum, yet Ketchum is shouldered with the cost associated with affordable housing; it may make sense to merge these two contiguous cities to reduce administrative overheads, share responsibility for handling community needs and aggregate tax revenue.
It is also time for the cities to use all their power to slow commercial and residential development to reduce the increasing demand for additional service workers until affordable housing can catch up. We are in an upward spiral that has no limit. By the time we get to the proposed 572 units, we likely will need many more.
Thanks for your analysis Perry. The idea of spending $343 million to create 572 housing units over 10 years is, of course, ludicrous. That amount is nearly the same estimate of how much it would have cost to relocate Friedman Airport to a foggy plateau north of Shoshone. In 2016 the Airport Authority wisely put that bad idea to rest, largely due to the cost and no one wanted the impacts the newly arriving 737s would bring. Now 10 years later, with some great work from Fly Sun Valley Alliance, Friedman remains a great airport option for a community of our size.
Today's Ketchum City Council could learn a lesson from the Airport Authority of 2016:
"Live within your means and do the best with what you do have" The Ketchum Housing Plan of 2025 is a misguided attempt to solve a 2022 housing crisis. Building more dormitories and taking away public parking is a dereliction of duty and, financially, a fool's errand.
Despite Mr. Gorham's misrepresentations, I will assume simply out of ignorance, Friedman has clearly outgrown its Hailey location as continuing expansion of the footprint and added flights with exponentially increasing passanger loads are in violation of the Dual Path Mandate which given these circumstances demands the airport be relocated. A long-term resident and friend retired from his career in the aviation industry informed me the the FMAA Board and folks at Friedman and Atlantic Aviation have consistently LIED about foul weather south of Timmerman being an issue given the advanced ILS systems now available. Huh, local officials LYING, imagine that!
Just like the FMAA Board, Dan conveniently ignores the entirely inadequate evaluation of the toxic exposure to fumes and high decibel abuse of citizens living across the street directly impacted by expanding airport operations which may now include a redundant FBO if the corruption and incompetence of the local establishment with regard to possibly ILLEGAL airport expansion is allowed to stand. The aggressive expansion strategy at Friedman perfectly mirrors the accelerated and abbreviated "rubber-stamp" approval of every real estate development proposal brought forward since Covid provided cover for all manner of corruption of the analysis and review process effectively eliminating public participation, which the local establsishment just simply ignores anyway these days as Mr. Boyle is now keenly aware. Any seious consideration of environmental realities attached to the malignant growth agenda destroying our fair valley now subjugated to the whimsy of the oligarchs and the obsequious greedy sycophants willing to throw the rest of us under the bus for a commission, Dan.
Dan Gorham doesn't give a rat's rear end about the peasants living across the street from Friedman being poisoned and terrorized, half of them Hispanic or Latino and willing to cram like sardines into whatever housing is available. This makes makes it difficult to ascertain whether these conveniently ignored environmental realities absent any legitimate studies and associated data with regard to possibly ILLEGAL expansion represent environmental racism, environmental classism, or both. My Spanish is limited, but I have interacted face to face with many of these brown neighbors when it is one hundred degrees both outside and inside stifling 1,000 sq. ft. residences occupied by ten residents, closing the windows not an option, the Jet-A fuel exhaust and deafening roar of jet aircraft inescapable in the summer, both known contributors to degenerative disease.
Not totally sure what you're getting at, but the idea of building a bigger airport to accommodate huge commercial jets certainly sounds like a bad prospect for the valley, that is - if you're worried about overdevelopment.
Annie, when the FMAA Board made the decision to relocate the airport in 2006 to protect the health, safety, and welfare of citizens of Hailey and Bellevue, the process had advanced to the Site Selection phase with a preferred location south of Timmerman Hill. Instead, Hailey and Bellevue are considered and have been made sacrifice areas for north valley moneyed interests and officials happy to make those communities to the south responsible for their failures and poor decisions. Below is the real reason Friedman Memorial Airport has not been relocated. It was not EIS constraints attached to declining Sage Grouse populations despite the introduction of that false narrative into the discussion.
The following paragraph is from the attorney who constructed the Charter creating and providing direction to the FMAA Board which replaced the Commission assigned responsibility for decisions governing the airport.
"Bill Sailor, who was Sun Valley Company’s director of visitor affairs at the time, testified at a forum held prior to the election, that SV Company did not consider FMA (Friedman Memorial Airport) a suitable facility for the kind of airplane service they needed and, therefore, the company favored the regional approach. Over the years, Dick Fenton, and his band of predatory realtors, have been the driving force for retention and expansion of FMA. They speak of “service to the Greater Sun Valley Community and the tourist industry" when, in fact, they don’t give a damn about the public at large or the tourist industry. Their interest is entirely parochial. No high-end resort community in North America has a private-jet qualified airport just a mere 15 miles away from the Palaces they build and have built in the S.V. area. That is a little known but lucrative boon to high-end realtors who aggressively pursue the multi-millionaire and billionaire clients willing to shell out $10 million for raw land and another $20 million to $40 million to build a monument to their avarice. If you have the bucks, you can land your private jet at FMA and be at your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th vacation home in Chocolate Gulch, Adams Gulch, etc. in a matter of minutes. If you purchased a similar home in Park City, Utah, the drive from the SLC airport would take 45 minutes to an hour. Just think what the standard real estate commission is on a $10 million real estate transaction. The Dick Fentons of this world and the real estate industry could care less about the good of anyone other than themselves."
Annie, an airport south of Timmerman Hill would organically produce an abundance of affordable housing opportunities with unlimited space for parking allowing the evolution of transportion options such as a Park and Ride to provide relief for our congested and gridlocked highway. The CONVENIENCE of the few dozen members of billionaire class and economic aristocracy owning private jets takes precedence over the thousands of citizens severely impacted by airport operations. The 20 to 30 minutes of additional ground travel relocation would require is still much less than most resort areas. But never mind Annie, you live in Ketchum and are above it all, at least on the map!
Local priorities and values IDENTICAL to those eminating from the Executive Branch of our federal government and White House these days. Hence Perry's escalating frustration with the Troika and their similarly retrograde agenda, absent any accountability to the people.
I don’t like private jets and I don’t like their toxic pollution to neighborhoods. But I don’t like the idea of building a Boise or Park City 2.0 into the desert, with endless suburban sprawl. In an ideal scenario they’d limit private jet traffic. It’s absurd and hugely wasteful and irresponsible and disgusting.
This is a great quote. Once again, I'd love to send this whole thread to City Council!
Perry Boyle continues to accurately describe a process of entropy and chaos in Ketchum and the WRV that mirrors the suburbanization of communities all over the US. The economic imperatives being imposed on a once classic American mountain town will erase the economic, social, and environmental proportionality that made the community unique and Climate Change is likely to be the coup de grâce. Forget sustainability, better to practice slowly committing suicide as a lifestyle choice.
The impacts of the Sun Valley Company's financial interests on the social, economic, and political relationships perpetuate a shallow and inauthentic social fabric and a kind of ersatz Disneyland mentality. Ironically, the profit incentives behind catering to tourists will cheapen the tourists’ experience further and also serve to commodify local character and culture. It’s a form of highway robbery, a free-market/trickle-down nightmare and a Realm of False Promises. In politics, being deceived is no excuse.
Rather than treating this deterioration as an end-point, business interests will treat it as an opportunity for further profiteering. Local residents’ inability to reap the supposed benefits to be conferred on them by the grand plan of a dimwitted Troika, conjoined with an anachronistic Planning and Zoning department, reflect an abstract, universalized, paint-by-numbers conception of well-being. It’s a form of "Father Knows Best" patriarchy that's sanctioned by Idaho state laws and tax policies and it shamelessly ignores local residents' preferences and undermines social stability. (Btw, Neil Morrow needs to retire to greener pastures rather than tell Perry Boyle to give up because "big money" is coming to town.)
It won't take long before Bradshaw’s gaggle of Bluebirds, if built, will be perceived as naively well-meaning but profoundly misguided follies, out of place suburban ghettos that serve to sequester people into apartment blocks rather than encourage integration. Neil and his crew are not bad people, they're merely the tools of much bigger players that they are largely unaware of on a daily basis. To put it unkindly they're unwitting shills, basically.
Perry’s metaphor of lipstick on a pig is very apt. Be careful what you wish for, good people. SLOW.IT.DOWN.
PS. You have to hand it to the SVCo for perpetuating its local brand as Ketchum’s Beneficent Savior, a version of The Second Coming (after the ore wagons) regarding the town's welfare and its very existence. Yeah, maybe it is in a sense but when you get right down to it, for a corporation that touts itself as the town’s very taproot, the menu of potential contributions is a little anemic. I'm not saying that SVCo is miserly but I wonder about the expansion of possibilities if they put more of their mouth where their money is.
Why is there not a long-standing foundation that channels a small percentage of the corporation’s top line into projects that help to de-stress the community it feeds off (and that in turn gets fed by it). Seems to me the relationship is epiphytic at best; in reality, it’s fairly parasitic in the current socioeconomic environment. Over the course of twenty years, a well-managed foundation might manage to disperse tens of millions of dollars to support the town’s infrastructural needs.
The scariest part is the federal funds. As I recall from news reports at the time, Ketchum was the only resort town foolish enough to seek federal funding for housing. The other recipients were all big cities. That is because of all the strings attached.
Because of the federal funding, the YMCA build will be a stone-cold “project” and nothing like the workforce housing we were promised. It will stigmatize Ketchum while setting a disastrous precedent and emitting radiation throughout the wood valley.
Shocking that the Ketchum City Council fell into that obvious trap.
I also note the projected building costs. The City of Los Angeles and assorted NGOs attempted to install a massive housing project on Venice Beach’s Grand Canal at a cost of nearly $2500 per square foot. We beat that back, but it took eight years, recalling a city councilman, and four expensive lawsuits.
There is no predator more rapacious, unrelenting, or destructive than the NGO / Government Axis behind the affordable housing fetish. It is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Sad that it has already sunk its talons so deep into our unsuspecting community.
I agree. Federal funding comes with regulations that do not meet our small resort town needs.
About 20 years ago Ketchum had some success at creating housing through code agreements that gave Floor Area Ratio (FAR) increases in exchange for deed restricted housing units that were built within the proposed projects. Those agreements were between the city and the developer with no state or federal regulation, creating housing that fit our needs. It's a shame the powers that be got greedy and went from units built to offering fees in-lieu. Now the in-lieu fees are being used to leverage federal funds and create Bluebirds.
Given that the City of Sun Valley and Ketchum have collaborated on things like emergency services, I am surprised that they do not do so around all projects with cross-jurisdiction impacts. Is Ketchum really in cahoots with SVC and the City? Is there a regional Advisory Planning Commission?
As always Perry, well done, the numbers don't lie, unlike the local estabsishment!
Another thing pops to mind- which is the history of the Holden family ownership and their remarkable generosity in supporting the viability of Sun Valley. I am wondering what personal entreaties have been made to their representatives and management?
I am from Bowen Island, near Vancouver BC, and in my mid-seventies. I first skied SV in 1958 (but my parents had been coming down since 1951?) Our family became involved in Whistler's development in 1963 as investors and buying one of the first cabins up there. But in the early 60s, SV was the go to ski area, and my parents, being European, appreciated the strong Austrian/Swiss ambience and personnel, as well as it being a bit of a cultural magnet. The author of the Gidget series, Frederick Kohner, lived there seasonally, knew Hemingway well, and became a family friend. Folks like James Arness walked among the non-glitterati quite easily. I dated Muff (Joan) Hemingway as a teenager....
I became a politician, on our local island Council and Islands Trust, https://islandstrust.bc.ca but also on the Metro Vancouver board. I was the equivalent of a County Commissioner, and gained lots of experience in land use planning. As well, I watched Whistler grow from being a 3 lift local ski hill to a pre-eminent year round resort.
Sun Valley is unique in North America, not because of its terrain, amenities like the terrific mountain lodges or snow, but because of its history and ambience. Obviously the expansionist goals of SVC will collide with the interests of Ketchum as a community, and you are absolutely correct to push back against their 'dumping' of their 'externalities' like environmental impacts, housing, traffic and other servicing. Where I live, AirBnb / VRBO have wreaked havoc on long term rental supply, and we are having a very hard time countering this. You alone can do very little other than 'blow the horn'. It will take the Ketchum community to resist offloading of responsibilities. I am not clear about who has what authority, beyond Ketchum Council and that of Sun Valley City. As well, unclear about the relationship between SV City and Ketchum. I presume SVC owns not just the mountains and the residential/lodges/golf courses etc, but do not understand the limits of the Corporation. At Whistler (ski area now owned by Vail), all land use authority is vested with the Resort Whistler Municipality. The SVC equivalent, Whistler/Blackcomb has obligations but no inherent rights except those granted first by the Province and then by the Resort Municipality.
Getting the word out is paramount, but 'someone' will need to lead the charge of community action. Presumably there are NGOs in Ketchum and Hailey, plus the air and road regulatory bodies. Whistler has no airport unlike your situation (or Jackson Hole for that matter). As well, there are ingrained constraints against sprawl, number of 'pillows' ie a de facto buildout population cap, taxation on non-occupied by owner units. Your community can look at the various tools in the box, and choose which ones to use.
I was shocked at the traffic, overall 'busyness' of the area recently. But the charm remains, and prices to stay- eg at the Best Westerns or even the Limelight, are well below those at Whistler.
Thanks for the comment. The way Idaho works, 3 votes on the city council and you can do almost anything you want—except regulate STRs. Our troika are using there votes to Aspenize Ketchum against the will of the community, using a variety of slimy tactics. We need a new council.
...and an improved voting system for local elections...a system designed to represent respective areas of Ketchum.
And a Council-Manager Form of Government!
@PF - Baldy is owned by the U.S. government and is federal land under the jurisdiction of the USFS. Sun Valley Resort is the permitted operator. Ostensibly, ski passes and daily use tickets are regulated by the Forest Service, although locals haven't heard much from the Feds in several decades concerning the process nor rates presently employed. Locals will tell you it is one corporation chumming another corporation (if you get my drift). Skier days and revenues are kept secret. Ketchum's charm, or what's left of it, is not a factor in lift ticket prices. Nor are impacts on Ketchum and its residents compensated by either SV company or USFS.
I think the lease terms are all that the USFS regulates, no? Not the details of the economics of SVC. The argument I get for justifying all the taxpayer subsidies SVC receives is that there is no Wood River Valley economy without SVC. My counter argument is that may have been true in the past but it’s the forte we need to manage from this point. The economy benefits from the presence of a ski area, not the specific company. There can be a better balance between the interests of the residents and the resort operator, one that is not so exploitative.
@PB - In brief, public lands lessees are statutorily required to provide OPEX and CAPEX annually before USFS gives its blessing and approves ski rate prices. Expect a daily bike rate in the future.... Further disagree that local economy would fold if The Resort were to leave/sell Baldy operation and surrounding private lands. Agree economic scene would be different and, further, agree someone - if not "we" - should have voice in economic goals effecting Blaine. But when public lands are involved, we are without a voice - at least until we create one and make (political) noise.
Usually, your financial analysis is excellent. In this case, you are underestimating the cohort size that will provide financial support for these Bluebird projects. While year-round residents may occupy 1800 homes, this does not include part-time residents who also pay local property taxes.
I'd like to learn how much of the Ketchum property tax base is composed of people who receive their property tax bills elsewhere and may be unable to vote locally. These people will also pay for the Bluebirds.
The saving grace may be that the current administration in Washington, as it has in other areas, may hold up housing grants, delaying these misguided housing projects and allowing the community to consider other, more practical alternatives.
Also, I'd like to point out that there is an issue of externalities here. Most of the Sun Valley Company's activities happen in the City of Sun Valley, not Ketchum, yet Ketchum is shouldered with the cost associated with affordable housing; it may make sense to merge these two contiguous cities to reduce administrative overheads, share responsibility for handling community needs and aggregate tax revenue.
It is also time for the cities to use all their power to slow commercial and residential development to reduce the increasing demand for additional service workers until affordable housing can catch up. We are in an upward spiral that has no limit. By the time we get to the proposed 572 units, we likely will need many more.
Good points all around. I was framing it in terms of permanent voting residents. The spiral is the goal of current policy.
@ED - LOL ! Merge S.V. into Ketchum? SV city would build a wall first...