V2N18: Ketchum's Housing Program Fits the Definition of Insanity
We know it won't house Ketchum's essential workers, but they keep making things worse
If you say you will fix something but undertake a series of actions over a long period that either doesn’t address it or even makes that thing worse, what is that? Incompetence? Hypocrisy? Malfeasance? A blatant lie?
This is the situation facing Ketchum residents. The City Council says it wants to make housing affordable for essential Ketchum workers. Yet we have a seven-year track record of the Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/Hamilton making housing more available to everyone BUT essential Ketchum workers.
Matthew 7:16-20
Let’s look at the Troika’s “fruits:”
Long-term Rental Conversion: The City says that during the Bradshaw regime, about 300 long-term rentals were lost in Ketchum. They use this figure to rationalize their Bluebird program and their housing preservation program. Wouldn’t it have been better not to lose the 300 units in the first place? Why are they trying to close the door only after the cow has left the barn? Regardless of their stated intention, under their watch, they presided over the hotelization of rentals in Ketchum…and did nothing to stop it.
Marriott: Right now, it looks like the developer doesn’t have the money to proceed with this 6-story hotel on one acre at the entrance to Ketchum. But if they had the money, we would get another monstrosity, courtesy of the Troika. Despite 3,000 signatures in opposition, the Troika approved zoning waivers for this project. If it gets built, it makes everything in Ketchum worse for residents. What did the Troika get in exchange for the waivers? Nothing. If built, this project will put about 100 more underpaid hotel workers into the competition for Ketchum housing. How does this make housing more affordable for working families in Ketchum? Doesn’t it make the problem worse?
1st/Washington: this project is dead (for now), but only because the Council couldn’t figure out how to tax us to pay for it. The Mayor handpicked the KURA board and staff to build it: the executive director honchoed Bluebird, and two Troika members are on KURA). In other words, they would have if they could have, but they can’t, so they won’t. Building a four-story box of apartments on this very valuable piece of land is lousy economics. For once, economics beat them.
Bluebird: I wrote about this last week. $10s of millions of Ketchum taxpayer resources for corporate welfare in a for-profit project. Half the tenants don’t even work in Ketchum. What a waste of scarce resources.
Northwood Place: This was Bradshaw’s first housing project for Ketchum. It is much more harmonious than Bluebird, but there has never been any public report on whether this project fulfilled its stated goals. Why not?
Lease to Locals: I was for this program but was misled. Despite its name, it was not for Ketchum locals but for all of Blaine County. Under this program, you could work and live in Sun Valley with a Ketchum taxpayer subsidy. They have shut this one down but plan to replace it with one that will be just as bad.
291 Second: The City recently bought this building for $2.3mm for the housing preservation program. No purchaser of these units is required to work in Ketchum or be employed in an essential function.
Blaine County Housing Authority: This is an incredible scam on Ketchum taxpayers, chaired by Keith Perry. 100% of the staff costs, now approaching half a million, are footed by the Ketchum taxpayer. No other City in Blaine County gives them money. Why not? Blaine County gives them $150k to subsidize some units. They have a wait list that seems to be largely fiction, as oftentimes, a unit is put through the waitlist, and no one on the list wants it. I call BCHA the “self-licking ice cream cone.” Please read my other posts on it.
How many essential Ketchum workers has the Troika housed in seven years? We don’t know because they don’t tell us.
Continue to Spend Resources to Not Solve the Problem
Does this failure to achieve their stated goal slow them down? Nope. They are doubling down on their program with plans to build the equivalent of four more Bluebirds. Then, there is their density upzoning plan for West Ketch and Warm Springs.
The rationale for upzoning (and making single-family homes “non-conforming uses” in the new high-density areas) is to make housing more affordable. This is what I call the “big lie.” They know that hundreds of new condos in prime tourism areas won’t make housing more affordable for essential workers or Ketchum’s working families. They know this because more tourism condos have never made housing more affordable in Ketchum, and their own City Planner tells them this. Yet they persist in the lie. Why?
Who Are They Working For?
From their actions, I infer they are not trying to solve Ketchum’s essential workforce problem. Instead, they are solving the developers’ opportunity to raise Ketchum’s price per square foot to that of Aspen.
Isn’t the definition of insanity repeating the same behavior, hoping for a different outcome? Given that the Troika members are not insane, what can we make of their behavior? They say their motivations are to make housing more affordable for working families in Ketchum, but that’s so clearly not what they are doing; are they lying? Are they incapable of doing math? What the heck is going on?
There is A Better Way
We don’t need to make false choices like “people versus parking.” We can have both in their proper places. If we want to provide subsidized housing for essential Ketchum workers, we can do it—at far less expense than the $360mm Ketchum Housing Action Plan.
First, we need to get the numbers. How many essential workers are we short? How is that need likely to evolve? What kind of housing is most likely to benefit them? Then, we apply our scarce resources to optimize the solution to the problem.
For example, instead of building up to 200 units of housing on the Lift Tower Lot site and lots around it, perhaps the City could sell that property (they told the federal government it is worth $7mm) and use that money to buy one of the trailer parks or lots near the hospital. Better yet, they could work with St. Lukes to put housing up on their parking lot, like the City plans to do at the YMCA. St Luke's patients and staff could have covered parking, and that location could house dozens of units in a place that would not destroy the character of Ketchum.
That’s just one idea. I have others, and maybe you do, too. Hopefully, we will someday have a city council that works for its residents rather than the tourism/second home industry and might listen to you.
Elections Have Consequences
Ultimately, the reason isn’t important; their actions are inconsistent with their rhetoric. What is critical is to get rid of them. There is an election coming up in November. Elections matter! Make sure to vote for people whose actions are consistent with their words. Better yet, run for office yourself!
I have been volunteering at the WC tent for race personnel the last few days. My supervisor is from Beaver Creek , lived there since 1981. He was impressed with Our Mountain and town and commented that we had a pretty good thing going. I told him what our City Council was proposing with the Comprehensive Plan. He shook his head a said once you allow this kind of growth to happen it will never stop and you will loose everything you moved here for. One of the other workers is a SunValley City Council member . He told me he prefers not to get involved in Ketchum politics. Basically said Ketchum is crazy!
Fantastic idea to put up housing at the St Luke's parking lot instead of the entrance to Ketchum at the Lift Tower property. Great to provide covered parking for the St Luke's employees and a perfect place to add workforce type high density housing without changing the character and feel of Ketchum.