V2N19: Let's Replace All KURA Members
They failed in their mission. We need a new KURA with a new mission
NB: While local James Hungelman has made some cogent arguments for why KURA was illegally established and, therefore, is illegitimate, the Ketchum City Council recognizes it as a legitimate body. We have to play the cards on the table. This post refers to the de facto situation Ketchum is in with KURA.
KURA Housing Battle Won; War for Ketchum Continues
Score a rare win for the locals in their war with the Ketchum City Council for the future of Ketchum. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in City Hall. If they had the resources, they would have developed the Washington Lot. There are at least eight months of battles left in this war. Some are huge—like fighting City Hall’s upzoning plan for West Ketch and Warm Springs and keeping the Lift Tower Lodge out of the corporate welfare business.
Why KURA Owns the Washington Lot
Owning the lot wasn’t KURA’s idea. It reluctantly acquired the lot from the City of Ketchum in a questionable transaction. The City pushed KURA to acquire the Washington Lot for $1.5 million for two reasons. First, the City needed the money to construct the new City Hall, and the Bradshaw administration needed the old city hall site to build Bluebird. Second, the Bradshaw administration intended to develop the Washington lot into another Bluebird but needed an entity like KURA, which could borrow money, to fund it off the City’s budget. The mayor hand-picked KURA commissioners to make this happen. He even shifted the city employee who facilitated Bluebird to KURA to get Bluebird 2.0 built.
As Ketchum businesses and residents became aware of this plan, they rebelled. And, in a rare example that you can indeed fight city hall, the locals won. Given that KURA only has five years of authorization left and there is no way the next City Council is going to let them do what they are all there to do, this raises some thorny questions. What is the current purpose of KURA? And what should be done with the Washington lot?
KURA 2024 Accomplishments
Besides dividing the community over their housing plan, KURA didn’t do much in 2024. They gave the City $1.5mm to remove Main Street parking worth over $3.5mm (yes, that makes no sense, but that is what they did), paid $400k to bury power lines on Main Street, and $60k to a consultant for a plan to revitalize Town Square. I think the last one is not a proper function of KURA. URAs invest in improvements, not in consulting studies. The City should have paid for that. Using KURA as a piggy bank for consultant fees is a hallmark of the Bradshaw administration. KURA’s lack of independence is verified that they approve these giveaways.
Maybe we are better off if they don’t do anything?
Every Member of KURA Should Resign
The current KURA board and staff exist for only one purpose—to build a housing project on the Washington Lot. Since that ain’t happening, what are these people doing? They serve no purpose.
They should all resign.
The Mayor should appoint a new KURA to invest in Ketchum’s infrastructure. The City requires over $2mm a year in street maintenance to keep them functioning. Then there are the sidewalks. KURA was planning on investing $8mm, plus the value of the lot, for the housing project but only $500k for sidewalks. A new KURA board should have commissioners supporting infrastructure improvement and representing their community. To re-establish KURA’s independence from the Bradshaw administration, the members should include no City Council members or any other City board members. Likewise, the executive director should be replaced.
KURA Could Be A Force For Good In Ketchum
As Chair Scoville confirmed a couple of weeks ago, the idea behind KURA was to keep the increase in Ketchum property tax revenues in Ketchum rather than sharing them with the County. KURA has been hugely successful in that. According to its 2024 Annual report, KURA has borrowed $6.44mm. It pays down about $500k in principal a year plus annual interest of about $50k. It gets over $2.2mm in revenues from increased taxes in its urban renewal area. That’s a net $1.6mm in money to spend in Ketchum rather than to be shared with the rest of Blaine County.
Right now, KURA is sitting on almost $5mm in cash that could be invested in Ketchum infrastructure. That amount will grow by about $1.6mm annually for six more years. So KURA has access to roughly $14mm in money that can be put into Ketchum. How should it be spent?
A revitalized KURA should dedicate its remaining authorized life to fixing the streets and sidewalks in the downtown core and furthering the Ketchum Comp Plan goal of preserving the commercial core as a commercial core. What are the projects that would accomplish that mission?
That’s what a new KURA board would determine.
What Should a “New” KURA Do With The Washington Lot?
What should KURA do with the Washington LOT? It is not a legitimate function of a URA to own property or to operate a parking lot. URA’s are supposed to make investments that raise the tax base of their blighted areas. Now that the housing project on that site has been killed, KURA has no reason to continue to own and operate the Washington lot. Except…
But who should they sell it to? Should they sell it back to the City for the $1.5 million? Given that the Mayor has repeatedly stated that every City-owned piece of land will be developed for affordable housing and the community rejected that purpose for this lot, that’s an easy “no.”
Should they sell it to the highest bidder? If they dispose of the property outside government use, the law requires this. The lot would likely be acquired by a developer who would maximize their profits within the permitted zoning uses. That could be good or bad.
It would be bad if they do it under the current zoning regs for the commercial core. We would just get another under-parked box on the site that pays the in-lieu fee to maximize condo sales, with a veneer of retail to make it a “mixed-use” building. Like the building that replaced Formula Sports or the one that will replace Serva. If we had a pro-Ketchum downtown zoning code (rather than a pro-developer one), we could get a better project for this site.
Which leads to the third option: punt. Sit on the property and continue it as a parking lot for now. This would satisfy the principle of “Do no Harm.” It would buy time for a new City Council (election in November!) to undo the disaster of the Bradshaw years and create a zoning code consistent with the values of Ketchum’s residents. Once a new zoning code is adopted, KURA should sell the lot.
What do you think? What am I missing?
One thing I missed in this article. KURA acually adopted a plan for what it was supposed to do, way back in 2010. You can find it here: https://www.ketchumura.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/urban_renewal_agency/page/38370/adopted_2010_plan_with_signed_attachments.pdf
The good stuff starts on page 127.
Frankly, this plan makes a lot more sense than how they have been operating under the Bradshaw regime.
Long post here. Please bear with me.
There is a clear remit/mission here: investing taxpayer dollars in Ketchum’s infrastructure. The question of WHO makes those decisions is what is at stake. Is it insiders choosing amongst themselves, or is it a fairly represented cross-section of the Ketchum community?
More inclusive and transparent decisions depend on a truly representative cross-section of the community being authentically involved in decision-making. Random selection of regular citizens, stratified to represent the community in terms of demographics, accomplishes this.
What might this look like in Ketchum? Extrapolating from other places where more inclusive and transparent government is a priority (Bend, Ft. Collins, Boulder), it might look something like this: a randomly-selected citizen panel/jury/assembly (whatever you want to call it) of 10 or so residents, paid for their time, that is tasked with making infrastructure decisions, as KURA does now. In places where this has become a permanent feature of government, citizen panels rotate members for 1 year terms, with optional 6 month extension. This means a randomly-selected KURA citizen panel would never turn over all at once.
Members bring life and community experience to the table, and quickly become well-informed about the pros and cons of various options having to do with investing in Ketchum's infrastructure. Rather than pay some city staff (example: City Administrator who currently serves as KURA Exec. Dir, so is defacto serving at the pleasure of the mayor) for their time, that money could be used to pay regular citizens for their time, which respects the important contribution of regular people, who are always the true experts, especially when presented with information from all sources, not just government-curated.
This can be done. It is fair. Strengthens civic capacity. Leads to better decisions and a more informed community. Strengthens community.
It is remarkable what happens when government truly trusts the people it serves.