Given that the Limelight is converting eleven hotel rooms into two luxury apartments and the New hotel has scaled back its room count proves we don't need more hotel rooms built in Ketchum.
In fact, I'm also going to email developer Matt Hansen from PEG Companies. Check out PEG's instagram page to get a slice of what they'd love Ketchum to look like + their recent projects in Utah.
Brilliant piece. I especially love the action items. I have sent an email to the Ketchum City Council and will follow up on the other suggestions for making myself heard as well. Thank you, Perry!
Thank you Perry for bringing this information to our attention. This morning, April 12 th I went to the websites to look up the P&Z active applications or meeting agenda and still nothing is posted there. I think we need to demand a building moratorium , till the comp plan is finished.
This City Counsel will do whatever they want. Come November and the election, they will all be ousted, but what they have done to Ketchum will remain and their commitments for new buildings and density will continue after them. Does Ketchum deserve this and all we have done is complain?
Hi Ed...I have to push back on your comment about "all we have done is complain". There is a lot of civic action taking place to re-claim, re-invest, and re-focus on Ketchum. Perry's blog here is a great example...he has been sharing information, educating citizens, and encouraging participation in local issues, and I believe his subscriber list is in the thousands. KBAC was formed in April 2024, now has 150 business and community members, meets once a month with the City, and has taken action on a long list of priorities to help conserve Ketchum. (Many of these things you might not seen and we won't take public credit for, but are happening) We also have formed a parking committee that meets every other month with City leaders to directly solve issues surrounding access and resource management. The last two P&Z meetings were standing room only, neighborhood groups have formed to work through comp plan density concerns, and the City has increased public workshops to inform the public and solicit feedback about construction projects, business needs, and comp plan. Things are not perfect, but it's important to point out the incredible amount of civic participation that has happened over the last year....and this is just the beginning as we enter into election season. Please consider attending a City, P&Z, or KBAC meeting. Please consider submitting public comment, and please continue reading Perry's blog to stay informed. Thank you!
My point is not that there hasn't been activity, rather, it's that the activity has fallen on deaf ears. The Ketchum CC is going to implement their notion of zoning, parking, inadequate infrastructure, more hotels with variances, and on and on. If we were boxing, their strategy would be called "rope a dope."
I applaud all these actions that you refer to, however, the time is up and the future will soon be up. At this point, only litigation to stay these actions will deter this City Council from doing as they see fit, and not how the residents would like to see it.
After reading this current tranche of comments I'd like to state the obvious: Don't let the council/P&Z extend the deadline for Marriott to build its hotel. Just tell Ketchum's putative leaders to deny the application. Full-stop. If that doesn't work, pursue it in the courts based on the arbitrary nature of the exemptions.
Whenever a request for an extension is made, it ought to be a requirement that the exemptions attached to it are subject to a review, reevaluated. If they are deemed arbitrary, excessive and/or without adequate merit under current market conditions, they would work as circuit breakers requiring the application process to be re-started. Marriott has nothing to lose under the current arrangement, Ketchum does. It's absurd and a very good example of administrative incompetence.
With the site for sale, Marriott is trying to preserve and cash in on its investment. The land is worth a LOT more with the permits in place. The Marriott boys don't give a damn about the quality of life in Ketchum and they will only build the hotel if it pencils out. Problem is, it doesn't pencil out anymore. The next best thing is to sell the land at a profit to the next gaggle of out-of-town jokers who won't give a damn about Ketchum, either.
Neil and his crew know this (kind of) to the extent that they look in the mirror in the mornings, but not to the extent they are willing to share any doubts with their constituents. It's myopia and dissemination personified. They made a mistake with this building and are acting like typical gutless wonders. The local residents will respect them a LOT more if they just say NO to PEG and let the cretinous, rapacious Marriott white-boys move on down the road. Good riddance to them.
When I first heard that a high-rise hotel was being located at the narrow sloped entrance to Ketchum, I knew the real estate development insanity exploiting the cover of Covid and a stacked city council (troika) was totally our of control, and not just in Hailey anymore. The malignant growth agenda (Aspenization) and this Marriott abomination are products of the same retrograde ideology in the process of destroying this country and our democratic institutions, the fascist oligarchs brandishing a sociopathic megalomaniac with a cult following of aggrieved aging boomers, hoping to inflict as much damage as possible with unfettered corruption and incompetence as well as breathtaking stupidity, then the audacity to identify as patriots.
If this Marriott is actually built it will be a pathetic monument to the craven greed of the oligarchy aggressively manifesting at this space in time of our local and national history. With the overabundance of STRs (Vrbo/Airbnb) already, and even more to come if Ketchum leadership continues to pursue upzoning out Warm Springs and in West Ketchum, this Marriott will sit empty most of the time and be a huge liability to the investment interests now foolishly chasing a clearly losing proposition. Staffing under such sketchy circumstances virtually impossible given the local labor market and absence of housing for low-wage resort workers. But yeah, do it. There is nothing I want more than to see greedy swine (Musk) crash and burn, you know, like a Tesla!
To have outside interests looking to make a fast buck having far more influence in shaping the community than the residents who have spent most of their lives here has tragically cheapened the character of our fair valley. The City of Sun Valley voted overwhelmingly for "dirty donnie" and sanctioned a dreadful violation of the Hillside Ordinance while everyone was distracted by Covid. A couple of people have expressed interest in my opinions, so one missive included the following two paragraphs.
Utah is a state where the AG is constantly in court attempting to steal our precious public lands. The merging of state and business leadership is the primary characteristic of fascism, add a bizarre divine rationalization of such acts as genocide against indigenous peoples and you have an even more toxic ideological agenda which manifests in less violent ways today. For MAGA leadership in Utah who are still aggressively operating on the 19th Century objectives of "Manifest Destiny," our public lands represent a massive inventory of real estate and resources the government of Utah would shamelessly exploit to extract and accumulate wealth for private equity elites (Mitt). Land and money the only assets valued by a profoundly ignorant, vertically integrated, retrograde culture attempting to aggressively assert their superficial values in destroying our fair valley, while their Congressional Delegation represent the most ardent supporters of "dirty donnie," wrecking ball of the fascist oligarchs looking to strip-mine more wealth by destroying Social Security.
The essence of Utah's very identity is a great inland lake I swam in as a child amazed at a buoyancy much greater than that of the ocean, now drying up and filling the breeze blowing over SLC with arsenic. I encourage you to visit the "Industrial Revolution" article in the March edition of High Country News. Virtue-signaling the cheapest response to these environmental degradation realities as any substantive mitigation, remediation, or return of water to the lake would eat into profits. Sound familiar?! Is this the blueprint of malignant poorly managed growth and associated base moral principles and priorities we want for our community?! When GREED is the sole motivation, any moral constraints and convictions cease to exert restraint. So go forth and over-develop using lies about a "housing crisis" and "affordability" with no consideration of the long-term impacts and zero long-term planning for doubling the population our roads already can't handle effectively, it is simply God's Will!
10,000%. I am literally sickened by the absolute stupidity and greed. It’s enraging.
And to see the tagline of PEG development company:
We are known for our “high barrier-to-entry projects”
Has anyone taken a moment to see what’s happened in the outskirts outside Boise in a very short period of time ? A 20 miles radius of suburban sprawl. That’s next for the wood river valley if people don’t get their shit together.
Given that the Limelight is converting eleven hotel rooms into two luxury apartments and the New hotel has scaled back its room count proves we don't need more hotel rooms built in Ketchum.
This is exactly why building codes should not be written with exceptions for uses.
In fact, I'm also going to email developer Matt Hansen from PEG Companies. Check out PEG's instagram page to get a slice of what they'd love Ketchum to look like + their recent projects in Utah.
https://www.instagram.com/pegcompanies/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBjxM0SDnt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Here are the names and emails for the Planning and Zoning team, who I will also be emailing:
Neil Morrow: nmorrow@ketchumidaho.org
Brenda Moczygemba: bmoczygemba@ketchumidaho.org
Tim Carter: tcarter@ketchumidaho.org
Matthew McGraw: mmcgraw@ketchumidaho.org
Susan Passovoy: spassovoy@ketchumidaho.org
Will email council, write letters to the 2 papers, and will attend P & Z meeting on 4/22. THANK YOU. The insanity must stop.
I have never seen a mayor and council so blatantly and persistently disregard the clear wishes of taxpayers.
Brilliant piece. I especially love the action items. I have sent an email to the Ketchum City Council and will follow up on the other suggestions for making myself heard as well. Thank you, Perry!
Thank you Perry for bringing this information to our attention. This morning, April 12 th I went to the websites to look up the P&Z active applications or meeting agenda and still nothing is posted there. I think we need to demand a building moratorium , till the comp plan is finished.
Also- I really do think there should be serious consideration of turning that area into a park or nature conserved area. What would that require?
This City Counsel will do whatever they want. Come November and the election, they will all be ousted, but what they have done to Ketchum will remain and their commitments for new buildings and density will continue after them. Does Ketchum deserve this and all we have done is complain?
Hi Ed...I have to push back on your comment about "all we have done is complain". There is a lot of civic action taking place to re-claim, re-invest, and re-focus on Ketchum. Perry's blog here is a great example...he has been sharing information, educating citizens, and encouraging participation in local issues, and I believe his subscriber list is in the thousands. KBAC was formed in April 2024, now has 150 business and community members, meets once a month with the City, and has taken action on a long list of priorities to help conserve Ketchum. (Many of these things you might not seen and we won't take public credit for, but are happening) We also have formed a parking committee that meets every other month with City leaders to directly solve issues surrounding access and resource management. The last two P&Z meetings were standing room only, neighborhood groups have formed to work through comp plan density concerns, and the City has increased public workshops to inform the public and solicit feedback about construction projects, business needs, and comp plan. Things are not perfect, but it's important to point out the incredible amount of civic participation that has happened over the last year....and this is just the beginning as we enter into election season. Please consider attending a City, P&Z, or KBAC meeting. Please consider submitting public comment, and please continue reading Perry's blog to stay informed. Thank you!
My point is not that there hasn't been activity, rather, it's that the activity has fallen on deaf ears. The Ketchum CC is going to implement their notion of zoning, parking, inadequate infrastructure, more hotels with variances, and on and on. If we were boxing, their strategy would be called "rope a dope."
I applaud all these actions that you refer to, however, the time is up and the future will soon be up. At this point, only litigation to stay these actions will deter this City Council from doing as they see fit, and not how the residents would like to see it.
"Rope a dope." Nailed it.
Thanks for adding this. Good to know!
Stopped, so far! Now what can we do to ensure it doesn't pass on appeal? Email all the city council members?
After reading this current tranche of comments I'd like to state the obvious: Don't let the council/P&Z extend the deadline for Marriott to build its hotel. Just tell Ketchum's putative leaders to deny the application. Full-stop. If that doesn't work, pursue it in the courts based on the arbitrary nature of the exemptions.
Whenever a request for an extension is made, it ought to be a requirement that the exemptions attached to it are subject to a review, reevaluated. If they are deemed arbitrary, excessive and/or without adequate merit under current market conditions, they would work as circuit breakers requiring the application process to be re-started. Marriott has nothing to lose under the current arrangement, Ketchum does. It's absurd and a very good example of administrative incompetence.
With the site for sale, Marriott is trying to preserve and cash in on its investment. The land is worth a LOT more with the permits in place. The Marriott boys don't give a damn about the quality of life in Ketchum and they will only build the hotel if it pencils out. Problem is, it doesn't pencil out anymore. The next best thing is to sell the land at a profit to the next gaggle of out-of-town jokers who won't give a damn about Ketchum, either.
Neil and his crew know this (kind of) to the extent that they look in the mirror in the mornings, but not to the extent they are willing to share any doubts with their constituents. It's myopia and dissemination personified. They made a mistake with this building and are acting like typical gutless wonders. The local residents will respect them a LOT more if they just say NO to PEG and let the cretinous, rapacious Marriott white-boys move on down the road. Good riddance to them.
When I first heard that a high-rise hotel was being located at the narrow sloped entrance to Ketchum, I knew the real estate development insanity exploiting the cover of Covid and a stacked city council (troika) was totally our of control, and not just in Hailey anymore. The malignant growth agenda (Aspenization) and this Marriott abomination are products of the same retrograde ideology in the process of destroying this country and our democratic institutions, the fascist oligarchs brandishing a sociopathic megalomaniac with a cult following of aggrieved aging boomers, hoping to inflict as much damage as possible with unfettered corruption and incompetence as well as breathtaking stupidity, then the audacity to identify as patriots.
If this Marriott is actually built it will be a pathetic monument to the craven greed of the oligarchy aggressively manifesting at this space in time of our local and national history. With the overabundance of STRs (Vrbo/Airbnb) already, and even more to come if Ketchum leadership continues to pursue upzoning out Warm Springs and in West Ketchum, this Marriott will sit empty most of the time and be a huge liability to the investment interests now foolishly chasing a clearly losing proposition. Staffing under such sketchy circumstances virtually impossible given the local labor market and absence of housing for low-wage resort workers. But yeah, do it. There is nothing I want more than to see greedy swine (Musk) crash and burn, you know, like a Tesla!
To have outside interests looking to make a fast buck having far more influence in shaping the community than the residents who have spent most of their lives here has tragically cheapened the character of our fair valley. The City of Sun Valley voted overwhelmingly for "dirty donnie" and sanctioned a dreadful violation of the Hillside Ordinance while everyone was distracted by Covid. A couple of people have expressed interest in my opinions, so one missive included the following two paragraphs.
Utah is a state where the AG is constantly in court attempting to steal our precious public lands. The merging of state and business leadership is the primary characteristic of fascism, add a bizarre divine rationalization of such acts as genocide against indigenous peoples and you have an even more toxic ideological agenda which manifests in less violent ways today. For MAGA leadership in Utah who are still aggressively operating on the 19th Century objectives of "Manifest Destiny," our public lands represent a massive inventory of real estate and resources the government of Utah would shamelessly exploit to extract and accumulate wealth for private equity elites (Mitt). Land and money the only assets valued by a profoundly ignorant, vertically integrated, retrograde culture attempting to aggressively assert their superficial values in destroying our fair valley, while their Congressional Delegation represent the most ardent supporters of "dirty donnie," wrecking ball of the fascist oligarchs looking to strip-mine more wealth by destroying Social Security.
The essence of Utah's very identity is a great inland lake I swam in as a child amazed at a buoyancy much greater than that of the ocean, now drying up and filling the breeze blowing over SLC with arsenic. I encourage you to visit the "Industrial Revolution" article in the March edition of High Country News. Virtue-signaling the cheapest response to these environmental degradation realities as any substantive mitigation, remediation, or return of water to the lake would eat into profits. Sound familiar?! Is this the blueprint of malignant poorly managed growth and associated base moral principles and priorities we want for our community?! When GREED is the sole motivation, any moral constraints and convictions cease to exert restraint. So go forth and over-develop using lies about a "housing crisis" and "affordability" with no consideration of the long-term impacts and zero long-term planning for doubling the population our roads already can't handle effectively, it is simply God's Will!
No tariffs on abject stupidity!
10,000%. I am literally sickened by the absolute stupidity and greed. It’s enraging.
And to see the tagline of PEG development company:
We are known for our “high barrier-to-entry projects”
Has anyone taken a moment to see what’s happened in the outskirts outside Boise in a very short period of time ? A 20 miles radius of suburban sprawl. That’s next for the wood river valley if people don’t get their shit together.