Vol2No3: Jan 17th Is Your Last Chance
Ketchum's Comprehensive Plan Will Be Incomprehensible Without YOU
The Comprehensive Plan is SubOptimal for Ketchum Residents
If you log onto the City’s website, you might have no idea that Ketchum is in the process of creating its Comprehensive Plan for the next 10 years. Most people I talk to in Ketchum have no idea this process is happening or what it means.
The Comp Plan can be found here: https://www.projectketchum.org/cohesive-ketchum/
Please please please read it and comment on it. Comments are due on January 17th. It took me 20 hours to get through it, so thinking that the typical citizen would wade through this is unrealistic. Pick some portion of it that is important to you and work on that if you have limited time.
Why do I think it is a disaster? When read in its entirety, I think it will be used to turn Ketchum into Aspen. This is not what I think the community wants. Am I wrong?
The Troika Will Jam the Plan Through
As the Mountain Express noted in a December editorial, the Council is rushing to adopt its plan without sufficient input from Ketchum residents.
Here is a classic example: Two days before the public comment period expires on January 17, Ketchum is holding an open house on the plan (see picture at top). This creates the appearance of public inclusion while minimizing public input.
The City likes to assert that hundreds of people contributed to the draft. I find this misleading. The vast majority of them had no hand in writing any part of it.
The plan's real authors are the people on its acknowledgment page: family members of the Council, developers, people appointed by the Mayor, and secret committees. The Comp Plan process literally lacks the transparency and inclusion that this kind of document is supposed to encompass.
How Aspenization Works
The Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/ Hamilton implemented their Aspenization process seven years ago. Whether intentional or not, it results from their years of actions and inactions. I use the word Aspenization to connote prioritizing the interests of real estate developers (many of whom are not from around here) and tourism industries over the interests of the locals; the Mayor used to say he looked to Zermatt as his vision.
Step one: replace the local middle class with higher-revenue tourists. That has been largely accomplished. Our essential workers like teachers, health care workers, and first responders can increasingly not afford to live in Ketchum. Very few children are left in Ketchum as hundreds of affordable long-term homes have been converted to short-term tourist rentals.
Step two: subsidize housing for the tourism industry to keep wages depressed. This is in process. Bluebird is a prime example. Sold to us by the Mayor with lies that it was for our essential workers, it is not that at all. The plan is to build many more Bluebirds on very valuable taxpayer-owned land.
Step three: use taxpayer money to bring in more and more tourists. That is a constant work in progress and is succeeding. Mr. Cordovano cited the record 9000+ skiers on Baldy last week as if it is good for us. It is not. Much of this is due to IKON. More comes from your tax dollars subsidizing Visit Sun Valley’s mission of growing more tourism and the Fly Sun Valley Alliance’s efforts to expand the flights into SUN (up 20% last year). The Council recently approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to for-profit companies to bolster their profits for the World Cup in March.
Step four: eliminate parking in the commercial zone. This one I struggle to understand. The City subsidizes tourist workers’ apartments by requiring no parking for them. The Council permanently eliminated at least 27 spots with the Main Street Project. They propose to eliminate 65 more with the Washington Lot project. They are considering a proposal that could eliminate even more. I don’t get it. Why?
Through his appointments to KURA, the Mayor has KURA focused on destroying parking rather than investing in sidewalks—we need $20mm to get our sidewalks in shape, but KURA, who should be paying for it, has decided to become a housing developer.
Step five: misuse the zoning code to support increased density for tourism purposes. More units per lot that are ideal for short-term rental. There are fewer parking requirements, as tourists come by air. Taller buildings—even up to six stories. Lot-line-to-lot-line four-story boxes. Replacement of mature trees with shrubs. Tourism density seems to me to be the main goal of the new Comp Plan.
Step six: turning the commercial zone into a mall so our shopping rivals Aspen's. This is just getting started. You know how part of our charm is the minimal number of national mall chain stores in Ketchum? You can kiss that goodbye. We now have a Faherty and a Johnny Was on the Mayor’s former campaign HQ site.
Step seven: outsource Council responsibilities so they can focus on property development. Look at the City Council agendas—how many items are for the residents of Ketchum? The Council has outsourced almost everything, from the police to the fire department. As for roads/infrastructure, they are doubling the water treatment plant capacity for future development, but the roads they will let deteriorate. See the 12/16 Council meeting for their current road “plan.”
The Company Town Works for the Company
The City of Sun Valley is in on the Aspenization plan, but they are smarter about it than Ketchum. They want all the revenue benefits while pushing the burdens to Ketchum and down the valley. They approved Sun Valley Co’s master plan for a massive increase in the resort's size, with minimal workforce housing requirements. Where will the housing for up to 800 underpaid people go? What about the traffic implications? Not the City of Sun Valley’s problem.
Sun Valley only pays for their own essential workforce housing, which they put in Hailey and the County rather than near the goose that lays their golden eggs. Apparently, Sun Valley ski patrol members are essential workers, as they have been allocated some of this housing. What SV does with its taxpayer money is its residents’ issue. If they want to provide corporate welfare to Sun Valley Co, that is fine with me. I see that they are handing over hundreds of thousands of $$$ to SVC for the World Cup.
Note that the City of SV makes zero contribution to BCHA. Given my view that BCHA is anti-essential worker, I see this as smart on their part. On the other hand, one could view it as evidence of their go-it-alone cherry-picking strategy).
What Do Aspen Locals Think About Aspenization?
The Marolt family is one of the old-time families in Aspen. Roger Marolt has been active in Aspen politics and writes a column for the Aspen Daily News.1 Here’s what he thinks of Aspenization.2
What I find particularly poignant is what he says about how Aspen has abandoned families and children and what that means for Aspen’s future.
This is what the Troika has done to Ketchum, despite the call in the current Comp Plan for them to prioritize families. We need to invest in children and families to continue the legacy of Ketchum as a community rather than just one big AirBNB hotel to benefit Sun Valley Co, the tourism industry, and the people who exploit Ketchum.
What Can You Do?
As I stated above, please read and comment on the plan. Your input might not change the outcome, but it will be useful next year when we get a new Council.
If you shop at Faherty or Johnny Was, do it online and not at the stores in Mr. Wilson’s development.
Tell the Mayor and Council Members what you think. You can reach them at participate@ketchumidaho.org
Write a letter to the Mountain Express. Less than 300 words to letters@mtexpress.com
Go to public meetings and use your three minutes to share your views.
Vote for people who reflect your values. The next election is in November 2025, and we will (hopefully) have a new mayor and two new council members.
Run for office!
Remember: “We get the government we let them do to us.”
One of the things I like about that paper compared to ours is they have a lot of local columnists. Why doesn’t the Mountain Express?
Thanks to Jake for sending this my way.
To Whom it May Concern?
What percent of the total population of Ketchum responded positively for building another low-income dwelling?
You’re misleading the public by saying 80 some precent of those responding to the questionnaire responded positively.
How do we know they represent the entire population of Ketchum?
Wouldn’t you be better off to post a survey to all the residents of Ketchum?
One “open house” and one survey is not adequate for a vote. It’s like “taxation without representation.”
It should be a vote of the public!’
Why are you attempting to build more when you can’t fill Blue Bird Village with Ketchum workers?
I’d say you’d be better off to finish one project within budget before you spend our tax dollars building another!
And what about the street projects you started last year? Do you have the dollars to finish them as well as re do the sidewalks?
If you over tax the retailers and the home-owners, without allowing them adequate time to approve you won’t be representing your constituents…You’ll be dictators.
When Ketchum could fall prey to the ravages of fire like LA why aren’t you focusing on preserving our town? What have you done to protect your population?
Why are you spending our dollars frivolously?
As Peggy Noonan said in her column this week “Government on whatever level, exists first to keep citizens and their property safe. That’s the bottom line: keeping people and what they have in one piece. Safe from fire and from crime, safe within a criminal-justice system that works, a clean water system, sufficient police. It’s hard to do these primary things, hard to see to them every day and improve them whenever possible. It takes concentration and focus.
We, the population, should not be caught short handed because of your needs or some advising company that doesn’t live here?
Worried in Ketchum!
I made several comments in the comp plan regarding the city’s false claims to care about families and essential workers. In addition, the false claims to care about local culture (as evidenced by the closing of bookstores accompanied by the opening of chain stores).
I’m planning to finish slogging through the plan this weekend. I’m curious to know what their plan is for making sure council members and mayor will be reading the public comments (within the doc) in a systematic way.