Ketchum housing project put on indefinite hold

KETCHUM, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — In 2024, the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency was pursuing the development of roughly 66 new housing units for workers.

The housing units would have been built on a parking lot near First Street and Washington.

But the city’s Community Engagement Manager, Daniel Hansen, said residents voiced their concerns about how it would impact downtown parking.

“The public made it really clear that they wanted to see public parking included as an option if that were to be developed for community housing,” Hansen said.

To address those concerns, the city looked into adding a public parking garage. Studies found it could be added to the project, taking the number of spaces from the 120 currently there to 195, but it came at a steep cost.

“It was gonna be roughly a $21 million in addition to the housing development to be able to build this,” Hansen said.

However, at Monday’s meeting, the Ketchum City Council decided they would no longer move forward with the project. Hansen explained that cost became too much for the city.

“That they felt like because that was gonna be taking funds away from them to be able to spend on other capital improvement projects,” Hansen said.

Public input also played a role.

Peter Prekeges is is the owner of Grumpy’s and part of the Ketchum Business Advisory Council. Business owners like him were concerned about the the project, as it gets rid of an important parking lot for the downtown.

He added that previous construction projects impacted downtown parking, leading to concerns that this latest change could have major impacts on the city’s economy.

“There’s such a value to a single parking spot and when you lose one, you lose the sales, as a business. And the city loses their local option tax, which is the sales tax that is charged on every transaction,” Prekeges said.

Prekeges and other business owners are for more housing in the area, but the proposed spot just wasn’t the best place for it.

For now, the parking lot will stay as the project remains on indefinite hold.

Hansen said the city does have a few other locations in mind where they’ll look at constructing affordable housing in the future.

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