{"id":17136,"date":"2021-12-15T01:44:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=17136"},"modified":"2021-12-14T20:50:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T20:50:53","slug":"home-sweet-home-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/15\/home-sweet-home-starts\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Sweet Home Starts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An<\/strong> overview of housing projects coming to a \u2018North Valley\u2019 neighborhood near you<\/strong><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If your mayor proudly announces a large response to a housing needs survey, you might be a resort town with a housing crisis.<\/p>\n

If your local airport (which hosts a lot of private jets) records 25% more takeoffs and landings during a travel-restricting pandemic and your LOT receipts and sales tax revenue hit record highs, you may be a resort town with a housing crisis.<\/p>\n

If your local officials consider parking lots and campgrounds to be temporary housing plots, you may be a resort town with a housing crisis.<\/p>\n

If your \u2026 you get the idea, whether you\u2019re a Jeff Foxworthy fan or not. Blaine County is in a housing crisis and it has an impact on every Valley demographic.<\/p>\n

The good news is that every jurisdiction in the Valley seems poised\u2014some more than others\u2014to add to the housing supply in any sustainable\u2014some more than others\u2014way they can. What follows is a summary\u2014recent highlights, really\u2014of what each governing body from Sun Valley to Hailey is doing to make sure the working class and high-net-worth folks of this mountain getaway don\u2019t resort to moving or wintering somewhere else. In the next issue of Wood River Weekly we\u2019ll take a look at proposed developments south of Hailey.<\/p>\n

The Sun Valley Also Rises<\/b><\/p>\n

Sun Valley is quickly moving forward on a new \u201chillside ordinance\u201d that proposes changes which would allow the city to more easily approve \u201csmall-scale encroachments\u201d into parts of lots that exceed 25% in grade. In other words, some areas in Sun Valley currently too difficult to develop could, in the future, pass muster more easily with planning and zoning guidelines.<\/p>\n

This month the Sun Valley City Council also approved a reduction in plans to build the so-called\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cSunshine Townhomes,\u201d an approximately 4.6-acre site in Elkhorn Village. Developers originally were to create 49 dwelling units, but that has been reduced to 43. Nonetheless, 43 new units so close to the Sun Valley resort are a welcome addition.<\/p>\n

Catching Up In Ketchum<\/b><\/p>\n

Although \u201cthe hole\u201d still occupies the gateway to Ketchum and although one of city leadership\u2019s main areas of focus is the preservation of the 65-acre Warm Springs Ranch property, leaders are doing what they can to bring housing solutions to the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

Last month, the city hired housing specialist Carissa Connelly to serve as the city\u2019s housing strategist. Connelly is tasked with analyzing the Valley\u2019s housing crisis and developing a plan for action.<\/p>\n

In October, Ketchum city leaders unanimously approved a 75-year land lease for the so-called Bluebird Village workforce-housing development at 480 East Avenue\u2014the former location of Ketchum City Hall. Bluebird Village is a 51-unit project comprising two four-story buildings on a 0.6-acre site. The city would use tax credit revenues to offset costs of the units. In turn, that could then keep rental costs in the roughly $600 to $1,200 range based on a unit\u2019s size and the renter\u2019s income.<\/p>\n

All Hail From Hailey<\/b><\/p>\n

The Valley\u2019s most populous portion, Hailey, has a number of larger-scale developments clearing city hurdles and moving closer to being shovel-ready. Woodside and Maple Street subdivisions, River Street townhomes, and a Main Street senior and low-income family housing project called Blaine Manor are just a few examples.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a 104-unit multifamily development in the Woodside neighborhood. Some neighbors voiced concerns but those figure to be drowned out by the chorus of screams over the past year for more housing. City Council will review the project in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An overview of housing projects coming to a \u2018North Valley\u2019 neighborhood near you By Eric Valentine If your mayor proudly announces a large response to a housing needs survey, you might be a resort town with a housing crisis. If your local airport (which hosts a lot of private jets) records 25% more takeoffs and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,82,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-housing","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17142,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17136\/revisions\/17142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}