Maureen Puddicombe
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Maureen Puddicombe From: Barbara Amick <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2021 12:42 PM To: Participate Cc: Participate Subject: Bluebird To Mayor and Ketchum city council and P and Z : Your traveling sign being parked around Ketchum is very offensive and ignorant of the majority of Ketchum voters and taxpayers, irregardless if they are 1% wealthy or hard working middle class business people like myself. You are all ignorant about is We all want affordable housing in the Wood River Valley to sustain our business and productivity and way of life. We just don’t want that unpleasant monstrous housing project in our beautiful downtown business core area with little parking and eliminating even more parking. That area should be for new business, not ugly rooms for 50 employees that will probably be working south as that is where business seems to be moving. You are going to help ruin business for the downtown business already there as many already driving south for shopping with parking. A vibrant community does not have a mayor and city council and p and z that ruin forever their city core. “ Your own city staff report to the P and Z cited several reasons why the project (hot dog hill) does not meet the city’s standards. It stated that the building ignores local context, would diminish Ketchum’s vibrant, small‐town character, will exacerbate the gentrification and homogenization of downtown Ketchum” These should not be treated differently! Very undemocratic! Sell that property and buy into the Warm Springs open air park that will benefit many more people and tourists! There is other better land for affordable housing and never in middle of expensive city core!!! Or do Bluebird at where moving city hall, and remodel present city hall and sell back lot for great price for business on bottom and underground parking and nice condos on top for a great amount of money11 Thank you! Barbara Amick Over 50 year resident of Ketchum 1 Maureen Puddicombe From: linda <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2021 7:02 AM To: Participate Subject: Bluebird Village The following comments reflect my experiences as a developer, a business owner and a real estate broker for the past 25 years. I recognize the need for workforce housing in Ketchum and I have paid in‐lieu monies for this housing. I believe this project, due to its size and lack of quality and safety issues, is the wrong building for the site. I believe there will be copious amounts of problems and potential lawsuits for the city if this building is allowed to go forward. As you are analyzing the project, please consider the following issues: 1. The size of the building is too massive to fit the scale of our small ski town village atmosphere. 56 units with no air‐ conditioning and one elevator, 43 bedrooms without ventilation or windows and inadequate parking should not be allowed. The architecture of a block building that is 52’ high with hardly any undulation or beauty should not be allowed. This mass of building will create shadow issues and block views from all sides of the surrounding area. There will be issues concerning ice build‐up and possible safety issues due to the snow build‐up on the balconies, roof, sidewalks and streets below. It will tower over the surrounding neighborhood homes and buildings. It certainly will not fit in to the town’s character or add to the beauty of our little town. 2. The town should be worried about potential lawsuits and hazards for the residents. I am concerned about the 43 bedrooms without windows. Sleeping in a room without windows can cause humidity build‐up, stale air and warm temperatures: all a perfect environment for mold growth. This will be a terrible health hazard and possible lawsuit for the city. The building will not be air conditioned. 3. I am concerned about the venting of the ovens and the dryers. Please ask the developer if he is planning to vent the dryers and the ovens. If not, the moisture could rot the framing and promote mold growth. Lint can catch fire, and if the dryers are gas they can emit CO2. 4. There should not be BBQ’s allowed on the decks. It is against fire code and someone will need to police this issue. Also, it would be an obvious fire hazard. The question would be: are there are gas outlets provided on the decks? 5. It appears to me that the small balconies are piercing setback rules. The people who live next door are going to be complaining about noise, dogs and potentially even issues with snow falling on their roofs or sidewalks below. 6. In the small one bedroom units, the tenants have to walk through their bedroom to get to the living room. This is a major design flaw. 7. In the one bedroom units, the kitchen is so small there is no room for a dishwasher. If you cram in a small one, there will be no room for cooking supplies and dishes. This is one of the reasons that the affordable housing units that I built didn’t sell for a while. Everyone wanted a dishwasher. 1 8. There is only one elevator for the two buildings. It appears that there is discrimination against handicapped or elderly people living in the building. Most older people can not walk with suitcases or groceries up four stories. 9. There are clearly not enough parking spaces in the building for the number of bedrooms. It is not fair for the surrounding homes and businesses to give up parking for their visitors and clients to provide parking for the tenants. There is already an issue with lack of parking in the area and business owners have been complaining about this for years. Our workers deserve quality and well designed spaces for their living environment. With this building, there is limited parking, poorly designed spaces, lack of windows for ventilation, no air conditioning, one elevator and closet space for 3 coats and a few hanging items. There is also limited space for storage and decks that don’t function for any purpose. The location in the commercial core would be acceptable if there was adequate retail space below and fewer units above with more room to actually live and adequate parking for tenants. Deal with those issues and the whole town will support the project. I would be happy to help or assist in the design, safety and quality discussions. Respectfully yours, Linda Badell Associate Broker Sun Valley Sotheby’s International 2 Maureen Puddicombe From: H Boyle <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2021 1:34 PM To: Participate Subject: For Bluebird public comment To get a sense for just how massive Bluebird is and how it will tower over the retail core, take a look at this photo taken from Giaccobbi Sq. With its solar panels, Bluebird will be as tall as those pine trees. Tall trees are nice. Tall buildings are not so nice. And, as our P&Z and City Staff report on Solstice pointed out, building of that scale are not compatible with what Ketchum is all about. We can increase density in the core at three stories. Why go to 4+ and destroy our retail core? Let’s put the kibosh on Bluebird now and refocus that $9mm of Ketchum taxpayer money on better alternatives for Community Housing. Bluebird NO Community Housing YES Perry Boyle, President Affordable Housing Coalition of Ketchum AHCKetchum.com 1 2 Maureen Puddicombe From: Jennifer Case <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 12:59 PM To: Participate Subject: Bluebird Village I have been coming to Ketchum/Sun Valley Idaho for 48 years, own three properties‐ a house, a condo and land in Gimlet. We are considering transitioning our residency to full time here in Ketchum but are extremely upset by the potential Bluebird Village apartment building, which we believe would be a disaster to the downtown Ketchum community. First, The retail center of Ketchum is already stretched with minimal parking and the proposed building will only exacerbate that issue by increasing the number of residents but only providing approx 28% of them parking?!? Second, the size and monstrosity of the building does not fit with the historical and picturesque visual of the space‐ which is a main attraction for the towns tourism and visitors. Ketchum should place the highest priority on maintaining and protecting the historic western mountain town feel or it risks destroying the very attribute that makes it a top visitor destination. Maintaining the integrity and character of Ketchum/Sun Valley should be the town’s top priority for it to continue to attract visitors and residents, and hence flourish. Jennifer and Greg Case 670 2nd Street East Ketchum 1 Maureen Puddicombe From: Annie DeAngelo <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2021 12:18 PM To: Participate Subject: Housing Hi all, Hope you are doing well! I just wanted to voice my support for the Bluebird project and affordable housing in general. We need projects like that to continue to make this place the vibrant community that it is. I also wonder if it would be possible to create a tax on people who own second homes and short‐term rent them. If you short‐term rented out your primary home to make ends meet you wouldn't pay the tax. But if you short‐term rented out your second home you would be taxed more. I think this would pass in a vote since only local homeowners would be able to vote on it.