Greetings! It's a drippy, grey Wednesday afternoon - a good time for an update on Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency (KURA) developments. You'll find previous articles on the KURA in Insight Weekly's Archive (1/15, 1/29, 2/19).

The KURA is coming up-to-speed nicely on its proper mission, role, responsibilities and limitations in serving the public. This 180-degree tilt toward getting a grip on how the agency is supposed to function comes with two new commissioners plus Micah Austin as Ketchum's new Planning and Zoning Director and the new KURA attorney out of Boise, Ryan Armbruster. Austin and Armbruster clearly know what they're doing and they each provided an excellent short presentation to the Agency and its staff that you can see early on in the meeting's video. Here are their key points.

1. The KURA must remember that it is designed to self-destruct, i.e. to disband after completing its various plans, rather than holding or building assets over the long-term. Although the KURA has a legal 24-year life span, Austin pointed out that Jerome (where he was URA Executive Director) closed down one of its urban renewal taxing districts 10 years ahead of time because its purpose was met. Austin reflected, "That was a fun day, taking checks to each of the taxing districts" whose tax income had been diverted to the URA for its projects. 

2.  Urban renewal has three main purposes: to remove slums and blight, to create jobs through economic development, and to promote community sustainability. As a public service agency, its funds are to be spent solely for the public's benefit - and its success evaluated accordingly.   

3. Urban renewal agencies are viewed most favorably when they collaborate with the taxing districts whose funds are being diverted to their projects. It is important that an entire community's interests are kept in mind, not just those of the URA. Thus, URA Boards often seat representatives from the county and affected taxing districts, one or two City Council members, and a couple of citizens.  

4. URA investment for business development and increased land value should focus on new infrastructure, such as streets and below-ground improvements. While it's often attractive to find a "big fish" for a blighted area, i.e. a Chobani, simply fixing streets in a commercial district can improve its economic profile. When URAs take on brick and mortar development, i.e. working with a building's four walls, shell and core, they are likely to draw public resistance.

5. A KURA's plans, once approved by the public, should be pursued and completed, not delayed nor changed - unless the plans are again opened to public input. 

The implications of what the KURA learned at its February 19 meeting are many. Chief among them is the question of whether the Starbucks/Visitor's Center site should be sold sooner than later. Is this permitted in Starbucks' contract with the KURA? 

Was it a waste for the City Council to give $100,000 to Mountain Rides to support a transit hub that might easily have hampered the future sale of the Starbucks site? How does Mountain Rides feel about the months it spent on a project that should never have started if the URA knew what it was doing? 

Last, but not least, does this new information mean that the streets lacking city sidewalks could be taken care of sooner than later by the City - not by the homeowners who were permitted to buy their homes without providing sidewalks?

Austin and Armbruster must have realized that their words would shake the KURA to its bones. They handled the situation well and respectfully, leaving it to the agency to take the lead on next steps. These should include reviewing all previous decisions regarding fidelity to URA legal objectives. Some plans may need revision, others not. The Agency can, at the very least, learn by reviewing its past. Should it have:

1. Designated River Run, owned by Sinclair Oil (the 51st largest private company in the U.S.) an urban renewal area - making it eligible for infrastructure development assistance with public funds diverted from County-wide needs? 

2. Rejected the business community's proposal to run a business development and community service operation on the site that the Agency subsequently leased to Starbucks at below-market rent? 

3. Invested $140,000 in brick and mortar improvements for the Starbucks café - an outside company with few employees in a low-paying service industry - located on prime real estate where it could compete most effectively with locally-owned cafes? 

Repercussions have already occurred: the cancelled bus hub, Ketchum City Council's request that the URA repay the $1,400,000 loan made for an affordable housing project that never came to fruition, a change in who should lease the video screens proposed for the Visitor's Center, and a focus on replenishing Ketchum's empty in-lieu housing fund so we can again incent affordable housing. 

It will be interesting to see how the KURA moves on all fronts with its new information and well-informed guides after years of resisting similar public input. 

We can, however, at least congratulate the KURA for hiring an excellent attorney and thoughtfully considering his information. And we can thank the Council for hiring an excellent Planning and Zoning Director with sound URA knowledge. This is a significant turn of events!  

Until next week....Jima Rice