Copper Ranch Health Club becomes an eyesore to the Hailey City Council

Posted September 30, 2009 12:32 am by

That’s how one member of the public summed up the health and fitness facility at the Copper Ranch development in the Woodside neighborhood of Hailey, at a Monday meeting where a fourth extension of the facility’s building permit was requested.

The facility, which has been under construction since fall 2006, is 70 percent complete, said developer Jeff Smith, CEO of Lido Equities of Beverly Hills, Calif.Improvements to the exterior, the construction-site appearance of which Woodside residents have consistently complained about, can’t be completed until internal work is done.Potential funding and club partners have fallen through, Smith said, leaving him without the funds to complete the building.

“I apologize for it taking so long, but the market has been dismal,” Smith said. “We are certainly in no way abandoning that site.”
Negotiations, including with a national health club chain he declined to name, are ongoing, he said, but the health club’s building permit expires Wednesday. If it were allowed to lapse and a new one applied for, additional inspections and other expenses would be required. Smith asked the Hailey City Council to extend it for 180 days; there is no statutory limit on the number of times an extension request may be applied for.
“Four extensions, it’s enough for that neighborhood to deal with,” said Hailey resident Peter Lobb. However, he recommended the council approve the fourth extension because to not do so could put the future of the project in jeopardy. “I think you’re going to have to give it to them and hope for the best.”
The council did more than hope. It required the developer to come back in a month and describe, with pictures, how the exterior of the site will be improved to allay neighbor concerns. If they aren’t satisfied, council members said, they could rescind the extension.“Let’s assume it might look this way longer than any of us may wish or anticipate,” said Councilwoman Martha Burke, acknowledging the challenges the club faces in a down economy.
“We all share that hope, but if it doesn’t look good to the neighbors, at some point we’re going to have to yank it,” said Councilman Fritz Haemmerle. “This has been less than attractive for far too long.”Smith said his company has been working to improve the site for the past two weeks, and will continue to do so to make the health club less of an eyesore.
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