STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

CHARTS PROVIDED BY SUN VALLEY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Blaine County averages the equivalent of 35,445 full-time population over a year. But that number increases to 45,637 during the busy summer month of July.

It drops to a low of 29,951 during November.

So say the numbers that the Sun Valley Economic Development was able to pull together from such sources as the U.S. Census Bureau, Visit Sun Valley surveys, Blaine County GIS, DestiMetrics and others.

SVED Executive Director Harry Griffith unveiled the numbers Wednesday night at a Roundtable hosted by SVED at the Sun Valley Culinary Institute. Some of the information he presented was based on 2021 numbers in lieu of more up-to-date numbers and may have been influenced by city residents fleeing to Sun Valley area during the COVID pandemic.

“But our anticipation is that we will do this regularly--maybe every other year,” he added.

Griffith said he pulled together the information for those who have asked: How many second homeowners are here? And how long are they going to stay?

July was the high with the equivalent of 45,637 full-time population, followed by August at 41,053, June at 39,528, December at 37,066, September at 35,761, February at 34,030, March at 33,519 and January at 33,290.

Those highs were followed by October with 32,639, May with 32,342, April with 30,523 and November with 29,951.

The numbers don’t take into account that these homes can be rented or filled with friends and families when the parttime residents are not here.

“A big July day might be 8,000 parttime homeowners,” Griffith said.

Second homeowner and short-term rental occupants made up the bulk of the non-resident person days in July, August and December. Hotel occupancy and day tripper visits from Boise, Twin Falls and other Idaho towns was highest from June through October.

There were 900 short-term rental units with 5,000 pillows, the vast majority being in Ketchum and Sun Valley, Griffith said. They average 50 percent occupancy with 4 days per booking.

The number of short-term rentals is now up to 1,200, Griffith added.

Blaine County gets 1,967 day trippers a day or, rather, 1,967 cars carrying day trippers a day. That includes traffic driving through north to south or south to north. The majority come June through October.

Commuters working in Blaine County holds steady throughout the year with the equivalent of 500 workers commuting into the valley every work day.

Blaine County has gone back to 2019 pre-pandemic levels—levels of tourists and parttime residents that were comfortable for most people, said Ray Gadd, director of Visit Sun Valley, a marketing organization.

Average daily traffic counts on Highway 75 running from Bellevue through Ketchum peaked in July 2021 with an average of 21,400 vehicle trips a day. Tallies have generally stayed above pre-pandemic levels since, with an average 20,300 daily trips in July 2023 and no fewer than 12,600 daily trips in the other months, according to Cece Osborn, community planning director for The Wood River Land Trust.

As the regional employment hub, Blaine County attracts commuters from as far away as Twin Falls.

In 2021 34.8 percent of workers in Blaine County traveled 50 miles or more to their jobs; 34.3 percent of workers traveled less than 10 miles to their job. Of the remaining commuters, 24.5 percent commuted between 10 and 24 miles and 6.4 percent traveled between 25 and 50 miles.

The increased rates of vehicle trips made up the county’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, contributing 40 percent of all carbon dioxide. And from 2018 to 2022 there were 1,585 crashes—27 of which were fatal and 53 resulting in serious injuries. More than one in five of those involved wildlife.

Mountain Rides’ north-to-south Valley Route has experienced massive year-over-year gains in recent years. The route clocked more than 340,000 rides in 2023—double the number in 2021.

One question that needs to be asked, attendees said, is how may contractors are making trips into the valley because residents can’t get the services they provide locally. Another that needs to be asked is whether employers can be persuaded to offer more in the way of van pools to cut down on single-occupancy vehicles.

Blaine County Commissioner Muffy Davis noted that it’s imperative that we find solutions to keeping from losing quality of life, noting that friends from Vail were impressed with the way the valley has maintained quality of space with the help of hillside ordinances and other policies.

“Five hundred vehicles coming in a day—no wonder there are traffic delays,” she said. “We’re good at finding solutions—we have to work with the Idaho Transportation Department.”

Hailey City Administrator Lisa Horowitz noted that Hailey’s commuters mirror the county’s numbers with 2,590 commuters coming in each work day and 2,614 commuting out “so it’s almost equal.”

July’s counts are not larger, she said, because there is no school: “Schools are a driver of traffic.”

David Patrie, who is with Galena Benchmark Associates engineering firm, counseled those in the audience not to thumb their nose at tourists. I used to think the county was recession-proof—it survived the tech bubble, he said. “From 2008 to 2014 we were hit hard by recession. It took us longer to bounce back than most. We need to realize that tourists are our bread and butter.”

Airport surveys have determined that between 45 percent and 65 percent of those flying into Friedman Memorial Airport are relatives and friends of those who live here, said Carol Waller, former director of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce and current director of Fly Sun Valley Alliance. Only a small percentage are random tourists.

“I say to those who say they hate to see tourists: ‘Would you hate to see your friends’ kids come?’ They’re a huge part of the visitors we see in the valley.”

The next Sun Valley Economic Development Roundtable will likely be held in April or May with the topic to be determined, Griffith said.