KETCHUM — If Ketchum residents only had a new town plaza, they’d stump from overturned soapboxes, glide through tai chi classes, toast marshmallows and gather for band battles in it.

At least those were some of the ideas the more than 80 people crowded into the Wood River YMCA’s Community Room offered during a Thursday brainstorming session with the Ketchum Community Development Corporation, which hopes to develop a town square in an existing parking lot between Atkinsons’ Market and the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

An anonymous donor has offered $100,000 toward the new plaza and the city could donate another $100,000, Ketchum architect Dale Bates said.

Bates said the immediate question for Ketchum residents is whether they want something new built for the coming summer, based on a $200,000 budget, or if they’d prefer a larger-scale plaza that could take a minimum of eight years to develop.

Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard, who has written several books on the world’s plazas, said she thought the town could easily develop a short-term solution, setting up umbrellas for shade, and incorporate a long-term vision for the plaza as money becomes available.

“As people discover how great it is, you’ll get more people buying into it,” she said. “The long term will be harder — you need more people living downtown who will walk to work.”

Lennard told attendees that the best thing they can do for their community is to create a place people can congregate. Such places can teach children how to recognize who’s friendly and how to have conversations with adults, among other things, she said.

“We don’t have good public places in this country for children to learn these things anymore,” she said. “This creates paranoia — the idea that strangers are danger.”

She said that some hallmarks of successful plazas are the inclusion of farmers and holiday markets, use of the plaza for political events, and the presence of a variety of food vendors. She added that a multiuse format — with shops at street level and residences above — helps to enhance safety.

“I’ve noticed a strong architectural identity in Ketchum — buildings that say this is a ski town; this is a mountain town,” Lennard said. “This should be epitomized in the square.”

Peter Everett noted that Mountain Rides’ bus meetings are poorly attended: “What about having public meetings outside in good weather? If I walk by eating lunch and hear guys talking about rezoning the heights of Ketchum’s downtown buildings, I’m going to want to get involved.”

A large number of attendees expressed support for doing away with on-street parking on East Avenue, perhaps replacing it with underground parking.

One of the interesting issues the town plaza planners will have to deal with is the city’s fluctuating population, Bates noted.

“Right now the plaza is the right size for a town of 3,000 to 4,000 people. The problem is we are sometimes a town of 15,000.”

Karen Bossick may be reached at kbossick@cox-internet.com.