Most of the residents of Moscow would like to leave the workings and management of our hometown to the officials elected or appointed to that task. For the guidance of these officials, we have an adequate comprehensive plan and an equally adequate zoning code. However, there seems to be a certain casual approach to the enforcement of these codes. When an infringement is reported or discovered, the standard reaction seems to be either to grant a conditional-use permit to cover the problem or to cry for a rewrite of the code. It is not difficult to compile a long list of these situations, many of them very recent.
The current controversy over the location of New Saint Andrews College is yet another example of this approach to "city planning." A mistake has been made. Contrary to the city code, New Saint Andrews has been permitted to become established in the downtown area. The response of city officials has been a proposal to revise the zoning code to legalize this mistake. Yup. That'll fix it.
It is essential the City Council and the Moscow Planning and Zoning Commission be aware of the reasons for the intentional exclusion of educational institutions from the downtown business district.
The city administrators who designed this ordinance in 1990 were not creating a tool for persecution of a religious organization. They were trying to stop the University of Idaho from eating up the downtown. At the time, UI already had purchased Murdoch's Tavern (now UI Personnel and Purchasing), Cavanaugh's Motel (now a graduate residence hall) and the office building on the southeast corner of Third and Jackson streets. Negotiations were under way for purchasing the building that houses the Prichard Gallery and other vacant downtown buildings. All of these tax-paying businesses were removed from the city tax rolls.
The devouring by a university of the downtown of a small city has happened in many places. I personally observed this process in Huntington, W.Va., as blocks of small shops and historic houses were demolished to build a Marshall University stadium and parking lots.
The original intention of the 1990 modification of the city code is as relevant today as it was then. The code is not "outdated" because of the pressure to legitimize a serious error in its application. A healthy downtown is a place for retail shops and community space. If the retail spaces -- and the requisite availability of parking -- are occupied by educational institutions, the downtown "retail" area can no longer exist. Moreover, the city can be impoverished by this diminished tax base.
Parenthetically, it also should be noted that NSA did not rescue the GTE Building from becoming an abandoned eyesore. The building stood empty for so long because GTE at first did not wish to sell the building. When it was finally put on the market, two offers were received within a short time.
Now that this serious infringement of the code has taken place, the city has a profound predicament. I believe we have some level of moral obligation to New Saint Andrews. However, I firmly believe this obligation does not include rewriting the code to legitimize the problem. Moreover, the granting of a conditional use permit will simply open the gates for all sorts of similar petitioners who would justifiably expect to receive the same exclusion from the code. Either one of these proposed "solutions" would destroy Moscow's downtown.
I propose the serious consideration of a different solution: that NSA be granted an "Illegal use permit." This permit would concede that NSA is illegally occupying downtown space through an error in the application of the zoning code. It would, at the same time, permit NSA to remain where it is, with the following conditions (among other possible ones):
* That it does not expand, or occupy any further downtown buildings or other buildings illegal according to the city code;
* That it cap its number of students at the current level;
* That it provide parking and/or transportation for its students to leave the city parking spaces open for retail businesses and public events.
This would address the moral obligation the city administration has incurred without resorting to the disemboweling of its ordinances that have been put in place to protect the downtown. I urgently request the City Council to consider this proposal.
* Lois Blackburn is president of the Moscow Civic Association. The opinions expressed are her own.
