The Moscow Board of Adjustment voted to allow New Saint Andrews College to move the college’s administrative offices into the former Moscow Contemporary art gallery building.

The board’s decision Tuesday night was made with the hope the city and the Moscow City Council will clarify an ordinance prohibiting the expansion of colleges in the downtown central business district.

New Saint Andrews (NSA) began renting the 414 S. Main Street space from building owner Rootforest LLC in February.

That space housed an art gallery for 40 years. It previously belonged to the University of Idaho Prichard Art Gallery until 2021. Then Moscow Contemporary ran an art gallery there before its lease was terminated in January.

NSA also plans to open a community art gallery and retail space in that building. Additionally it plans to move the college’s administrative offices into the upper floor of that space.

NSA’s operations are limited by a Moscow ordinance passed in 2019, which prohibits colleges and universities from expanding in the central business zoning district. NSA’s main campus is located at 405 S. Main Street, across the street from the gallery.

Cody Riddle, Moscow city supervisor, said the 2019 ordinance was put in place because of concerns that downtown Moscow could slowly become a college campus without these limits.

City staff and the Moscow Board of Adjustment agreed NSA’s plans for an art gallery and retail space do not violate this ordinance.

Riddle said the gallery and retail space are not integral to the college and will not be used by students to earn course credits. Therefore, it is not considered an expansion of NSA.

But the city argued the administrative offices do represent an expansion of the college and should be prohibited.

“Expansion isn’t tied solely to the number of students,” Riddle said. “It can be additional office space, it could be expanded hours of operation, added offices, added employees, all of which are kind of included in this proposal by expanding that offices use.”

The city zoning administrator made this determination in March. NSA President Benjamin Merkle and Rootforest LLC’s Brenda Von Wandruszka filed appeals in April.

On Tuesday, Merkle and Von Wandruszka made their arguments in front of the Board of Adjustment.

Merkle said the city already allowed NSA to house administrative offices in the Nuart Theater, also located downtown. He said NSA is simply attempting to move these offices to another building a block away, but it seems the city is inappropriately expanding the definition of educational use.

He said NSA is not seeking to expand educational use in the central business zone.

Merkle said NSA is not trying to challenge the ordinance prohibiting his college’s expansion, and added that it is not trying to add students or classrooms to its campus.

Von Wandruszka said the ordinance does not apply to business offices, and added that offices are found throughout the central business zoning district. She said denying these uses is an “impermissible overreach” of the city’s power.

The Board of Adjustment struggled to determine whether the use of these offices violates the intent of the 2019 ordinance. Board member Joe Bazzoli said the offices will not be used by students, but they will serve the college’s accounting, financial and marketing needs.

“How those affect university expansion, that’s not clear,” he said.

The board decided that moving this issue into the city council’s hands may force the city to better clarify the intent of the ordinance and define what college expansion means.

The city zoning administrator may also appeal the Board of Adjustment’s decision to allow the offices. Board member Jerry Schutz made the motion to reverse the zoning administrator’s decision to prohibit the NSA offices.

“Really what I’ve done with the motion is put it back to the city zoning administrator to decide if it’s worth appealing it to the next level or letting it happen,” he said.

New Saint Andrews describes itself as a private classical Christian college. Controversial Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson is an NSA trustee and senior fellow of theology.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.