[Vision2020] And more from the Daily News

[Joan Opyr]

Another letter from The Daily News today:

Zoning is all about fairness

I wonder what evidence Steve McClure and the Daily News editorial board 
used to decide that all objections to allowing schools in downtown 
Moscow were being “hijacked by those seeking to debate religion or 
politics or those who are trying to make a political point.” (Opinion, 
Dec. 3 & 4) If there is a political point being made, it is that the 
city’s zoning code should be implemented fairly or it is no zoning code 
at all. This is a fair point for citizens to make and should not lead 
to name calling and finger pointing on the part of the editorial board.

Another point that is being made that has nothing to do with religion 
and/or politics is the fate of Moscow’s downtown retail/service core. 
Fortunately, and largely thanks to the downtown merchants, we have been 
able to keep our downtown district viable and vital in spite of the 
establishment of two malls and one Wal-Mart.

More challenges are on the horizon. Many residents want to be sure that 
there is space downtown for the purposes which are protected by the 
zoning code – business and service. Another nonpolitical/religious 
point is the need for parking so that people can shop/eat/do business 
downtown. Zoning that would allow current schools to expand and new 
educational institutions such as the University of Idaho to locate 
downtown might end the retail core business district we have all worked 
so hard to maintain. I hope the City Council takes these points into 
consideration, and hopefully the editorial board will consider them as 
well.

Joann Muneta, Moscow


Dear Visionaries:

I'd like to add a little something to what Joann has written.  On 
Monday night, the owner of Paradise Ridge records spoke very eloquently 
about having been on the receiving end of a zoning enforcement 
decision.  I believe his name was Williams, and he lived in the trailer 
park on the eastern edge of town, a trailer park owned by City 
Councilwoman JoAnn Mack's son, Dan Mack.

A few years back, Dan Mack decided that he wanted to renovate the 
trailer park.  To that end, he sent eviction notices to the owners of 
those trailers that he deemed dumpy, unattractive, and not on a par 
with the luxury park he envisioned.  The owner of Paradise Records was, 
I believe, the owner of one of those "unacceptable" trailers.

The trailers' owners appealed collectively to the City.  Dan Mack had 
given them 90 days to vacate, and winter was fast approaching.  Moving 
a trailer is expensive, especially if that trailer is old.  You have 
find a new location (not easy), reattach axles and wheels (harder 
still), and find the money to pay a truck driver and moving specialist 
to disconnect everything, hook the trailer to a hitch, and then haul it 
and and install it at its new location.  Melynda and I own a 1968 
Marlette trailer in the Stadium Way Trailer Court that we are selling 
to its current occupants.  We are comparatively affluent people, but if 
we were given 90 days to move it, we couldn't do it.  Where would we 
move the trailer to?  And where would our buyers go?  I'm afraid we'd 
have to send the trailer to Wasenkari's for salvage, and our tenants 
would be out in the cold.

The Moscow City Council was unmoved by the residents' plea.  They voted 
to uphold Dan Mack's right to evict the residents, and evict them he 
did.  There was no fuss, there was no "Oh, poor residents, let's 
rewrite the City Code in order to save their homes," and there was 
certainly no consideration of putting the entire City Comprehensive 
Plan on the table for review.  In short, they were screwed.  They were 
evicted from their homes, forced to relocate, and unceremoniously 
turfed out.  For this reason, I find JoAnn Mack's ongoing attempts to 
keep Doug Wilson's NSA in its current illegal location particularly 
odious.  Where was she when her son was evicting the poor from their 
homes?  Where was her concern, her care, her sense of fair play?  (I 
have no idea if she was on the City Council at the time or not, and I 
don't care.  I consider her current stance hypocrisy on an appalling 
scale, and I'd love to give her a short, swift kick in her inconsistent 
patoot.)

Here's the poop: if New St. Andrews is obliged to obey the City Zoning 
Code -- and I don't see why they shouldn't be when so many others have 
faced and survived the cruel hobnail boot of city zoning enforcement -- 
then they will be in a much better position than were the residents of 
Dan Mack's trailer park.  Doug Wilson and New St. Andrews will still 
own a building of considerable value in the Central Business District, 
a building that they can either rent or sell  They will be wiser to 
City Zoning Ordinance.  They will be well able to find a building in an 
appropriate zone with room for expansion and adequate parking.  I would 
suggest the old Tidyman's building on Highway 8; it would make a 
perfect small college -- lots of parking, access to food, a 
FedEx/Kinko's, a small shopping mall, and, should they want to convert, 
a nice Mormon Stake House just across the street.  No harm, no foul; 
just equal treatment under the law.

Finally, the City will be shown to be even-handed in its approach to 
the enforcement of existing code.  The current move to set fire to the 
Comprehensive Plan in order to salvage one man's mistake and another's 
arrogant demand for special treatment is not in the best interests of 
Moscow.  Far from it.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com
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