[Vision2020] RE: The Key to Helping Downtown Moscow Thrive

Tue Jul 12 23:14:06 PDT 2005

Hi Art,

There has been some follow-up from the planning done several years ago.
Barbara points out that the short term downtown plans resulted in grant
proposals that were successful and that are currently renovating Friendship
Square. There was money for a downtown coordinator position but that money
was used up a couple of years ago.

Revising the Comp Plan is not a task taken lightly. The last revision of the
comprehensive plan took 7 or 8 years to complete. The length of time was due
primarily to the time commitment required of staff to create a new plan. The
council desires to have this revision of the Comp Plan to happen more
quickly. We are bringing in a group, New Cities, to help us focus on a few
areas and to provide specific technical assistance in those areas. Our
current Comprehensive Plan is not bad, but it is ten years old and time to
once again think about the future.

I do think that Council has acted quickly concerning the “current zoning
issues/fiasco” since the first time that council was given an opportunity to
express an opinion on this matter was about two weeks ago and we made a
decision.

I find your paragraph asking Where is the reform? to be interesting because
changes are happening each month with new ordinances and hearings on changes
to major development processes like the Subdivision ordinance. I suspect
that advances are not happening in areas of interest to you and so I would
like to know what those areas are so that we can look at them.

Concerning the $50,000 and the rat hole – I may be wrong since this happened
before I was elected, but I believe that the $50,000 has resulted directly
in the current grant fro the State of Idaho to update Friendship Square, so
the return on the money was 10 to 1, I think.

What happens downtown is a complex function of zoning, building permits,
specific local economic factors, and the general health of the economy.
Downtown is not under the control of the city to manage. There are
organizations that are trying to bring individual businesses together to
create a healthy economic atmosphere in our downtown, the Chamber is one of
those, but the viability of any single store on Main St (or anywhere in our
community) can only be assured through a combination of hard work and
economic well being in the region generally. There also needs to be a
commitment from the community to support local businesses. It is not enough
to not support a few businesses that you do not like – we must positively
support our local businesses. Every one of you should be buying books, CDs,
paper, groceries, furniture, etc. from the most local business you can. In
this way, almost all the money we spend gets spent in our community again by
the store owner and employees.

Leadership involves many things – one of the agendas that I hope to press is
to influence all of Moscow to buy local, starting with the City. The City of
Moscow has a policy whereby it can select a local bid over a non-local bid
even if the local bid is higher, as long as the local bid is within 10% of
the lower bids. Since spending locally generates so much economic good,
perhaps the city should consider strengthening this policy.

That’s probably enough for the moment. Do let me know if there are areas
that any of you feel need revision. Thanks.

John Dickinson

  _____  

From: Art Deco [mailto:deco at moscow.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 9:08 PM
To: Vision 2020
Cc: Peg Hamlett; Nancy Chaney; Linda Pall; Jon Kimberling; John Dickinson;
JoAnn Mack; Marshall Comstock
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] RE: The Key to Helping Downtown Moscow Thrive

Barbara, et al,

I guess I'm not very bright.

I still do not see the reason for a three year delay by the city council to
begin to revise the comp plan, New Cities or not.  

Had the council acted in a timely and effective manner, the current zoning
issues/fiasco would not be.  And still they do not squarely face the issue
in a manner suggested and propelled by law.  I see a lot of hemming and
hawing and a great reluctance to do their statutory duties in a prompt and
courageous manner.  I am particularly disappointed in those that ran for
office on a reform promise.  Where is the reform?  I do not want to hear
that it takes time.  Time has already passed with little or no results!
Where is the community leadership they should be eagerly supplying?

With regard to the BID:

[1]    There has been a lot of negative comment about the goals and effects
of the proposed BID by several downtown businesspersons.  They do not
believe that it really will return a viable cost benefit to their
businesses.  Some of that comment has appeared here on Vision 2020.

[2]    The last organization I would trust to implement any kind of more
than a very elementary plan is the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.  During the
just previous years they have exhibited grossly inept financial management,
extraordinary insensitivity to community values, and a close-mindedness,
secretness that rivals the most dogmatic religious leader/organization.

[3]    The city council cannot delegate its responsibility to govern!!!
They are in charge of producing the comprehensive plan, the resulting zoning
ordinance, and the other various elements of insuring the opportunity for a
viable downtown core.

Perhaps, the city has poured $50,000 and a lot of well-intended citizen
effort down a rathole.  Perhaps they need to start over again or at least
public review the $50,000 masterpiece and try to determine if it has any
useful parts.

As V 2020er Pat Kraut asked:  Why did they need to spend the $50,000 on
outside consultants in the first place?  Why are we paying elected officials
and city staff if not to tackle problems like these?   

I may be in error, but between the elected officials, the city staff, and a
wealth of community expertise that could be had on a voluntary basis just
for a polite, open invitation, I should think that in a fairly short time, a
downtown vision/plan could be generated.  However, it won't be if the city
council continues to act like sluggish, snaffled, prideful, frightened
snails.

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Barbara <mailto:edc at moscow.com>  Richardson Crouch 

To: Art Deco <mailto:deco at moscow.com>  

Cc: Vision2020 at Moscow. <mailto:Vision2020 at Moscow.%20Com>  Com 

Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 9:30 AM

Subject: RE: [Vision2020] RE: The Key to Helping Downtown Moscow Thrive

Wayne,

The City has begun the Comprehensive Planning process by utilizing the New
Cities Initative.  I'll try an answer your questions.

Originally, the Comprehensive Plan was going to be worked on in sections -
Downtown, Economic Development, etc.  It was decided by Council and agreed
to by many groups interested in the Comprehensive Plan that first the City
needed to find a way to engage all stakeholders.  This lack of engagement
was made clear during the formulation of the Downtown Plan.  Action has been
taken on the Downtown Plan, the Chamber was selected to implement the
Downtown Plan and has been working with the merchants association to do some
things - BID, Parking Survey, etc.

As far as the information being "stale", many of the suggestions made in the
plan  are being implemented - the use of CDBG funds to improve Friendship
Square

The LEDC agrees that the focus should be on completing a Comprehensive Plan
update that contains the following:  a clear vision for Moscow's future;
sufficient public input to validate the vision; a buy-in from the decision
makers and citizens. I know that the City Council, MCA, LEDC, Chamber, etc.
all want to ensure that the planning process is open, fair and respects the
needs of all citizens and other stakeholders.

Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On
Behalf Of Art Deco
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 7:49 AM
To: Vision 2020
Cc: JoAnn Mack; Nancy Chaney; Peg Hamlett; Linda Pall; Marshall Comstock;
John Dickinson; Jon Kimberling
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] RE: The Key to Helping Downtown Moscow Thrive

Barbara,

Thank you for the information about previous work on a downtown Moscow plan.
It was most informative.  Perhaps you can post a précis of the major
elements and goals of that plan.

Perhaps also you and/or some open-minded city council members (not an
oxymoron, I hope) can answer the following questions:

After spending $50,000 and lots of effort on the part of citizens,
businesses, political figures, and governmental staff:

Why has action been delayed for more than three years after the downtown
plan was completed on the city comprehensive plan?

Has not some of the information gathered and recommendations made in this
plan more than 3 years ago become stale?

Since the issue of allowing educational institutions and other possibly
counter-productive uses in the downtown core is one with great consequences
for the future of Moscow, shouldn't the current city zoning ordinances be
updated only after the comp plan is updated and clear goals are set for the
downtown core and its relationship to the rest of the city?

I am sure there are a large number of citizens (residents, patrons, users,
visitors, etc) that want to know why the normal city planning processes are
not being followed and what effort, if any, is being made to get them back
on track instead of doing planning/zoning business in a crisis driven,
piecemeal fashion.

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Barbara <mailto:edc at moscow.com>  Richardson Crouch 

To: Art Deco <mailto:deco at moscow.com>  ; Vision
<mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>  2020 

Cc: Linda Pall <mailto:lpall at moscow.com>  ; Nancy Chaney
<mailto:nchaney at moscow.com>  ; John Dickinson <mailto:johnd at moscow.com>  ;
Peg <mailto:peg_hamlett at sbcglobal.net>  Hamlett 

Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2005 2:05 PM

Subject: RE: [Vision2020] RE: The Key to Helping Downtown Moscow Thrive

Everyone,

If you do not remember, Moscow and the University did complete a Downtown
Plan.  The Committee was the CRC and was a part of the LEDC.  We solicited
for consultants, hired a group and actually received and the City Council
accepted a short term plan from them - they felt the long-range plan was too
grandiose.  This plan was the basis of the Downtown Grant and the activities
happening in Friendship Square.  The plan cost a minimum of $50,000 and the
LEDC/Chamber used the plan to receive a grant from Verizon to hire an
interim Downtown Coordinator until a BID could be done.  The implementation
of the Plan was left to the Chamber.  The LEDC's participation ended after
we supervised the interim Coordinator.  In fact, First Step was kind enough
to give the Downtown Association a website and free hosting.  This all
happened in the last three years (3).  There is also a section that talks
about zoning changes in the Downtown.  If you would like this section (it is
about 40 pages) just e-mail me and I will send it to you.

There was lots of public input sought, including a tenant at the Ren Fair
and a table at the Latah County fair.  The General Public Input was
solicited in 2001 and 2002.  Downtown Property owners and Business people
met for almost a year before public input.

Moscow plans to start the public process for the Comprehensive Plan re-write
this fall as part of the New Cities Initative.  I would like to see the
community focus on writing a good solid, 20-30 year Comprehensive Plan.

Barbara Crouch

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