[Vision2020] Downtown Business District

[DonaldH675 at aol.com]

I attended the hearing for New Saint Andrews' appeal of the Board of  
Adjustment ruling and was gratified by the result. The rule of law is still in  
effect -- although just barely.
 
What mystified me mostly however was the apparent lack of institutional  
memory about the strict definition of educational institution (colleges and  
universities), schools (K-12), commercial schools (trade schools etc) and the  
omission of colleges and Universities and schools from the downtown business  
district. Those omissions were intentional and the definitions were specifically  
developed to keep the University of Idaho out of the downtown business  
district.
 
In 1988 (or thereabout) the University bought Murdoch's Tavern which is the  
present location of UI Personnel and Purchasing. In 1989 (or thereabouts) the  
University of Idaho bought Cavanaugh's which was a motel across from the 
current  location of Renaissance Mall, which includes Mailboxes Etc. and Jack in 
The Box.  They also bought the office building at the southeast corner of Third 
and  Jackson.  All of these tax-paying businesses were removed from the city 
tax  rolls.  Additionally, negotiations were under way to purchase the 
building  that houses the UI Pritchard gallery and an analysis was being made of the  
possibility of purchasing other vacant downtown buildings. 
 
This process was looked upon very unfavorably by the city administration at  
the time (1990) and the code was specifically modified to preclude any further 
 purchases by the University of Idaho.  In order to exclude the UI, the  
city's legal advisor convinced city councilors that all "like  institutions" would 
have to be excluded or the ordinance would be challengeable  as 
discriminatory.
 
In my opinion (I was employed at the time as the financial officer for the  
Facilities Department at UI, and involved in the property negotiations and  
involved with the city planning committee with the code rewrite), the ordinance  
was justified then and is still justified today.  I heard a lot of  
justifications last night by various members of the city council for making an  
exception someway, somehow so that NSA can be allowed to stay downtown.  My  objection 
to that is that I do not see how you can let one college stay  downtown and 
continue to prevent the UI from moving back into the property  market and 
potentially destroying the downtown business district.  We  already have a 
University zone.  Expand it if necessary and keep colleges  and universities out of 
the downtown. 
 
With their transitory populations, colleges eat up parking and create  
traffic problems.  If they are to be allowed downtown, then I would  strongly 
recommend that they be required to provide their own parking.  I  live 8 miles 
outside of Moscow, halfway to Troy.  When I drive into  Moscow's downtown, I cannot 
find parking near NSA to access those  businesses nearby that I want to 
frequent.  Instead, I must find distant  parking, and walk to Bookpeople, etc.  
This is inconvenient,  aggravating, and a deterrent to my shopping in Moscow's 
downtown.  Is this  what the city council wants -- people not shopping downtown 
because lack of  parking has made access difficult if not impossible?
 
If this is repetitious to some old-timers on the list, I apologize, but I  
thought the rationale for excluding colleges, Universities, and schools in the  
code rewrite of 1990 needed to be revisited and shown again in the  light of 
day.   Some city council members claimed last night  to be unaware of the 
original rationale for the 1990 exclusion of colleges  from the downtown central 
business district; this is a  reminder.    
 
Don Huskey
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