[Vision2020] RE: Letter to Paul Kimmel

[Art Deco]

Mark,

I understand what you are saying.  However, planning and zoning is a very, technical, rule driven enterprise by its very nature.  Your point of view for many reasons is out of sync with the final authority in this and similar cases, the courts and the massive body of case law now extant.  Simplifying, your viewpoint is called "The Rule of Man."  Zoning operates under "The Rule of Law."

I humbly suggest that if you continue to be a member of the Moscow Board of Adjustment that you take the time and effort to study and to fully understand the current processes, practices, and legal entrapments of planning and zoning.

It is not that communities cannot be positively structured in certain ways, but how legally that is to be done to attempt to construct what is best for the community and at the same time protecting the citizens' right to due process, equal protection, and other rights.

Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark Seman 
  To: DonaldH675 at aol.com 
  Cc: Vision2020 
  Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 12:41 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] RE: Letter to Paul Kimmel


  Rose,
  I interpret the Code as trying to be a tool for community development; it allows what is positive and dis-allows the negative.  Within the text of the Code there is room for interpretation and if the wording of the Code is found to be flawed (prohibits what is positive and allows the negative) a mechanism for over-riding the "strict text" of the Code and acknowledging the "intent" of the Code needs to be utilized.  If this mechanism is not utilized then the flawed Code (in-place) will be used (law of the land) until the text becomes revised.  This places the implementation and interpretation of positive development as a function of document-adoption timing rather than as a function of a document w/general concepts that is open to flexible interpretation that is appropriate for the time.

  My perception of current NSA / Co-op zoning issues is that they have very little to do with the intent of the Code, but are focused more on interpreting the "strict text" of the Code.  I venture the vast majority of Moscow's citizens would agree that both entities are appropriate land uses.  They both have greater positive impacts on the community, as a whole, than negative.  There is potential for both entities to be disruptive if grown too large, but I do not see the legal wranglings as solutions to resolve 
  these issues.  It is mostly - sniping, a waste of time & energy, and destructive to the community.  If there are concerns for the evolution of Moscow, then those issues should be specifically addressed.

  One could also look at the current situation being very much the same situation I describe:  maybe the Code is general in concept and it's the citizenry that is flexing its interpretation; one that is appropriate and of the time.  I don't know the best way, but I don't think this is the most effective path to get Moscow where it wants to be.  Time will reveal an answer - either through city council or court action - of what the Code means.  I just don't perceive this process as a worthwhile method of community development.  Whether it is the community relying on a Code that needs this type of process for interpretation or the Code relying on the community for interpretation the current process is in a very sorry state.

  Mark


  Mark Seman, Architect
  Heather Seman, Landscape Architect
  1404 East 'F' Street  Moscow, Idaho 83843
  v 208-883-3276 / f 208-883-0112

    -----Original Message-----
    From: DonaldH675 at aol.com [mailto:DonaldH675 at aol.com]
    Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 11:32 PM
    To: FCS at moscow.com
    Subject: Letter to Paul Kimmel


    Hi Mark:
    Could you clarify what you mean by:
    "Unfortunately, there are citizens that are using the current ordinance as a weapon of community destruction and because it is in-place, it is the "law of the land."
    Thanks,
    Rose

    "One cannot level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many of them. But you can do something, and the difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything." Daniel Berrigan




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