[Vision2020] letter to the editor

[Mark Solomon]

For anyone interested in the Walmart Supercenter issue, here's the 
letter I've just sent to the Daily News. Hope to see a lot of you at 
the MCA meeting Monday!

Mark Solomon
*******
NoSuperWalMart is circulating a petition to the Moscow City Council 
requesting Council revisit changes made to the Comprehensive Plan 
under somewhat unseemly circumstances last summer. Last June, a 
request to change the Comprehensive Plan to allow big box retail on 
the east end of town was ramrodded through the Council. Three of the 
Council members objected to the speed at which this application was 
being considered with the result that then Mayor Comstock was forced 
to break the tie to approve the application. If ethics had a higher 
place in that proceeding, it would have been a 2-3 vote to 
disapprove. Why? Despite her family owning property adjacent to the 
land in question, former Council member JoAnn Mack declined to recuse 
herself from the decision. As we now know, that property is proposed 
as the site of a SuperWalMart and two other as yet unnamed big box 
stores.

The new Council has already shown it is willing to review a 
contentious issue "decided" by the former Council. NoSuperWalMart's 
petition contends that the changes that were made clearly contradict 
the stated goals of the Comprehensive Plan. We respectfully request 
the new Council open this issue to a full community discussion by 
accepting our petition and holding full public hearings on this 
matter. Additionally, we request that any proceedings for rezoning 
this property be stayed until this underlying question is resolved.

NoSuperWalMart is asking interested Moscow residents to sign the 
petition to Council. Canvassers will be present at the Moscow Food 
Co-op and other local businesses this weekend and at the Moscow Civic 
Association's SuperWalmart panel discussion January 9, 7 p.m, at the 
1912 Building. More information about locations to sign the petition 
can be found on the website (http://nosuperwalmart.com).

Mark Solomon
Moscow