[Vision2020] Parking Downtown Moscow

[mark seman]

I know nothing of Bebe's project, but ... parking is a huge consumer of
land.  The requirements for single-level parking & its associated access
(emergency vehicles & patrons) can easily use 50% of a site.  The balance
between developing habitable space and required parking is (most) always
driven by parking.  Every development has either paving or building; the
remaining strips of bare land is the "landscaping."  We won't have better
development until a more holistic approach is used that doesn't just
quantify requirements, but is open to the qualification of a development.
Why couldn't a project have 50% less parking space if alternatives are
available and that space could be devoted to landscaping or a better
building?  Most developing and zoning are so old-school it's pitiful.  The
future is where we are heading, but process is working out of the past.
Developing for the future comes from visioning what we want, implementing
what we do need, and not continuing to utilize poor strategies that give us
the same crap.

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of Bill London
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:04 AM
To: Nils Peterson; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Parking Downtown Moscow


N-
I just do not get it.
Why did Beebe pull his development when asked about off-street parking?
what is the big deal?
Off-street parking places are regularly included within urban developments.
P&Z was right to bring it up.
Why would a developer quit in a huff over that issue?
BL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nils Peterson" <nils_peterson at wsu.edu>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 6:32 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Parking Downtown Moscow


> A couple weeks ago or so, Rick Beebe pulled a rezone application for the
> south end of downtown -- the issue that came to a head in P&Z was related
to
> parking. Shortly after Murph wrote an editorial along the lines that we
> can'd use parking as a weapon to bludgeon would-be development downtown.
>
> But I just lost a few hours sleep over the issue (blame hot weather for
> sleeping with the windows open and listening to the Jake brakes on trucks
> coming in from Troy.)
>
> Lets take parking as a serious issue. Lets take the abandoned (or
> abandoning) area along the railroads as a real issue, and think about
> NewCities recommendation to grow inward (ie the railroad lands).
>
> How can we think about parking, and about the changes in that area of
> downtown? How can they help one another? How are they not connected?
>
>
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 List services made available by First Step Internet,
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
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