[Vision2020] Downtown Parking Back on City Board's Plate

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (June 8, 2006) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

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Downtown parking back on city board's plate 

By Omie Drawhorn, Daily News staff writer 
Published: 06-28-2006 

The Moscow Board of Adjustment again will take a look at downtown parking as
it considers the fate of New Saint Andrews College at its downtown location.


On June 5, the Moscow City Council sent four appeals of the college's
application for a conditional-use permit back to the Board of Adjustment so
the board could receive new information related to downtown parking and the
Jackson Street lot, located next to the college, and possibly attach
conditions to mitigate parking concerns. 

Tom Bode, owner of the Moscow Hotel and one of the people who appealed NSA's
conditional-use permit, said he also has new information he wants to present
that shows the downtown merchants and customers paid for the Jackson Street
parking lots. 

"The board was given misleading information at the last meeting when they
were incorrectly told that the lots were purchased by the city," Bode said. 

He said a 1978 City Council resolution shows the lots are for commercial use
and not for college students and faculty. 

The Board of Adjustment approved the conditional-use permit March 28 for the
college to continue operating on Main Street adjacent to Friendship Square.
It required that enrollment be capped at 200 students and that the college
maintain 160 feet of commercial frontage. 

Two weeks later, four appeals were filed against the decision, mostly
related to downtown parking concerns. Appeals were made by Bode, Bob Greene,
owner of BookPeople, Scott Bauer, a property owner in Moscow, and Jeanne and
Robert Jacobson, longtime Moscow residents. 

A public hearing will be conducted at Thursday's meeting but Community
Development Director Joel Plaskon said how the public hearing is set up and
the time allotted to each speaker will depend on how many people show up to
speak. 

Bode said the two minutes he was given at the previous board meeting was
insufficient and was part of the reason for his appeal. 

Bode said he is hoping for a condition that requires off-street parking for
students and faculty. 

Those who appealed and some downtown businesses have complained that NSA
students are taking up commercial parking spaces. In response, college
officials formed a parking advisory group that consists of downtown business
owners, including Greene, NSA staff and students. 

New Saint Andrews Executive Vice President Bob Hieronymus said the college
plans to provide additional off-street parking as it reaches full enrollment
and start classes earlier in the day in an attempt to free up parking spaces
downtown during the lunch hour. The college also is developing an incentive
program modeled after the Moscow Food Co-op that would reward students for
leaving their cars at home. 

"We are stepping up in an effort to be good neighbors," Hieronymus said. 

He added that the board ruled correctly in not imposing parking conditions
on the college. "It's not right to require one downtown business to provide
parking," he said. 

New Saint Andrews College, a nonprofit educational institution with an
enrollment of about 120 students and 17 staff members, has been on South
Main Street since 2002. Controversy started brewing early in 2005 after a
complaint was filed against NSA on the grounds that educational institutions
were not allowed in the central business district. 

Atlas School and the Moscow School District's alternative high school were
caught up in the zoning debate. Eventually, the City Council passed a law
that allowed schools and educational institutions downtown with a
conditional use permit. 

If the board's decision after the Thursday meeting is appealed, the issue
will return to City Council. 

IF YOU GO 

WHAT: Meeting for the Moscow Board of Adjustment 
WHEN: 7 p.m., Thursday 
WHERE: 206 E. Third St., Moscow City Hall council chambers

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"If the law is to be respected it must first be respectable.  There will
never be respect for our laws without enforcement, equal enforcement."

- dick Sherwin (May 3, 2006)

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