[Vision2020] RE: Tribune uncovers new Moscowpro-growth gro

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

Whoa Nellie!

Matt, I think you need to stop buying what certain "growth at all costs" 
types are selling in their inaccurate smear of the MCA as an organization 
favoring no-growth.  We are by no means a "no-growth"-seeking organization.

We seek to bring open public discussion and planning -- long range planning 
especially -- back into the process.  We seek to incorporate into our City 
better pedestrian and bicycle corridors, sidewalks, mixed uses and cluster 
developments that use forward thinking combinations of higher densities, and 
more shared, open space.   We seek sustainable community development, not 
stagnation.  There is a continuum of positions on the growth spectrum, from 
no growth on the one hand to unregulated, absolute power to develop one's 
land without regard to the effect on one's neighbors on the other.  MCA is 
not for the former;  I would hazard a guess that GMA is not for the latter. 
Time will tell.

Up until recently, this City has operated on a basis that had relegated the 
zoning code to an advisory document, spot-zoning and re-zoning property 
willy-nilly at the request of any developer -- regardless of the conflict 
any particular proposal may have had with the Comprehensive Plan.  Evidence 
of that sad pattern can be found with the prior council's frittering away of 
the West A street commercial property that has been turned into one 
apartment complex after another.  The "pro-growth at all costs" crowd 
decries the current "lack" of motor business land in the City and uses that 
alleged "lack" as a basis for asserting the necessity of re-zoning the 
Thompson property.  Those same "pro-growth regardless of the costs" folks 
include those who spent much of our best motor business land on short term, 
short-sighted, frenzies of granting every request to turn A Street into 
apartments  -- in an area that has no adequate pedestrian crossing of the 
largest road in our City for the numerous pedestrian students who were 
locating in those apartments.

Smart Growth we advocate, not "no growth."  http://www.idahosmartgrowth.org/

The best place for heavy commercial growth was always along the Pullman 
Highway and behind Third Street on A, as was set forth in the Comprehensive 
Plan.  The recently annexed university-owned land north of the Palouse Mall 
is an obvious motor business area, and it serves far wiser planning and 
strategic needs by its location as close to Pullman as we can place it, 
while retaining a Latah County location.   The good folks of Troy will drive 
through Moscow and past our downtown to get to the Moscow motor business 
developments near the state line.  The Pullmanites and WSU students, 
particularly those using the bus, seem much less likely to drive or hitch a 
ride to the far side of eastern Moscow, especially as their choices expand 
in Whitman County.

Being opposed to a misguided and ill-conceived, 77 acre motor business 
re-zone on the east side of town does not make one anti-growth.  It makes 
one opposed to that particular development.

Likewise, as evidenced by prior discussion on this list, expressing concern 
and seeking solutions about water usage on the Palouse is not anti-growth. 
In fact, it is pro-growth.  The Seattle model, referenced by Nils Peterson 
and Mark Solomon on V2020 discussions, is worthy of pursuit here.  Seattle 
was able to grow -- substantially -- while actually cutting its water usage 
through thoughtful, long-term conservation policies.  We, too, can do the 
same.  Given our scarce and declining water supply, why not seek to 
implement water conserving policies that will enable future growth, rather 
than blindly play a game of chicken with an aquifer of unknown size and 
dimensions?  Preserving our water through thoughtful and proven conservation 
methods preserves our ability to grow for the long term.  Our County 
Commissioners, two of whom are Republicans, have listened and learned from 
Diane French, Mark Solomon and others on the water issue, so don't be so 
quick to dismiss Diane and Mark as having ideas that take root only on the 
left, when the evidence is to the contrary and their hard work on water 
management benefits us all.

Personally, I also welcome discussion of a reservoir.  I oppose injection of 
the pristine waters of the Grand Ronde aquifer with relatively filthy runoff 
from muddy fields laden with various herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, 
and assorted other pollutants.  But opposing injection of the Grand Ronde 
does not make me anti-growth, Matt, it makes me opposed to that particular 
water management option among a myriad of choices that enhance the 
possibility of and favor long-term growth.

I am pro-growth.  Most in the MCA are as well.  Several years ago the MCA 
Board took a position favoring growth.  We accepted the Smart Growth model, 
and rejected a no growth alternative.  That position has not changed.

We in the MCA welcome the GMA to the discussion; undoubtedly the community 
at large does, too.  Informed and open discussion is enlightening and useful 
to all.  Overall, my sense is that the Moscow community is glad that the MCA 
arrived and changed the discussion from private conversations of a few 
policymakers, movers and shakers to a much larger group of people throughout 
the community who are all engaged in the discussion.  The GMA will 
undoubtedly add its voice to the discussion, which can only be a good thing. 
Let the marketplace of ideas percolate and see what happens.  But don't 
mis-apprehend the MCA as being anti-growth, for we are not.

Bruce Livingston


Matt Decker said:
| Remember this(GMA) group was established because of the Mark Solomans, 
Diane
| Frenchs, and the MCA groups that back up their no growth attitudes. Smart
| Growth, Please. Disguise it however you like, but it just adds up to 
little
| or nil growth. The attitudes of these people are just to aggressive for
| Moscow. Yes some of the people in the group have lives outside of the
| computer, that depend on growth, including myself.
|
| See what we can do first before belittling us to a bunch of money crazed
| good ol boy. This group also wants what is best for Moscow.
|
| MD
|
| Matt