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<DIV>I attended the hearing for New Saint Andrews' appeal of the Board of
Adjustment ruling and was gratified by the result. The rule of law is still in
effect -- although just barely.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What mystified me mostly however was the apparent lack of institutional
memory about the strict definition of educational institution (colleges and
universities), schools (K-12), commercial schools (trade schools etc) and the
omission of colleges and Universities and schools from the downtown business
district. Those omissions were intentional and the definitions were specifically
developed to keep the University of Idaho out of the downtown business
district.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In 1988 (or thereabout) the University bought Murdoch's Tavern which is the
present location of UI Personnel and Purchasing. In 1989 (or thereabouts) the
University of Idaho bought Cavanaugh's which was a motel across from the current
location of Renaissance Mall, which includes Mailboxes Etc. and Jack in The Box.
They also bought the office building at the southeast corner of Third and
Jackson. All of these tax-paying businesses were removed from the city tax
rolls. Additionally, negotiations were under way to purchase the building
that houses the UI Pritchard gallery and an analysis was being made of the
possibility of purchasing other vacant downtown buildings. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This process was looked upon very unfavorably by the city administration at
the time (1990) and the code was specifically modified to preclude any further
purchases by the University of Idaho. In order to exclude the UI, the
city's legal advisor convinced city councilors that all "like
institutions" would have to be excluded or the ordinance would be challengeable
as discriminatory.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In my opinion (I was employed at the time as the financial officer for the
Facilities Department at UI, and involved in the property negotiations and
involved with the city planning committee with the code rewrite), the ordinance
was justified then and is still justified today. I heard a lot of
justifications last night by various members of the city council for making an
exception someway, somehow so that NSA can be allowed to stay downtown. My
objection to that is that I do not see how you can let one college stay
downtown and continue to prevent the UI from moving back into the property
market and potentially destroying the downtown business district. We
already have a University zone. Expand it if necessary and keep colleges
and universities out of the downtown. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>With their transitory populations, colleges eat up parking and create
traffic problems. If they are to be allowed downtown, then I would
strongly recommend that they be required to provide their own parking. I
live 8 miles outside of Moscow, halfway to Troy. When I drive into
Moscow's downtown, I cannot find parking near NSA to access those
businesses nearby that I want to frequent. Instead, I must find distant
parking, and walk to Bookpeople, etc. This is inconvenient,
aggravating, and a deterrent to my shopping in Moscow's downtown. Is this
what the city council wants -- people not shopping downtown because lack of
parking has made access difficult if not impossible?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If this is repetitious to some old-timers on the list, I apologize, but I
thought the rationale for excluding colleges, Universities, and schools in the
code rewrite of 1990 needed to be revisited and shown again in the
light of day. Some city council members claimed last night
to be unaware of the original rationale for the 1990 exclusion of colleges
from the downtown central business district; this is a
reminder. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Don Huskey</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>