[Vision2020] Parking Downtown Moscow

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

I surmise that Mr. Beebe quit in a huff because the P&Z asked about his 
willingness to include off-street parking in his project, even though he was 
seeking a rezone to Central Business District zoning -- which does not 
require parking.  [Parking is one of the primary issues in the debate about 
non-retail and non-professional uses (like schools) coming into downtown and 
using up the scarce parking for peripheral uses that do not fit in the 
Central Business District.]

As I understand it, Mr. Beebe is seeking to change his industrially zoned 
land, where  the grain elevators are located near Eighth and Jackson 
Streets, to CBD zoning.  That way, he does not have to waste any of his land 
on parking and can squeeze more development into it.  It is an obvious, 
financially-driven decision that maximizes his return on his investment, and 
I can understand his desire to do that.

However, Mr. Beebe bought the land as industrial land, not CBD land.  As the 
P&Z rightly seemed to note, it is not necessarily good planning to ignore 
the parking needs of a proposed development.  Re-zones that excuse a 
developer from some of the costs of his project and impose those costs on 
the surrounding community are not an entitlement for the requesting 
developer.  Surely, there are projects that Mr. Beebe can develop that 
include their needed parking on-site (without further adding to the parking 
problems of downtown), while still allowing him to make a profit on his 
industrially zoned land.  It is probably bad planning to grant a re-zone to 
a zoning category which not only fails to require the project to meet its 
own parking demands but also increases the likelihood that the project will 
exacerbate the current downtown parking problem.  From what I have read 
about this project, the P&Z is acting responsibly and asking the right 
questions.

And threatening statements with pictures of smokestack factories ("this is 
what we COULD build here"), are not the best approach to get the community 
behind the project and support a re-zone to a more appropriate zoning 
category.

Bruce Livingston


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill London" <london at moscow.com>
To: "Nils Peterson" <nils_peterson at wsu.edu>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:04 AM
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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