[Vision2020] North Polk Street (Was: Moscow City Council Monday Agenda)

[mark seman]

I'd love to pick this up and run with it, but I don't know what I'd be
running with.  The only info I have on this project is V2020 and past
experience with developers.  From the very little I do know:
"Streets" are maybe more correctly termed "drives" and should not be
developed to "street standards."  Accomodation of emergency vehicles, yes;
paving over greenspace to allow enough width for non-used onstreet parking,
no.  At slow speeds, wide is bad, narrow is good.
Small lots are good, but bad.  Infill needs to be allowed to increase
density beyond "normal zoning."  Higher density is what helps allow smart
development.  The main problem is: dense poor-development is worse that
light poor-development.  Good development is hard to find, yet.
Why should 8+ acres be divided into separate lots?  Most developers continue
to have very narrow vision regarding property lines - plop a house in the
middle of a legally defined piece of land and totally disregard positive &
negative space... oh, for the want of easy boundaries and walls.
The automobile is the bain of our industrial society, whether it's
pollution, energy consumption, land usurption, or pedestrian damage.  Until
we learn new approaches to transportation, storage, use, or other vehicular
accomodations, we will always be its slave.

Any e-documents available that illustrate this development?

Mark


mark r. seman, architect
       v=928.925.7617
       f=928.776.9107

  -----Original Message-----
  From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of Bev Bafus
  Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 7:48 AM
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] North Polk Street (Was: Moscow City Council
Monday Agenda)


  Thanks Steven -- I wondered if someone would pick up on this and run with
it...

  The streets are a very real concern.  And you are absolutely right about
the precedent being set.

  There are other issues.  The lots are 5,000 square feet, and some are much
smaller.

  The biggest problem I have is not with the developer, however, but with
the process this has followed with the planning department.

  The application has come in piecemeal, and keeps changing.  The
engineering deaprtment originally had 23 items that needed correction, and
suddenly, they have "all" be rectified - but I can't see anywhere where
these items have actually been addressed.

  Parking in this development is going to be a nightmare!

  Anyone want to talk about this?  Contact me off list.

  Thanks
  Bev Bafus

    -----Original Message-----
    From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of Steven Basoa
    Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 4:22 PM
    To: Basoa Steven
    Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
    Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Moscow City Council Monday Agenda


    When I first read the City Council agenda I laughed when I saw item 6
(pasted below).  Oh my, I said, how sad.  It looks like someone is planning
a gated community.  How insecure these people must be to want a gated
community here in Moscow.  Why?  When I read Ms. Bafus' post (also below), I
laughed some more and said, I should have known.  But my concern isn't so
much about a gated community but the proposed bending of the rules for it.
The lot sizes have been changed, that doesn't seem to be so much of a
problem but the last line of #6 bothers me.  The "public street standards
have been waived due to the fact that the internal roadways are to be
private."  This seems wrong on several levels.  The city of Moscow, Latah
County and the state of Idaho all have their building and planning codes and
regulations for a reason.  I may not agree with all of them, but they are
our standards.   All roadways within the city should be built to the current
standards.  This allows for greater traffic control and movement of safety
vehicles (ambulances, fire trucks, etc).  What if the current owners decide
to pack it in and move elsewhere?  What if they decide to break up the gated
community and allow it to become a 'normal' part of the community?  Then we
would have yet another section of town with narrow and inefficient streets.
Where else will the building codes and rules be altered to ease someone
else's burden?  Sidewalks?  Plumbing?  Electric?   And when the next
developer comes along and says, "Well, you changed the rules for them, why
not for me?"  Where does it stop?  I urge the city council to not waive the
public street standards.  I urge the city leaders (including, and maybe
especially, the city managers) to stop playing fast and loose with the city
codes and zoning issues.   Consistency and fair, unbiased enforcement of the
building codes should be the order of the day.  Instead it appears that spot
zoning and the waiving of building standards have become the norm.


    It has been hard to write this post and not digress into a tirade about
the lack of intelligent planning on the part of Moscow's city leaders of the
past two decades.  I think the city desperately needs some sort of master
plan for growth and development.  Otherwise we will continue to grow in the
sprawling and disconnected manner of the recent past.   And that ain't good
for anyone except maybe a few developers and contractors.


    SB


    6.       Public Hearing – Greensides Hill Preliminary Plat – Andrew
Ackerman
    On January 10, 2007, the Planning & Zoning Commission recommended
approval of a Preliminary Plat for division of approximately 8.2 acres of
land into 37 single family lots on the west side of N. Polk Extension called
Greensides Hill.  The land currently consists of three parcels, each
developed with a single family residence and zoned medium density, single
family residential (R-2).  The proposal Preliminary Plat has associated with
it an approved Preliminary Planned Unit Development.  The R-2 Zoning
District has a 7,000 square foot minimum lot size for single-family
residential lots. Via the PUD process the lots have been permitted to be
reduced from the minimum standard. Additionally, public street standards
have been waived due to the fact that the internal roadways are to be
private.


    On Feb 2, 2007, at 10:28 PM, Bev Bafus wrote:


    For anyone concerned about the direction of growth in the City of
Moscow.....

    And especially concerned about the way we allow growth in infill areas
(lots surrounded by city that are undeveloped or underdeveloped).......

    And concerned about the capricious and inconsistent treatment of
proposals by City of Moscow Planning & Development........

    Please attend this meeting on Monday.

    Pay attention to the public hearing - item #6.

    This is land on North Polk Street.

    These parcels are owned by Mike & Linda Hoffman, Doug & Nancy Wilson,
and Matt & Laura Gray.

    Thanks
    Bev Bafus



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