greg brown's response to the news on the business park brings up
some interesting questions......
q) are we interested in managed growth, or are we interested in no
growth?
comment: personally, i have a lot of trouble with "i-have-mine,-you
can't-have-yours" type politics. i lived through a period of non growth in
spokane, and i can relate that it was very bleak. without infusion of
fresh dollars, the community vibrancy was lost. everybody traded each
other dollars, and life was generally in a holding pattern. people made
major life decisions and choices based on things like the total inability to
sell a home. it isn't a set of circumstances i would wish on any
community.
q) what sort of growth is acceptable?
comment: a few years back, harpers was looking to land a major
manufacturing plant in the inland northwest. post falls, lewiston, and
moscow were all potential sites. the plant ended up in post falls.
(personal opinon: a good thing)
a couple years ago, advanced hardware architecture was ready to
graduate from the business technology incubator and searched for a
suitable location. finding none in moscow, they ended up in pullman.
(personal opinion: not a good thing) schweitzer labs is also in pullman.
perhaps moscow, as a community, can make a choice to not accept a
large manufacturing plant such as a harpers, but can we afford to lose
firms such as advanced and schweitzer? such firms contribute a great
deal in terms of salaries and wages without much "footprint" impact. if a
goal is to create prosperous neighborhood business districts and a
strong cbd, wouldn't firms such as advanced and schweitzer help
diversify and strengthen an economic foundation for the cbd and
"villages?"
q) no doubt, the recent "shoebox" apartments constructed in moscow
have not had a positive impact on the built environment. does that mean
we feel all development is inherently bad?
q) if we can agree that "no growth" is not positive for the well being of
the community and its inhabitants, what sorts of development are
positive?
comment: re: the story on community growth greg related.... i have
viewed photos of the ui campus dating to the first 25 years of this
century. in some of these photos taken from campus looking "out over
the palouse" one can see some large willow trees in front of a
farmhouse on a little family farm way off in the distance. those willow
trees exist today and one can go see them. they are in the lawn on the
corner 6th and rayburn in front of the idding ag sciences building, west
of forestry.
i am sure that, sometime in the past, some gentleman and/or lady
returned to moscow after some time away, viewed the growth which
had occurred, and shook their heads.
my point is, the community can not remain stagnant and expect to
survive. in my mind, the question is not "to grow or not to grow," it is the
"who, what, when, where, how, and at what rate" questions which i am
interested in.
q) if we don't want to attract firms such as advanced and schweitzer to
help diversify the economic base of the community.... and, we don't want
to attratc large manufacturing plants such as harpers... who do we
want to attract?
>>> Greg Brown <gregb@uidaho.edu> 07/26/95 11:21pm >>>
I'm just getting around to responding to this....sigh.
On Tue, 11 Jul 1995, Carole Helm wrote:
> EDC Economic Update June, 1995
>
___________________________________________________________________
> > BUSINESS OFFICE PARK UPDATE
> [...]
> We're excited to have tax allocation financing available to help >
with the development of the Park. Tax allocation financing is a tool which
> can be utilized by local governments to temporarily target a portion of
the > INCREASE in tax revenue that flows from new construction
(buildings) in a > designated area. (The school district retains 60% of
their portion of the > increase). For a short time, this revenue is used to
pay off bonds sold to > finance the basic infrastructure for a given
project. After the bonds are > paid, all of the resulting tax revenue
increase flows into the general funds > of the local taxing districts (city,
county, school district).
And what if the project falls flat on its face and revenues don't
increase? Who pays? A business park can be a highly speculative
venture.
> This short-term targeting of a portion of increased tax revenue >
resulting from designated development allows a project to happen that >
wouldn't have happened without the initial investment in the
infrastructure. > The Business Office Park is an example of such a
project. Because it will > take a few years for the park to fill with
companies and buildings, the > private sector finds it difficult to develop
this type of project without > forging some type of public-private
partnership.
Why is it that business interests extol the virtues
of the market providing for the needs of the citizenry...and then
seek relief from government officials to insulate projects such as
this from the whims of the market?
Bonds will floated to cover the business park which
will be presumeably underwritten by the taxpayers of Moscow. Will the
people of Moscow have an opportunity to vote on whether to
underwrite this
venture?
> Without a place for our technology-based companies to
relocate to > once they leave the Business Technology Incubator, we
have been losing them > to other areas. As these companies develop
and mature, they create > good-paying jobs, employ university students
and graduates, bring NEW money > into the community to circulate
among our existing businesses, and diversify > our economy to make it
more recession-proof. Continuing to lose these > businesses means
that all the local benefits they bring to our economy > (which includes
increased property tax revenues) leave with them.
> > The EDC's Business Office Park Committee, chaired by Larry
Hodge, > has been developing a plat plan for the park.
Ummmm....no conflict of interest here....
Perhaps it is time to relate a story to help dull the roar of the
bulldozers and graders.
Computer Services recently adverstized for a technical computer
position. An excellent candidate from Mt. Vernon, Washington
applied for the position saying he had visited Moscow about 3 years
ago. He found Moscow to be a nice, liveable community then and
was anxious to interview for the position. He drove over on
a Sunday expecting to interview with us on Monday. He said he
wanted some time to look around the community again. He called
me on Sunday from his motel room with a heavy heart. He said
he could not go through with the interview because Moscow was
not the same community he remembered. He drove around and all
he could see was new development and more new development. He
said he was attracted to the position in Moscow because of all
the development along the I-5 corridor in WA. In his eyes,
Moscow was no different from what he saw happening in WA.
He was hoping for a respite from rampant development and behold,
he found Moscow to be no such place. The bottom line is that
we lost an excellent person BECAUSE of all the development.
-- Greg Brown (gregb@uidaho.edu) Computer Services Adjunct Assistant Professor, College of Forestry,Wildlife,& Range Sciences University of Idaho Moscow, ID 83843 (208) 885-2126 Fax: (208) 885-7539