I have read the Daily News report (Tuesday 10-10) on the City
Council's action regarding the proposed business park. In short,
the story states the Council will fund a study to determine whether
Moscow actually contains deteriorated areas so that the City can
legitimately create an Urban Renewal Agency (URA). An URA
must be in place to administer tax increment financing bonds for
the proposed business park next to Tidymans. The story also reports
that an "altered" ordinance could be placed before the Council as early
as November 2.
I applaud the efforts of the Council to revisit the issue. However,
there are some potential pitfalls associated with the review.
To paraphrase a famous quote, eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty (and a responsive government).
As it stands now, Moscow Ordinance 95-08 creating the URA is
potentially unlawful because it does not include
findings that Moscow contains "deteriorated" areas as defined
in Urban Renewal Law. This ordinance will have to
be amended by the Council to create a legitimate Urban
Renewal Agency. This will require a public hearing(s) on the
ordinance amendment. The public hearing(s) will provide the key
opportunity to provide comments on changes to the ordinance.
It sounds as if the Council intends to hire a consultant (perhaps
the same consultant that found that Moscow to be a "disadvantaged
border community") to substantiate(?) the claim that Moscow
contains "deteriorated" areas as per the Urban Renewal Law
definition. Specifically, the consultant must find the following
area(s) in Moscow:
"an area in which there is a predominance of
buildings or improvements, whether residential or
non-residential, which by reason of dilapidation,
deterioration, age or obsolescence, inadequate
provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation, or
open spaces, high density of population and
overcrowding, or the existence of conditions
which endanger life or property by fire and other
causes, or any combination of such factors is
conducive to ill health, transmission of disease,
infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, or crime,
and is detrimental to the public health, safety,
morals, or welfare. I.C. 50-2018(h).
From my perspective, it will be difficult for anyone
to honestly claim that Moscow contains such areas
at this point in time. But assuming for the sake of
argument that such "blighted" areas in Moscow
exist, we already know that the intent of the URA
would not be to actually renew these "deteriorated"
areas but to legitimize the tax increment financing
scheme for the business park adjacent to Tidymans--
unless the Council could be convinced otherwise,
of course.
Consultants are paid to legitimize what the client
wants others to hear. As such, one must always
be skeptical of the findings. If the Council were
truly serious about identifying and potentially
correcting blighted areas in Moscow, it would:
1) not rehire the same consultant that found
Moscow to be a disadvantaged border community,
and 2) insist that the study contain a significant
public involvement component involving
Moscow residents. Number 2 is extremely
important because of the subjective
nature of the "deteriorated" designation. Moscow
residents themselves should be involved in the
identification of such "blighted" areas (if they
exist in Moscow.) How would you like to read
in the newspaper that your neighborhood has been
declared blighted and deteriorated? The methodology
of the study will be a critical factor in determining
the legitimacy of the consultant's findings and the
legitimacy of the URA.
I believe the Council's action gives Moscow
residents a real opportunity to think about
the business park and the conditions under
which such a park could/should be built in Moscow.
Vision 2020 could be the mechanism to facilitate a
discussion about the business park. This is the time for
dialogue among all parties (including members
of the EDC). This is the dialogue we never got to
have about Wal-Mart. Now is the time.
-- 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