I believe that the property in question (north of Appaloosa Horse Club and Pea &
Lentil Commission, west of Warbonnet Drive) is ALREADY zoned for Motor Business.
The request that is/was before the City Council is to REPLAT the property into
larger lots (to accommodate "big box" stores like Office Depot). Perhaps Joel
or Dale Pernula can correct me if this is not the case.
And yes, Moscow appears to have a surplus of property in this zone... but the
only way to have prevented the strip-malling of this end of the M-P Highway
would have been to "downzone" the property to a less intensive use, which the
property owners (still the Hatleys?) would have protested.
Joel, has the P&Z had hearings yet on the land-use section of the comprehensive
plan revision? That's a logical place in the process to ask for policies and
zones that would encourage businesses to locate in already existing commercial
zones (downtown and Eastside Marketplace), rather than rezoning more land on the
periphery for MB.
--Kenton
Kenton Bird
Department of Journalism
and Technical Communication
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1785
Phone: (970) 491-5986 Fax: (970) 491-2908
e-mail: KBird@vines.ColoState.edu