city of moscow public works committee

[Linda Pall <lpall@moscow.com>]

Dear Visionaries,

With the comments about "the Wren House property," I thought I would copy
the message I sent to Priscilla Salant in response to her query. It's one
council member's opinion of what went on. I hope this opportunity for
beautification in the spirit of Mayor Comstock's initiative can be preserved.

All the best to you visionaries... Happy Monday and here goes:

Dear Priscilla,
The corner of State Highway 8 (Troy Road) and South Washington STreet is the
property. It is a triangular piece of property that recently has been a
place for fencing, cars, etc. The Idaho Transportation Department is
offering it to the city. Their original suggestion was that this could be
made into a parking lot which would mitigate the loss of about half a dozen
parking spaces further north on the east side of Washington. All of those
properties have rear access and practical use of that property for parking
did not seem reasonable to the Pub lic Works Committee in reviewing this a
week or so ago. We have always discussed this property as an opportunity to
do some 'entrance to downtown' SOuth Washington beautification as the south
couplet project proceeds.

What I think is the purpose of Shelley Bennett asking us to review this is
that there has been talk of the property to the immediate north being sold
for some fast food business...at least that's what staff reported. If there
were a parking lot there it could help with that use and other extensive
motor business uses in the area. Gary Reidner floated the idea of doing
'half and half' with the property when we discussed this before (Shelley did
not attend that meeting). I don't think it's big enough to do double duty.

Take a look at the property...It's not very big but it could have a very big
impact on welcoming people to the downtown core and community design in
general. I believe parking spaces there would NOT be a plus. I think the
public works committee that unanimously supported the 'pocket park/entrance
welcome' idea should be encouraged. I'm willing to listen to alternatives
but I think our initial plan is a great addition to the southern part of
this couplet project.