Moscow city council election and the Corridor

["Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Dear Visionaries,
 Below is a letter to the editor I wrote that appeared in part in Saturday's
Lewiston Morning Tribune. It is my analysis of where the Moscow city council
candidates stand on the corridor development issue. I missed the deadline
for the Daily News unfortunately.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Cooke [mailto:scooke@uidaho.edu]
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 2:46 PM
To: Daily News; letters@lmtribune.com
Subject: Moscow city council election and the Corridor

If the future of the Moscow-Pullman corridor (route 8) is important to you,
then the November 2nd election for Moscow city council offers a real, if not
clear, choice. The choice, it seems to me, is between those candidates who
would try to influence the Whitman County decision-making process from
within vs. those would try to do it from without. Both approaches have
benefits and risks associate with them.
By "influencing from within" I mean those candidates who see the corridor
development as inevitable and prefer to see it start on the Moscow end.
These candidates would negotiate with Whitman County to participate in the
corridor planning proceed by bargaining for reasonable, aesthetically
pleasing and safe land use policies in exchange for providing or extending
Moscow's public services for a fee. This approach contains the risk of
subsidizing sprawl even as it provides infrastructure to the competitors of
Moscow's businesses.
By "influencing from without" I am referring to those candidates for Moscow
city council who prefer a wait and see approach to corridor development.
They may see corridor development as neither inevitable nor desirable on the
Moscow end. They would not be quick to offer Moscow's public services as a
means to influence the Whitman County's corridor planning process. The risk
of this approach is the slowing of the synergism of businesses, retail
stores, and people in close proximity in Moscow if corridor development
starts on the Pullman end. Perhaps even worse is the possibility of
development taking place on the Moscow end, but in a way that does not
include safeguards for reasonable, aesthetically pleasing, and safe zoning
regulations.
Vision 2020 asked the candidates to respond to six questions, one of which
was: "If Whitman County officials request that Moscow extend utilities and
services across the state line to the eastern end of the Moscow-Pullman
corridor, under what conditions, or would you ever, support Moscow providing
water, sewage, police, and fire protection to residents and business in the
corridor. My reading of the candidates' responses to that question suggests
the following categorization.
The "influencing from within" candidates are Aaron Ament, Steve Busch, and
Evan Holmes.
The "influencing from without" candidates are Mike Curley, Jack Hill, and
Mike Thomason.
Life is full of tough choices.
Stephen Cooke