Joann Muneta wrote today’s letter to the editor. She’s a local community activist who sees the big picture: She knows that Douglas Wilson has bad intentions for Moscow. Joann makes a good point in her letter but she misses the legal ramifications of it.
I watched the City Council video the day after their meeting. Council affirmed the first appeal as a parking matter. But then Mayor Lambert (or perhaps a councilman to his right) dismissed the remaining four appeals as mere parking matters that they claimed were addressed in the first appeal. He then asked Council to deny them since they had already affirmed the first appeal. Now every one of the arguments in the other four appeals is dead. That’s when I knew it was over. No one on Council objected and neither the City Manager (a practicing attorney) nor the City Attorney said boo. They remanded it to the BOA who will bump up the parking requirements and let the matter slide.
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Appeals not discussed
I have been attending and following City Council meetings for several decades, but the June 6 meeting is the first time I recall there being five separate appeals to a Board of Adjustment decision.
The decision in question was the granting of a conditional use permit to New Saint Andrews College to develop an educational institution with a 680-seat auditorium in the CJ’s Building, 112 N. Main St., for 300 students and 44 faculty. Of the five appeals, four covered separate relevant topics: lack of sufficient parking, procedure, the auditorium and the cumulative effect of allowing New Saint Andrews to more than double its enrollment and downtown square footage, plus lack of conformity with the comprehensive plan. The fifth appeal covered some of these points, plus additional concerns about safety considerations and the cumulative effect on retail of adding more educational institutions in the downtown business district.
It was very disappointing that although the first appeal was discussed in part, the remaining four were voted down in a total of four minutes with no discussion of the points they raised. This is especially unfair because each appellant had to pay a $220 fee to appeal and prepare a written and oral argument and have the courage to speak up on this important subject. The issues raised by the appellants were directly relevant to the seven points required by law for granting a conditional use permit and should have had more than one minute each of discussion.
We as citizens look to our elected representatives to provide careful oversight of decisions by boards that will have lasting impact on our community. Serious appeals should be taken seriously.
Joann Muneta
Moscow
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