Board approves CUP for downtown day care
Now this is funny. Churches are allowed use downtown by right. Even in Moscow, churches haven’t been zoned out of existence.
But it seems some liberals in town don’t like it that way.
Funny how the same names keep coming up over and over. These are Moscow’s anti-progress progressives.
As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
Betsy Dickow was so upset with the Moscow Board of Adjustment's decision to allow a day care to operate downtown that she approached board chairman Patrick Wilson after Tuesday's meeting and smacked her hand on the table in front of him.
She said downtown businesses need parking on Sunday mornings. The day care in question, Small Steps, shares a building on the corner of Fifth and Main streets with the Impact Church.
"Churches should not be downtown," Dickow shouted.
Wilson replied that churches are an allowed use downtown.
Wait until Christ Church submits its building permit. You want to hear the progressives spin about churches shouldn’t be downtown? Now those fireworks will be enjoyable to watch.
Now, Small Steps Daycare is allowed downtown as well.
The permit allows Small Steps to operate for two years.
Parents will be able to drop their children off in the alley on the building's east side. Assistant Community Development Director Anne Clapperton said city engineering staff decided there was enough space for a loading area in the alley. The day care also can reserve one parallel parking spot just west of the alley as a loading zone.
Small Steps Director Kelly Parsons addressed some potential traffic concerns when she presented the plans for the day care.
There currently are 11 children in the day care, and the permit allows for as many as 20. Parsons said it was rare for more than one parent at a time to pick up or drop off a child at Small Steps' old location.
She said she will work to make sure people don't park in the nearby Moscow Food Co-op parking lot.
"Our intent is to be good neighbors," she said.
Some downtown business owners and employees spoke against granting the permit.
Co-op General Manager Kenna Eaton said she didn't object to having the day care there, but opposes using the alley for loading.
She said many large trucks come through the alley to serve the Co-op and other businesses. She suggested allowing two temporary loading spots on Fifth Street instead of using the alley.
Let’s see — the Co-Op can use the ally to load and off-load supplies. But the Day Care shouldn’t be able to drop-off/pick-up kids? Which takes longer, I wonder?
BookPeople owner Bob Greene said unloading in the alley would be dangerous, but turning public spaces into loading spaces would make the existing "parking shortage" worse.
"You cannot tell me that there is plenty of parking," he said.
He said Moscow police officers also need to use the alley.
Dickow added that the day care could complicate Co-op parking, which already is tight.
"It is unfair to a business to jeopardize their existence by putting in an inappropriate use," she said.
It seems that everything is inappropriate use to BookPeople. New, smaller businesses go in where larger businesses used to exist; and Greene predicts that will mean less parking. I’ve never figured out the logic there.
The board ultimately decided Small Steps would cause no undue parking problems. Board members Bob Ries and Mark Hume voted against issuing the permit mostly because they believe the alley is not a safe loading zone.
"I can't imagine a parking impact from this center could be larger than the parking from the Goodwill" that used to be in the building, Ries said.
Board member Mark Monson said traffic is dangerous to children anywhere downtown, and some safety issues are beyond anyone's control.
And that’s why Moscow’s liberals put in a playground downtown in Friendship Square? To lure children to play in a dangerous area?
Wilson said he was "taken aback" by the idea that the day care has less right to use the alley than other businesses.
Board member Jim Shearer said he finds it hard to believe that police often use the alley if it also is often blocked by trucks. He said Goodwill customers parked in the alley without a problem.
"I feel that this day care is of greater asset to the Co-op and surrounding neighbors," he said.
Which all goes to show the religious bigotry in Moscow.