A Lighting Round of Action Items

The city council went through almost the full spectrum of business that they usually handle at their regular meetings this past Tuesday night. Also, what is AAAA? Let’s find out together!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

If you thought things were gonna calm down now that the budget hearings are past, you got another thing coming.

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. Labor Day was earlier this week, which means that both the county and the city held their meetings on the same day, and that means we have a lot to unpack all at once. Let’s get into it.

The county commissioners actually had a pretty light set of meetings. A couple of the action items they dealt with had to do with water right applications. There were two in particular they examined, and with the recommendations from the head of the planning and building department, they held both of these applications in protest. 

“In protest” can sound like harsh terminology. What it actually means is the commissioners wish to have a more involved conversation with the applicants to see if they can reduce the amount of water being applied for in the water right, as it potentially exceeds both needed use and regional limitations. There is currently a specific process that the county needs to go through in order to properly conduct those conversations, and as such, another item of discussion was whether or not the county could make the protest process more administratively streamlined going forward.

Beyond that, the commissioners interacted with a Letter to the Idaho Office of Emergency Management regarding traffic signs to indicate road closures during active wildfire situations, as well as a hardship application for an individual who is paralyzed from the neck down, and has had this application approved for many years now. They also interacted with the transfer of ownership of an alcohol beverage license for Wooster’s Pizzeria, but continued that item because the owner in question was not present for the meeting.

Let’s turn to the city, which had a much busier meeting than they’ve had in a while.

To start, the city council heard the story of Nils Peterson during public comment, who told of his helping a wheelchair-bound individual traverse Blaine Street, which occurred with some difficulty due to the poor state of the sidewalks in the area. Nils encouraged the city to add sidewalk repairs in that area to their list of ongoing projects. State Representative Brandon Mitchell also spoke, encouraging the city in their efforts to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America itself, for which the state of Idaho is trying to provide grant money.

Following that, we had the first public hearing of the night. Mike Ray of city staff presented on a Planned Unit Development (PUD) and preliminary plat for a 4 acre property on both sides of Augustine Avenue. The applicant, Impact Investors, is looking to create a mixed use development with 114 dwelling units and 16 commercial or live work units, called the Augustine Avenue Apartments Addition, or as I like to call it, AAAA. Mike walked through the details of the plan, highlighting the development’s density bonuses and intended building designs. The city’s planning and zoning committee previously had recommended approval of the project with the condition that the developers complete a stormwater report for the area.

Council initially asked questions about a flood plain which crosses partially through the north side of the AAAA property. Scott Sumner, representing the applicant, answered these questions, explaining the efforts that have been made to ensure that the grade and slope of the property is sufficient to ensure that the flood plain won’t be an issue for the property. I should mention that Scott Sumner is himself one of the candidates for city council this year, so we should be hearing more from him sometime soon.

Public comment on the project was generally positive, and in an interesting twist, also consisted of folks who are candidates for city council this year. John Slagboom spoke favorably of the project, stating that an increase in the supply of housing would do good for the city’s housing supply problem. Evan Holmes also spoke favorably, appreciating both the mixed use of the development as well as the density bonuses the city provided.

Council deliberation consisted of clarifying questions relative to traffic in the area and alleyway usage. Ultimately, both the PUD and the preliminary plat for AAAA were approved unanimously by the Moscow city council.

The next item proved a bit more divisive. Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger introduced the item, which was a series of sponsorship requests related to the Moscow Human Rights Commission. Commission Chair Erin Agidius did the actual presentation, explaining the commission’s desire to see three events sponsored. First, a free film event about the life Mr. Roders. Second, a paid silent film event called Told in the Hills, with tickets being $40 apiece. Third, a community dinner at the 1912 Center, with a focus on students. As the sponsorship costs for each of these events exceeded $500, it was necessary that they be brought before the council for approval.

This provoked a more thorough line of questioning from the council itself. Gina Taruscio began by highlighting the role commissions play in the city, with particular concern being given to the $40 ticket price for the silent film event. Erin explained that the $40 price would actually be a reduced price from the actual cost if the city chose to sponsor the event.

Drew Davis had questions about the overall cramped scheduling of the events, while Bryce Blankenship commented that it would behoove the city to spend the money they had budgeted for the Human Rights Commission on these events, since the cost was already accounted for. Hailey Lewis asked about the possibility of partnering the dinner event with other community dinners which the 1912 Center already holds regularly, alongside other questions about logistics and event details.

It all came down to Julia Parker. She began by making a motion to approve the community dinner while denying the movie events, but this motion was soon amended to vote on sponsoring each event individually. As such, the council voted to deny the silent film event, with Bryce being the dissenting vote, to approve the community dinner, with Drew and Hailey dissenting, and approve the Mr. Rodgers film, with Drew dissenting.

Next up, there was another public hearing. Sarah Decker of city staff presented on the opening of the FY2025 budget for amendments, in this case to deal with a number of unappropriated fund balances. This happens when city revenues in different budget categories exceed expenses for those categories, and in this case, the total amount across all budget categories totaled $5,710,476.

This amount was broken down into smaller sums of money based on the budget category they were derived from, and in general these sums were to be moved into non-operating funds such as capital projects for the long term. There was brief public testimony in favor of the transfer from Evan Holmes, who had questions about where specifically the money was being moved to when it came to capital projects. Ultimately, the transfer was approved unanimously by the city council.

Alisa Anderson took the podium next to present the details of an upcoming low to moderate income randomized community survey. The city is planning on conducting a city-wide survey on income by mail, by web, and by public outreach. The reason for conducting it is related to grant funding. 

Moscow has relied on Idaho Community Development Block Grants for a variety of projects, including improvements to Friendship Square, fire engine purchases, work on the 1912 Center, and park restrooms. However, they recently received a notice from the Idaho Department of Commerce, stating that based on recent ACS data, the city is just below the threshold requirement of 51% of the population earning low  to moderate income. The city appears to be at 50.9%, and that means that they will be ineligible for that grant money, unless they can prove otherwise.

With the percentage being so close to the requirement, the survey is meant to determine the accuracy of the Department of Commerce’s findings. Alisa stated that they will hopefully be rolling out the survey soon, with the hope of receiving 279 responses out of 372 surveys mailed. This was approved unanimously by the Moscow City Council.

The last action item was somewhat related. Alisa Anderson explained that the city is interested in applying for an Idaho Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $500,000 for an affordable housing project on Warbonnet Drive. The grant would help pay for infrastructure extensions for the 92-unit project, and the city would pay $50,ooo as an in-kind match for grant administration. Drew Davis expressed his excitement at seeing such a project being considered, and the council approved it unanimously.

That’s all I got for you this week. For anyone just starting to get interested in local politics, this week represents a pretty solid survey of most of the work the city and county have to deal with on a regular basis. The timing on this video may be a bit different than normal, but with election season kicking off, we’ve got a lot of work to do, and I look forward to seeing the candidates in action. As always, we’ll have the relevant links posted with this video, and if you have any questions, please reach out. I’m Aiden Anderson with the Moscow Minutes. See you next time!