Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, May 05, 2006

So What Exactly is Citizen Hosick FOR?

Cynthia "Citizen" Hosick wrote the first letter to the editor against a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pullman . Since then, she has helped lead the charge of the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development against Wal-Mart, even taking it upon herself to create a somewhat questionable "merchant's petition" demanding an economic impact study of the project.

More recently, she was one of the only Pullman residents to come out against the proposed Hawkins Companies development in the Pullman-Moscow corridor.

Now we can add a few more things that Hosick is against: property rights in Whitman County and Schweitzer Engineering Labs' new headquarters and event center that will add 168 new jobs to Pullman's economy. According to yesterday's Whitman County Gazette:
Also Finch read a letter from Cynthia Hosick of Pullman who wrote in support of the proposed changes to the ag zone's rural residential ordinance. Hosick said she is a member of the League of Women Voters and Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development, but wrote as an individual.

"I particularly support restrictions to building homes or businesses on hilltops," she wrote.

Critics of the proposed ordinance site such restrictions as an over-regulation of private property in the county's attempt to preserve the visual character of the Palouse while allowing more home building in the ag zone.

Hosick continued, "In fact, as much as I support the expansions of SEL (Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories) in most regards, I think their newest huge building is an absolutely awful example of hilltop development, and a prime example of what any city/county development code in this area ought to prohibit."

SEL has publicly opposed the proposed ag zone ordinance, which is under review by a land use expert attorney from Spokane. The attorney is expected to have a report on whether the proposal's language is defensible this month.
I suppose this was somewhat predictable. PARD "saluted" Ed Schweitzer both on its website and in letters to the editor, only to have him recently come out as "a strong proponent of Wal-Mart."

I also find Hosick's loathing of hilltop development somewhat perplexing. The two new SEL buildings are lower down on the hill than any other SEL building. They just happen to be more visible from Grand Avenue.

If visibility is her issue, then where is the outrage against Washington State University, the employer of 99% of PARD members? WSU has numerous multi-story buildings at the top of College Hill, including the 14-story Webster Physical Sciences Building. Any of the alternatives PARD has suggested for the proposed Wal-Mart location (Target, technology park, housing development, etc.) would all be on top of a hill also.

Take a look at the topography of Whitman County and tell me how many acres are on hills versus how many are in valleys. It's a no-brainer. If Hosick doesn't like hilltop development, maybe she would be happier in Kansas or an abandoned missile silo.

Maybe it's just growth of ANY kind that she doesn't like. Too bad, it's coming. She and the other PARDners can either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.

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1 comment:

April E. Coggins said...

Ms. Hosick is not for anything except herself. She doesn't like my house on a hill, she doesn't like your house on a hill. Chances are pretty good that Cynthia's house is built on a hill, but that must be okay since SHE lives there.

This reminds me of an old Mother Goose nursery rhyme:

There was an old woman who lived under a hill;
If she's not gone, she lives there still.