Whitman County Corridor Workshop

[John and Michelle Murray <jmmurray@rocketmail.com>]

TO:  Moscow Vision2020

On Wednesday, July 7, the Whitman County Planning
Commission met with Whitman County Commissioners for
a workshop session on the Moscow-Pullman Corridor. 
Previously, the PC had proposed a version of the
Pullman/Moscow Corridor District Ordinance only
slightly changed from the 1995 proposal.  SEPA review
was completed in 1995 and a public hearing was given
late in June of this year.  The PC forwarded the
proposed ordinance on to the County Commissioners for
adoption early this month.  The workshop on Wednesday
was an attempt by the County Commissioners to
facilitate discussion between the two boards and come
to a consensus on the final ordinance.  The PC has
been of the opinion that the proposed ordinance is
the final version; the BOCC has had problems with the
PC’s submission.  Broadly speaking, members of the
BOCC want less restriction on development in the
corridor.

The BOCC presented to the Planning Commission a
revised ordinance.  Legal counsel for the County
provided legal review and gave a presentation of the
revised document.  Minutes for this meeting may not
be ready for publication until mid-week, next week
(July14 or 15).  Legal counsel will not allow me to
have an electronic record of the draft-revised
ordinance, though copies may be available upon request.

So, my observations:
1) The BOCC proposes expanding the Corridor District
to encompass an area from Airport Road on the north
to the Old Moscow Highway on the south, including the
recently rezoned Light Industrial Zone around the
airport.  This is a substantial change to the
original corridor concept.
2) The conditional uses allowed in the corridor
remain essentially unchanged.
3) A straw vote was taken as to whether the Planning
Commission members would vote today to reduce the 50%
open-space “set aside”.  A majority of the PC would
have voted to reduce the set aside to something like
30%, and the BOCC would have voted unanimously to
reduce the open space requirement.
4) Standards in the ordinance were deleted as they
were found redundant with existing County standards
(road construction, Universal Building Code, etc.).

If the BOCC intends to so substantially change the
ordinance, Washington State Environmental Protection
Act review (SEPA) would have to be performed on the
new document.

A public hearing will be held on July 26, 7:00 pm.,
in the County Commissioners chambers.  Testimony on
the corridor ordinance originally presented by the PC
will be taken.
JM

Ps.  I hereby take a vow to keep my lousy opinions
and off-handed remarks to myself.  But, I’m happy to
provide information – copies of the recent minutes
will be posted when I get ‘em.  Legal counsel is
still being a !*&$# about electronic copies of the
revised draft.  I'll post the original later.






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