County eyes removal of housing zoning on buttes around the Palouse

Off limits for the past four years, Whitman County buttes may now be fair game for housing development.

County officials Monday discussed the possibility of doing away with the butte protection areas outlined in the 2007 rural residential zoning revisions. The ordinance prevents home building on 15 listed buttes.

“There was never any question that at some point we would have to modify it,” said Public Works Director Mark Storey, who called these initial years of the new zoning code a “test drive.”

After receiving an application from a landowner to build a house on Parker Butte, southeast of Palouse, Alan Thomson, county planner, approached county commissioners about lifting the butte restriction.

“I think it’s our desire to help this fellow move this along,” said County Commissioner Greg Partch.

Thompson said the land met all county standards for rural housing, with the exception that its elevation is above the limits set for butte protection.

Parker Butte is one of 15 listed as off-limits in the county’s four-year-old rural residential code. The butte protection clause of the code forbids homes above 2,600-feet elevation on Parker, Ringo and Angel buttes, all in the east central area of the county. Parker Butte is 3,310-feet high.

Elevation restrictions vary from butte to butte.

Partch, the only present member of the county commission who worked on developing the new zoning law, said the intent of the butte protection areas was to prevent houses on top of the county’s most prominent peaks.

Commissioner Michael Largent took office in early 2007 and voted against the rural residential revisions. The ordinance was mostly crafted before Largent took office.

“We wanted to protect the island buttes, not necessarily just any high ground,” said Partch.

Partch noted much of the city of Palouse, and surrounding unincorporated county, is above the 2,600-foot restriction.

Part of the reason for declaring the buttes off-limits to housing was to preserve what was thought at the time to be crucial aquifer recharge areas.

A study at the time by the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee suggested stormwater runoff from the buttes filtered into the aquifers at the base of the granite buttes. Storey said buttes have since been determined to have a lesser role in recharging area groundwater stores.

Storey and Partch suggested simply eliminating the butte protection language from the ordinance.

That language has been cited by Carolyn Kiesz of Thornton in her lawsuit challenging the county’s commercial wind farm zoning ordinance.

Kiesz’ suit reasons that allowing wind turbines to be erected on buttes that are off limits to housing is a contradiction of county law.

In defense of the ordinance, the county is arguing wind turbines serve the common good, where houses benefit single property owners.

That suit, and an accompanying challenge by Roger Whitten of Oakesdale, is pending a decision from Judge David Frazier on the county’s motion for dismissal.

Partch said striking the language would not necessarily lead to housing development. The solid rock beneath buttes creates difficulty in developing water and septic systems for houses.

“I don’t think things would change that much,” said Partch, noting the pre-2007 rural residential code allowed for home building on buttes, though none were built. “I say just let the chips fall where they may.”

Commissioner Pat O’Neill cautioned developers will pay the extra cost to set up water and septic systems if they want to set up the houses bad enough.

“If they’ve got money, they’ll go ahead and do it,” he said.

Thomson worried that eliminating the restriction could lead to a flurry of building on the slopes of Kamiak Butte.

Largent suggested language that opens up housing development on all but Steptoe and Kamiak buttes because of their historic value.

Commissioners directed Prosecutor Denis Tracy to consult with Thomson and Storey to develop a list of possible changes to the code.

Changes to county zoning code typically originate with the planning commission. County commissioners plan to handle this rewrite.

Partch said this “relatively insignificant issue” would sidetrack the planning commission from its current work rewriting the county’s critical areas ordinance.