Chruch wants county okay to build in corridor

Whitman County commissioners were asked Monday morning to change zoning laws that now prohibit churches from being built in the Pullman-Moscow Corridor.

Realtor Shelley Bennett said Real Life Christian Ministries wants to build a new church at the current site of Crossroads Nursery, which sits at the intersection of the Pullman-Moscow Highway and east end of the Pullman Airport Road.

However, because churches are not included in the list of developments that can be built in the corridor zone, the church can not be built.

“I’m befuddled by it, for a number of different reasons,” Bennett said to commissioners.

Churches can be built under a conditional use permit in other areas of unincorporated Whitman County.

Commissioner Greg Partch, who was on the county commission when the corridor zones were created, said the goal of the corridor was to create a district for commercial and industrial development between Moscow and Pullman.

“We did extensive research on it. And we were the ones that listed those permitted uses,” said Partch.

Most all of the items on the list of permitted developments is related to commercial or industrial activity.

Partch said he could not remember a reason churches were excluded.

Former Whitman County Planner Mark Bordsen said the corridor was created with the goal of developing a retail center that would generate tax revenue.

Churches generate no sales taxes and are exempt from property taxes, Assessor Joe Reynolds noted.

Normally, a change like this to county zoning rules would require meetings of the county planning commission. Commissioners directed Planner Alan Thomson to ask the planning commission members if they would allow county commissioners to make the church decision without their input.

“I want to take this on ourselves,” said Partch.

Planner Alan Thomson said Tuesday three of the seven members of the planning commission had consented to date.