Airport acres at Colfax rezoned

Zoning designation for 76 acres at the Colfax Airport was changed fromHeavy Industrial to Airport Commercial by Whitman County commissioners Monday.

The change was made on a recommendation by the Port of Whitman, which completed an update earlier this year to their Airport Layout Plan which was mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation division of the Washington Department of Transportation.

Layout plans are used for budgeting, planning and other purposes at airports around the state.

Assistant Whitman County Planner Jerry Basler presented the re-zoning request to commissioners Monday at their regular meeting.

“It’s just trying to align for the future,” he said.

One change under the new zoning, for example, will be dropping the requirement for a conditional use permit for planning construction of a new hanger.

“It’s a streamlining,” said Debbie Snell, Properties and Development Manager for the Port of Whitman. “It’s more appropriate zoning for the airport.”

Over the past 10 years, as the port approached the time to renew their layout plan, the state department of transportation started to bring up the matter of zoning.

“As we began to develop out there, and the airport got more important, the subject started to come up,” said Snell.

The Port also owns eight and 12-acre sites adjacent to the airport. They remain zoned as Heavy Industrial.

These are not part of the airport property, but are designated part of the port’s airport industrial park.