County, Pullman tax sharing now in full effect

The tax sharing agreement approved between Whitman County and Pullman last summer is now fully in effect as of Jan. 1. One part of the agreement calls for the county to discontinue cluster development within the tax sharing area, which officially began at the new year.

“There won’t be any more in the tax sharing area,” said Alan Thomson, Whitman County planner. “Possibly we could have some more outside of the tax sharing area.”

There may even be some more cluster development within the area, if the latest applications are approved. Those interested in a cluster development, defined as a piece of land that is a minimum of 20 acres that is divided into four single family residences, had until Dec. 31 to get applications and payment submitted. Before the calendar flipped, 11 applications were received, Thompson said.

“They all have the same plans,” he said, noting the residential plans and that all 11 came from different corporations and one even came from a married couple.

Though the applications are in and were in on time, Thomson said that is not a guarantee the cluster development will go forward.

“It is legal, and they will be processed and then sent to the county (planning) commission,” said Thomson. “And then it will be forwarded to the county commissioners for final decision making.”

Thomson also said that landowners of all active agriculture lands within 1,000 feet of a proposed cluster development also have to agree to development.

“This is by no means rubber-stamped,” he said.

The tax sharing agreement now in effect calls for the county and Pullman to split retail taxes 50/50 from new businesses and to work together to establish new businesses in the tax sharing area, which surrounds the Pullman city limits and extends east from the city limits along the corridor of the Moscow-Pullman Highway to the state line.

The agreement also protects the Hawkins Property, 700 acres of undeveloped land on the north side of the highway on the Idaho border once targeted for a major retail center. The county entered an agreement with Hawkins Property Management several years ago to assist in developing infrastructure on the land.

“The new agreement recognizes the Hawkins agreement,” Pullman City Supervisor Mark Workman told the Gazette in July. “If something ever develops there, we would not share taxes. Nothing ever happened, and who knows if it ever will. But it provides that protection for the county.”

Additionally, businesses already existing in the area of the agreement, about 37, do not fall under the terms of the agreement unless the business changes its conditional use permit.