Four cluster zones gain county approval

Whitman County commissioners Monday approved code changes for a list of new cluster residential zones near Pullman.

All are within two miles of the city on Kitzmiller Road and Airport Road: a change for a 20-acre plot from agricultural to cluster residential at Lentil Estates; another 20 acres at Legume Acres; 23 acres at Pullman Garden Acreage, and 20 acres at Amber Waves Estates.

The changes come as a result of the county's tax sharing agreement with Pullman, which set a deadline of Dec. 31 of last year for cluster rezoning which allows landowner to develop land for houses.

The new tax sharing plan permits no further clustering.

A cluster zone allows for development, with a required minimum of 20 acres consisting of four lots per 20-acre section.

The new tax sharing agreement makes it so that 80 percent of the land previously eligible for cluster developments is now barred from the conversion.

After the filing deadline last December, the matter of cluster re-zones went to the county planning commission, which voted to pass it on to the county commissioners for approval.