Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The Lowe-Down

A few weeks back I mentioned development on the Pullman-Moscow Corridor (SR 270). Rumors have been swirling ever since the Whitman County Commissioners finalized the zoning for the corridor that a Lowe's was moving in to the site on the border with Idaho.

From this site plan, it looks like it's more than just a rumor. Lowe's apparently will anchor a new strip mall with 310,000 sq. ft. of retail space and 7 pads for smaller stores or restaurants.

The combined square footage of this strip mall will exceed the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter by almost 100,000 sq. ft. and the parking lot looks to be as big or bigger. Where was PARD at the public hearing when the corridor zoning was approved? Their website states: "We applaud the recent decision of the Pullman City Council to resist County Commission pressure to extend services to the Moscow-Pullman highway. We believe a far more prudent and economically lucrative option for Pullman would be to push development of any county properties south of town on the route to Lewiston/Clarkston." Ooops.

Hat Tip: April Coggins

7 comments:

Dale Courtney said...

Tom & April,

Thanks for the tip.

I looked high and low for that document last week. I heard this mentioned on KQQQ in the morning and googled myself black-and-blue trying to find it.

I'm going to repost your post on my site.

Again, thx!

Dale

Unknown said...

No problem Dale. This is a clarion call for both Pullman and Moscow. If we don't push PARD and MCA aside, and quickly, Whitman County is going to be laughing all the way to the bank.

Scotty said...

Sweet, now I will have a place to use my Lowe's gift card. Maybe with a HomeDepot around here I can use my HomeDepot gift cards too!

Ray Lindquist said...

It will be very interesting to see how they deal with the water and sewer. It seems it would be best to come out of Moscow, has anyone heard how that will be dealt with?

Unknown said...

That's what I've been wondering Ray. I have heard rumors that that is indeed the case. I'm guessing Lowe's and the other stores will pay Moscow a tidy sum for the water and sewer service.

Pullman had better get moving...

April E. Coggins said...

I don't agree that this is a Whitman County vs. Pullman issue. Whitman County is a large county and many in north Whitman county shop in Spokane. If a Wal-Mart wanted to open in Malden, for example, that would be a good thing for our area. We need Whitman county to have the money to compete against Spokane County. There are towns far removed from Pullman that need Whitman County to grow. As I see it, we can't just concentrate on growth for Pullman, we need to have other healthy towns.

Ray Lindquist said...

Yes will said April, the whole area all of Whitman county needs growth. It would be nice to see towns of Lamont, Lacross, UnionTown, and more all to grow we need the growth so the dolloars that are made in those towns can stay there and more things can grow from them. Sorry you Libs people that make money in a business do not hide it under a rug, they invest it so they can make more. The more they make the more taxes they pay so you can have all of your feel good programs.