Housing Developers Want A Reprieve

WAITSBURG - Local developers David Corbett and Mark Jones will ask the city of Waitsburg for a reprieve during Wednesday night's city council meeting.

Three years ago, city councilors approved a subdivision plan, Waitsburg Estates, proposed by Corbett and Jones for several acres on Wood Street, just north of the old Jackpot gas station (now Midway Food Mart) on Highway 12.

But the agreement with the city stipulated that the small-time developers, both farmers in the Walla Walla area, had to carry a surety bond on the property, which assured city leaders that the project wouldn't be abandoned before it was completed.

The men had three years to begin work on improvements to the 27 lots, including water, septic and roads. To date, nothing has been done out there, according to city clerk Randy Hinchliffe.

"What it comes down to is, we're victims of bad timing," said Corbett on Tuesday. "We're basically being penalized because of a lack of marketability."

Corbett and Jones, who own the property outright, want to sit on the subdivision idea until the economy improves - but for now, it doesn't make any sense to begin developing it when the few lots in town that have sold over the last couple of years have gone for $20,000 - 30,000, Corbett said.

"We would like to be in the wings, waiting for the economy to change," he said. "Then come in and do the subdivision as planned instead of saying, 'Well, forget it.'"

But keeping up payments on the bond, in addition to thousands of dollars spent annually on the 27 lots, "is prohibitive," Corbett said.

The developers will ask city council to give them a kind of extension on the plan - a "documented moratorium," Corbett called it, which would say that the developers cannot apply for building permits or sell lots until they have completed installation of water, sewer and roads.

"This kind of building moratorium or clause would protect the municipality as well as the citizens and would basically serve as well as a bond in a case like this where we don't have any liens that would come before the agreement with the city," Corbett said.

The city and county would then continue to collect taxes on the lots, and "in exchange, you give the developer a little bit of a break so we don't have to spend so much money waiting for the economy to improve," he said. "And in the future it will help the city to have nice, affordable housing."

The developers are already more than $300,000 into the project with surveying, engineering (both done using local professionals, Corbett said) and other expenses paid.

The three-year deadline runs out in just a few weeks, Hinchliffe said. Councilors will discuss the item, hear from the developers and possibly take action on Wednesday when they meet at 7 p.m. in the Lions Club Community Building at the fairgrounds.