What a $8.6B clean energy park boom means for this tiny Eastern WA school district?
Pending deals in the Wallula Gap Business Park have many talking in the nearby community of Burbank.
Four proposed projects representing a total investment of $8.6 billion could mean thousands of new jobs and hundreds of homes and families in the unincorporated rural town — if they come to fruition.
Some are curious what the impact on the local school district will be. But Columbia School District Superintendent Todd Hilberg says they’re in a “wait and see” holding pattern until then.
“There’s a potential long-term upside concerning new business that could be coming into Walla Walla County down the road — and we’re monitoring that and keeping track of that very closely, and working in very close partnership with the Port of Walla Walla to determine what that net effect is on Columbia School District,” he told the Tri-City Herald.
Columbia School District serves 750 students, most living in rural communities on the fringe of the Tri-Cities. The district operates an elementary school, middle school and high school along Maple Street.
Already, Tyson Fresh Meats, Packaging Corporation of America, Northwest Wine Services and Tri-Cities Grain operate large plants within the school district boundaries, which stretch along the eastern banks of the Snake and Columbia rivers south to the Oregon border.
And over the summer, Amazon.com opened a new distribution warehouse a few miles away in Pasco, across the Snake River from Burbank.
The package hub has hired upwards of 2,000 employees already, but Hilberg says his district hasn’t seen any direct benefit from the e-Commerce giant.
For now, most Burbank workers live elsewhere and commute to work from all over the region. That’s due in part to a lack of housing.
The home market in the unincorporated community of 3,500 has been stretched thin as the Tri-Cities booms and developers look to West Richland, Kennewick and Pasco for expansion.
A new rumored housing development would be a “game changer,” Hilberg says, but their schools don’t currently have the capacity to add students.
“I mean, you’ve got a handful of homes to buy out here at any given time. We don’t have hundreds of homes out here for sale,” he said.
But if they had more students, their general education funding from Washington state would also grow. In recent years, however, the Columbia School District’s enrollment has remained mostly steady, he said.
As the boom of new industries drives up higher assessed values in the district, it also won’t immediately equate to more revenue for Columbia School District.
School districts ask voters to approve a specific levy amount to pay for programs and operations.
So while higher assessed values and more homes could mean a lower tax rate for each property owner, Columbia may not see the financial benefit of that increase in property values for years down the road.
“We’re not collecting more. The only way we go out and collect and get more is if we go out and ask for more,” Hilberg explained.
School district assessed value
The total assessed value within the school district stands at $1.2 billion — a figure that has more than doubled over the last decade.
That’s still much smaller than districts in the neighboring Tri-Cities.
But Wallula Gap Business Park, 10 miles south of Burbank, has caught the eye of some international giants recently.
The 1,400-acre area zoned for sprawling heavy industrial sites is being marketed by the Port of Walla Walla.
Now, deals being negotiated include a $5 billion data center complex, a $2.5 billion battery manufacturing plant, a $1 billion facility for a sustainable aviation fuel company and a $300 million plant for sustainable building insulation.
Hilberg says the immediate impact to their rural school district is zero since many of these projects are likely years out from construction or opening.
Though those four projects could create up to 2,000 jobs, only Rockwool is a for-sure thing at the moment, Hilberg says.
He’s been in touch with the Danish company, which bought 250 acres from the port to produce insulation. That project will hire about 125 workers.
“I’m excited about the potential, but that’s what it is: Potential, at this point,” he said.
This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
