College Hill and Pullman Expansion

Story by Keith Chaplin
Pullman is Expanding: How is College Hill holding up?
In August of 2007, Danielle Everett and her roommates decided to move closer to campus. They were aware that they were trading the quality of their CCN apartment for the closeness of a house on College Hill. However they were in for a surprise when they moved into their Maple Street house.
“The carpets were moldy, the walls were stained, and there was junk all over the house,” explained Everett.
“We had to put almost $1000 into cleaning, painting, and re-carpeting before we even moved into our house,” said Everett, a junior teaching major.
Trading quality for proximity is not uncommon for many student tenants moving to the College Hill neighborhood.
Of the hundreds of houses on the Hill, most are in some state of disrepair or neglect, some have even been described as slums by City officials.
Recently, Pullman City Council has been plagued with problems relating to the College Hill neighborhood, which sits adjacent to campus, and contains apartments, and houses as well as several fraternities and sororities.
Historically, College Hill has been a very desirable place for students to take up residence due to its close proximity to the center of campus. However, problems such as poor management, expensive units, parking, and lack of renovations, as well as the consequences of frequent partying on the hill (such as littering, and fighting) have driven students to find housing elsewhere.
Vacancy rates reflect this statement, according to Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at WSU.
“Conditions of some College Hill apartments and houses have driven students away from renting the older, more dilapidated buildings and into the newer apartment complexes,” Crellin said.
In response to these problems, City Council has looked into permitting of rental companies, as well as making ordinances relating to the drinking, fighting, and parking on College Hill.
Newly instated Councilman Nathan Weller has different ideas. “My motto is educate, don’t legislate, I believe that instead of passing all these ordinances, we should educate WSU students.”
Weller, a 2005 graduate of WSU lived on College Hill. “I lived in the worst apartments imaginable on College Hill,” explains Weller, “and I know that a lot of students are not informed of their rights as tenants, and that needs to change.”
Weller explained that there has been discussion about instating a program that deals with educating student renters of their rights as tenants, so that they know what to do, who to contact, and when to take action against “slumlord” activity.
“Educating students while they are in Pullman for 4 years gives them the ability to know about their rights as a renter when they move away and start renting in another city in Washington,” Weller said.

Developers find a market
As a result of housing problems on College Hill, several developers have taken the initiative, and apartment complexes now dot the landscape surrounding Pullman.
The biggest developer in the past 10 years is Corporate Pointe Developers, led by President Duane Brelsford. Some of his projects include the Village Centre Cinemas, and the Fireside Grille, as well as several large apartment complexes including Aspen Village, Pine Ridge, Maple Valley, Providence Court, and more recently Churchill Downs and Emerald Downs.
In the past 3 years vacancy rates have risen from 1.1 percent n September 2004, to 5.2 percent in September 2007, a considerable increase in only 3 years, according to Crellin. “Much of the increase in these rates is due to the multi-family housing being built off campus,” Crellin said.
“The development of these apartments completely changed the face of housing in Pullman,” said Brelsford. “The newer, cleaner, cheaper housing gives students choices in housing, which was not the case 10 years ago.”
The expansion of housing in Pullman has some very different meanings to different people.
“Admission rates have not kept up with the market for rentals,” Crellin said.
Since 1997 enrollment at WSU Pullman campus has increased by only 232 students according to the Office of Institutional Research at WSU. This explains why the rental market has seen the larger vacancy rates.
“In most towns, a 5.2 percent vacancy rate is very healthy however in a college town with population fluctuation every summer, most property managers like to see around a 3 percent vacancy rate, because if apartments aren’t rented in September, they are probably going to sit vacant until the next school year,” said Crellin.
Brelsford explained that he likes to see the overall vacancy rate at about 5 percent, and though he has several projects in the works, he put them off until he sees the vacancy rate decline again.
“Students need choices, and I think that a 5 percent vacancy rate gives them choices in where they want to live,” said Brelsford. “I’m not just building apartments to build apartments. I saw a need and filled that need. I’m not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”

Council Flexes muscles
“I have heard so many stories about professors and other residents who used to live on College Hill who were forced to move because of the bad atmosphere on College Hill,” said Mayor Glenn Johnson.
In order to control excessive drinking the council recently passed an ordinance that makes it unlawful for people to carry open containers of alcoholic beverages.
“Although the ordinance was not particularly geared towards College Hill students, it has helped to prevent wandering parties and littering, which really tarnish and destroy the neighborhoods occupied by students,” said Johnson.
Another ordinance that was passed recently was the anti-fighting ordinance.
“This is another ordinance that is needed to control students who have over consumed alcohol, and gives us one more tool in the belt to fight problems on campus,” said Pullman Police Chief Ted Weatherly.
Weatherly said that he has heard from field officers that they had sensed a decline in parties and fighting since the ordinances were passed. He said he would wait until his report in March to give any specific data.
Recently the council has heard discussion about regulating parking and rental permits for College Hill residents and rental companies, although no specific decisions have been reached to date.