During public hearings on the plan,several local residents,including realtors and builders,questioned whether there was any land in the county that could meet these guidelines and,if so,how much? To mitigate the suspicion that these lands were inordinately scrace,a planning team was formed to investigate the potential for rural housing using these guidelines in conjunction with actual land use throughout the county. The planning team (Steiner and Theilacker 1979) chose a 150-square-mile(388.35 kilometer) demonstration area adjacent to the city of Pullman for the feasibility study. The demand for rural housing is greater in this area than in other parts of the county.This area is close to the cities of Pullman,location of Washington State University,and Moscow,Idaho,location of the University of Idaho.These two cities contain most of the people in the region.Many of the faculty from the two universities seek a rural-living situation. The planning team used the principles of suitability analysis,as defined by McHarg(1969),to determine those areas feasible for rural housing. Instead of overlaying inventory information to find instead of overlaying inventory information to find intrinsically suitable areas,the team overlaid information to identify areas meeting the established policy guidelines for rocky and agriculturally unproductive lands,or scablands.The team then subtracted constraint areas,leaving the team then subtracted constraint areas,leaving the areas feasible for housing(Steiner and Theilacker 1979). The study began with an extensive inventory and mapping of the demonstration area.The team collected information at two scales: 1:2000 for the overall demonstration area. and: 100 for two more specific sites.The information collected included bedrock geology, elevation,basalt outcrops and steep slopes, soil series,surface water,wildlife habitat,transportation,property ownership, scablands ,and generalized areas feasible for rural housing.The team related all this material directly to the criteria established in the comprehensive plan revision for rural housing. The team identified scabland areas by inventorying the physical features that prevent dryland farming.Areas of basalt outcroppings and steep slopes were considered scablands,along with several soil types identified by the NRCS.These generally thin or gravelly soils,which are poor for agricultural purposes,often occur on steep slopes.Such soil types are also found in floodplains,adjacent to or deposited within baslt outcropping. The generalized areas feasible for rural housing were next located on maps by a process of elimination (figure 5.17). Once the scablands were identified, conditions considered unsuitable for rural housing were addressed and such lands eliminated.These conditions included floodplain areas,valuable wildlife habitats, exposed basalt rocks, areas with slopes greater than 40 percent, lack of frontage on improved state and county roads, and soil characteristics unsuited for structures or for on-site water supply and sewage disposal. The planning team estimated about 12,443 acres(5,039.42 hectares) of scablands in the 150-square-mile(388.35 kilomater) demonstration area. In the two more specific study sites, which together totaled 76 square miles, 1,734 acres were identified with a potential for rural housing development(196.76 kilomenters ,or 702.27 hectares).These findings enabled the county comprehensive plan revision. The findings also established a procedure for identifying such land. This findings also established a procedure was supplemented with a suggested environmental checklist for rural housing that can be used when developers make specific requests. The checklist helped to ensure the environmental quality sought by the commissioners by incorporating specific siting criteria have successfully been used in Whitman County to protect good farmland,promote the siting of rural housing in suitable areas,and to concentrate urban development within the City of Pullman.(See, for example,American Farmland Trust 1977.) The suitability analyses conducted in whitman County and Medford Township considered a wide range of information about nature and people. This breadth distinguishes these examples from detailed studies undertaken in more conventional planning processes. Human values were considered in both examples. In Whitman County,the study was responding to values expressed in the comprehensive plan goals. Farmers's values were considered in the identification of scablands. The feelings of the community as expressed through public herings was a major reason the study was conducted. In Meedford Township, suitability criteria were developed for each land use based on values to society and to individuals. Values were important in determining rules of combination as well.