Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
HOUSING: Hermiston
growth has outpaced
development of new housing
Continued from 1A
Mabbott said the next step
would be a deeper analysis
of those parcels, looking
for barriers such as lack of
infrastructure or regulatory
roadblocks. That information
could help build an inventory
of “shovel-ready” residential
lands in the county and
highlight trends for the work
group to focus on.
The land inventory shows
Hermiston and Pendleton
virtually tied at 5,510 and
5,509 residential parcels,
respectively. Only 522 of
Pendleton’s parcels remain
undeveloped compared to
915 of Hermiston’s.
Numbers only tell a piece
of the story, however. Not
all land is created equal, as
Pendleton community devel-
opment director Tim Simons
well knows. Many of Pend-
leton’s remaining residential
lots are on a steep grade
with bedrock just below the
surface. Modern engineering
makes building homes on
those plots possible, but not
necessarily cost effective.
“You can build on it, it’s
just going to cost you a pretty
penny,” Simons said.
He said that bare land also
tends to cost more to begin
with because sellers place a
premium on the fact that the
property has a “view.”
If developers are looking
for flatter, sandier land in
the Pendleton area, they
will mostly find it outside
of Pendleton’s urban growth
boundary, which means it
is also outside of the reach
of city water and sewer and
other services. The state
won’t let Pendleton extend its
tightly drawn urban growth
boundary, however, until it
infills more of its residential
parcels inside the boundary
— parcels developers see as
too expensive.
“It’s frustrating for us, and
frustrating for the commu-
nity,” Simons said. “We’re
between a rock and a hard
place.”
Hermiston’s residential
lands tend to be easier to
build on, at least from a
physics standpoint. The city
is flatter and doesn’t have
as much bedrock to contend
with.
“We have nice, sloping
hills,” city planning director
Clint Spencer said.
Hermiston is still facing
a housing crunch of its own,
however, thanks to booming
growth that has outpaced
development of new housing.
Data from the U.S. Census
Bureau shows more than
half of Hermiston’s workers
commute to their jobs from
outside the city.
Spencer said the price of
bare land in Hermiston has
been driven upward due to
demand, making it more
difficult for developers to
create projects that pencil out
financially.
“Bare land cost is entirely
a market-based issue,” he
said. “There is nothing we
can do to impact the selling
price.”
What the city can do,
however, is make sure its
own codes aren’t driving
costs even higher. The
planning department is just
beginning a project to adjust
city codes to reduce setbacks
and other regulations that
are discouraging residential
development.
Housing shortages aren’t
just a problem for Umatilla
County’s larger cities. The
county’s land inventory
shows Ukiah has 43 unde-
veloped residential parcels,
but city recorder Donna
Neumann said only two of
them are for sale.
“We don’t have enough
housing,” she said. “We
have some folks who want to
move up here and can’t find
a lot.”
She said the city doesn’t
have the money to give finan-
cial incentives, and doesn’t
own property it could offer
for residential development.
If Umatilla County is looking
to help cities find solutions
to their housing shortages,
she said, it’s possible Ukiah
could benefit.
On the county level, 407
of the 570 undeveloped
residential parcels in the
unincorporated parts of the
county lie around the Herm-
iston/Umatilla/Stanfield area.
Mabbott said some of that is
prime farmland, however,
“You can build
on it, it’s just
going to cost you
a pretty penny.”
— Tim Simons, Pendleton
community development
director, on remaining lots
that are on a steep grade
with bedrock below
and it would not necessarily
serve the county well to try
to encourage growers to turn
those fields into a housing
development.
She said it makes more
sense for the county to focus
on helping cities encourage
residential development in
their urban growth bound-
aries than to spend a lot of
resources trying to increase
housing development in the
unincorporated areas.
“Each piece requires a
well and a septic system and
a road, and that’s not cost
effective,” she said. “It’s
available, and it’s an option,
but it’s probably not the best
place for us to focus our
resources.”
Possible next steps for
the work group Mabbott is
putting together includes
helping cities to update their
Goal 10 Housing Chapter in
their comprehensive plans,
hosting a work session
with
Oregon
Housing
and Community Services
staff, developing a list of
“shovel ready” residential
lands, identifying barriers
and costs for new roads
or traffic signals needed
to support new residential
development, analyzing the
condition of current housing
stock, conducting and audit
of zoning codes and holding
a recruiting event for housing
developers.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Friday, May 12, 2017
SCHOOL: All 250 sixth-graders will participate in Outdoor School
Continued from 1A
Schulze, who teaches
science at Sunridge and used
to help coordinate Outdoor
School for the district,
described it as a seminal
experience for middle
schoolers.
“It’s the one thing they
remember,” he said.
About 20 students from
Pendleton High School,
many of them Outdoor
School alums, serve as camp
counselors along with the
teachers who accompany
their class. Everyone wears
a homemade wooden name
tag, and are split up into
groups named after animals
— such as the owls, or the
bears, or the eagles.
Launched in 1971, Pend-
leton is home to the longest
continuously run Outdoor
School in Eastern Oregon,
but it hasn’t always been
smooth sailing. The program
has nearly been eliminated
at least three times, the last
coming in 2011 when the
district was forced to cut 21
teaching positions and lop
10 days off the school year.
The community united
to save Outdoor School,
with parents and businesses
nearly doubling their fund-
raising goal of $15,000.
Now the program is back in
the district budget, costing
around $22,000 per year
including food, transporta-
tion and teacher stipends.
“You get the feeling
people would give their
right arm to help Outdoor
School,” Schulze said.
Voters also approved a
ballot initiative last year
that calls for $20 million
in lottery funds to pay for
Outdoor School for 50,000
students statewide, though
the Legislature may delay
that funding as it works to
pass a balanced state budget.
Regardless of where the
money comes from, Schulze
said the program is a worthy
investment.
“These experiences can
awaken something in kids
they don’t forget,” he said.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sunridge science teacher Chris Schulze gives instructions to a group of sixth-
graders during outdoor school Thursday at the Kiwanis Camp.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
John Dadoly, with the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, talks about groundwater with
a group of students Thursday east of Pendleton.
All 250 sixth-graders
from Sunridge will partic-
ipate in Outdoor School
during May, arriving on a
Wednesday and staying at
the camp through Friday.
The curriculum includes
field studies, where students
learn about things like
plants, wildlife and water
quality. Buck Creek serves
as the backdrop, flowing
into the South Fork Umatilla
River as it cuts through the
dense, green forest.
Other activities include
art projects and trying new
recreation activities, like
boating or archery. By
Friday, the kids will be ready
to tackle Buck Mountain,
a steep mile-long hike that
provides a panoramic view
at the top.
“A lot of kids, they never
see that. They never experi-
ence the top of a mountain,”
Schulze said.
Jones-Hoisington said the
camp is like a big sleepover
with her friends and class-
mates. The activities teach
them about teamwork as
well as nature, and why it
is important to protect the
environment, she added.
“In the future possibly,
we won’t even have forests,”
Jones-Hoisington said. “The
trees give us air, and protect
the animals living here.”
John Summerfield, a
social studies teacher at
Sunridge, has been helping
to coordinate Outdoor
School for 10 years. He
remembers the program
as a sixth-grader himself,
attending school in the
Gresham-Barlow
School
District, where they stayed
at Camp Howard along the
Sandy River.
“Kids are out in nature,
getting a great experience
and a variety of different
opportunities to appreciate
the outdoors,” Summerfield
said. “This is a sixth-grade
rite of passage.”
Taking a moment to
admire the surroundings,
Schulze said there is
nowhere else kids would
want to be to learn.
“Most kids would rather
be active and outside,
touching things,” A room
with four walls does not
always suit them.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.