REGION
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Hermiston raises system development charges
By JADE MCDOWELL
News Editor
HERMISTON — After
nearly two hours of presen-
tation and discussion during
its Monday, June 28, meeting,
the Hermiston City Council
made the decision to raise the
city’s system development
charges for the first time since
they were implemented.
System development
charges are a one-time charge
on new construction projects,
meant to help pay for infra-
structure needed to support
the growth. Cities in Oregon
can charge SDCs for water,
sewer, parks and transporta-
tion.
According to Assistant
City Manager Mark Morgan,
Hermiston adopted water and
sewer charges in 1998 and
added parks charges in 2006.
Neither set of charges has
been increased since, despite
rising costs.
The city hired FCS
Consulting, which special-
izes in SDCs, to do an
updated calculation of how
much the city can charge,
taking into account expected
growth, planned infra-
structure projects and other
factors. According to the
report, if the city were to fully
reimburse itself for the costs,
it could charge developers up
to $12,258 per single-family
home.
City staff recommended
the city not go near the maxi-
mum amount, and instead use
other sources of revenue to
help cover some of the costs
for things like new water
mains. But staff did recom-
mend some increases to help
bring the city’s prices, set 22
years ago, up to something
with more similar buying
power today.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Construction equipment clears ground at the site of Monte
Vista Homes’ Theater Park development in Hermiston on
May 11, 2020.
Currently SDCs for a
single-family home are $907.
The proposal, adopted
by the council Monday, will
break the increase up into
four, one-year increments
starting in January 2022 and
ending with the new price at
$1,768 in January 2026. After
that, charges would rise 3%
each year to help keep up with
inflation. The charges would
be split four ways, instead of
three, to add money for the
city’s street fund in addition
to water, sewer and parks.
According to numbers put
together by FCS Consulting,
a $1,768 SDC would keep
Hermiston below Pendleton
($1,913), Umatilla ($3,402),
Stanfield ($5,400), all three
of the Tri-Cities and several
Oregon cities of similar size.
D u r i ng the public
comment period, Luke Pick-
erell, owner of Monte Vista
Homes, said Monte Vista has
built more than 500 homes
in Hermiston. He noted his
company understood the
need to keep up with rising
costs, but also said higher
SDCs get passed on to home-
buyers, who then pay those
costs for years to come
through ongoing interest on
their mortgage.
He said the median
income in Hermiston can
afford about $200,000 to
$230,000 for a home, based
on a calculation that a family
can afford a home four to five
times their annual income,
but the median list price in
Hermiston is over $300,000
right now. He also noted that
homebuilding costs are soar-
ing due to spikes in material
costs.
“The (cost) of lumber
that it would cost to build 10
houses a year ago would build
two houses today,” he said.
Hermiston city council-
ors discussed the need to
weigh two competing goals
against each other: to encour-
age affordable housing devel-
opment in Hermiston, and to
be fiscally responsible with
the city’s budget. Council-
ors Roy Barron and Phillip
Spicerkuhn voiced concern
that the city was not raising
the charges enough to keep
up with the costs to complete
needed projects.
Councilor Nancy Peter-
son said she would be the first
one to say if she thought the
charges were too much, but
the change seemed reason-
able.
“The numbers make
sense,” she said.
After approving the
increase to system develop-
ment charges, the council
also took care of the follow-
ing business:
• The city council voted
to approve changes to the
city’s sidewalk ordinance to
modernize the language and
align it with the public works
department standards previ-
ously adopted.
• The council voted to
approve an updated franchise
agreement with Cascade
Natural Gas.
• The council voted to
award Swaggart Broth-
ers, Inc. of Hermiston a
contract to rebuild the apron
at the Hermiston Municipal
Airport. The company was
the low bidder of five bids, at
$1,474,266.
• The council voted to
name a new road going into
the South Hermiston Indus-
trial Park as East Cook
Avenue. City Manager Byron
Smith said the name honors
Ivan and Vernon Cook, who
owned most of the industrial
land south of Hermiston and
have used that land to help
bring in the Walmart Distri-
bution Center, Pioneer Seed
and other major employers
for the city.
East Oregonian
LOCAL BRIEFING
EOTEC opens as
cooling station
Dog park coming
to Boardman
HERMISTON — The
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center in Hermiston has
opened its facilities as a cool-
ing station, providing shelter
for people looking to escape
the heat wave.
The air-conditioned event
center will have multiple
rooms open at 8 a.m. through-
out the week for people seek-
ing shelter, according to
Jennifer Oswald, an adminis-
trator at EOTEC. The facilities
expect to close around 8 p.m.
each day but will allow people
to stay longer if they still need
a place to stay, she added. The
event center will have limited
space on Friday from 8 a.m. to
1 p.m. for a wedding that day,
Oswald said.
If anyone doesn’t have
transportation to or from the
cooling center, they can call
Hermiston Taxi at 541-567-
6055 and the city of Hermis-
ton will pay for the ride.
Midday on Tuesday, June
29, no one had shown up to the
cooling station yet, but there
was air conditioning, tables
and jugs of ice water, as well
as Wi-Fi and restrooms avail-
able. Trade and event center
General Manager Al Davis
said he hoped that once trans-
portation was worked out —
as it was later in the day — that
more people would be able to
take advantage of the offer.
He said he hadn’t initially
paid attention to the forecast,
but Monday, June 28, when
he found out that it could get
as hot as 118 degrees the next
day, he made the decision to
offer up space to anyone who
needed it.
“I thought, I have the space
and I’m gonna air condition
it regardless,” Davis said, “so
why not?”
B OA R DM A N
—
Construction is underway for
a dog park in Boardman.
Boardman Chamber of
Commerce Executive Direc-
tor Torie Griggs said the park
will be about an acre on Front
Street at its intersection with
Olsen Road.
The Boardman Commu-
nity Development Associ-
ation is paying for the park.
The association uses enter-
prise zone funds to support
community improvement
initiatives that in the past
have included homeowner
incentives, wayfinding signs,
broadband infrastructure and
a disc golf course. The asso-
ciation holds meetings each
year to gather input from
community members.
“This has been a commu-
nity want for probably the last
five years,” Griggs said.
She said the park will
have a parking area that also
can be used for the multi-use
field next door. It will feature
a “holding area” where dog
owners can choose to enter an
area for small dogs and an area
for large dogs. Amenities will
range from water drinking
stations for the dogs to activ-
ities, such as rings to jump
through, “doggy ladders” and
platforms.
The park will be open to
members of the public, includ-
ing travelers who may be
enticed to stop in Boardman.
“Their kids can stretch
their legs at the splash park,
their dogs can stretch their
legs at the dog park and they
can check out the SAGE
Center,” Griggs said.
The park will open once
grass has been planted and
grown thick enough, she said.
— EO Media Group
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