COMMUNITY
B6 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
McNary grapples with identity, future
By JADE MCDOWELL
Staff Writer
A request for a zoning
change in Umatilla has
revealed conflicting vi-
sions for the future of the
McNary neighborhood.
The city council grap-
pled with questions last
week about whether to
pursue commercial or
residential development
opportunities on empty
lots in McNary, and in the
end decided to extend a
public hearing to its April
5 meeting in order to give
residents a chance to dis-
cuss and make their opin-
ions heard.
“I can see both sides of
the coin,” councilor Mark
Ribich said.
At the heart of the mat-
ter is a 9-acre piece of
property located on Wil-
lamette Avenue across
from the Quality Inn.
Currently, the property
is zoned commercial, but
a Pasco-based develop-
er called Fastrack Inc.
is requesting the city re-
zone the property for sin-
gle-family dwellings so
that it can build 38 new
homes.
The request sparked
a larger conversation:
Does the city maintain
its vision of McNary as a
community where some-
day residents could walk
down the street to get
a haircut, a cup of cof-
fee and a new shirt? Or
does it give up that land
to housing, keeping Mc-
Nary largely residential
but possibly attracting
new families — followed
by new businesses — into
the city’s tax base?
Councilor David Lou-
gee called providing more
quality housing for fami-
lies a “noble effort” that
the city should support.
“I’ve lived in McNary
for 13 years and I like the
idea of it being a bedroom
community,” he said.
Councilor
Sharon
Farnsworth agreed, not-
ing that the property in
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Umatilla City Council is looking for input on whether to rezone areas of the McNary subdivision from commercial to residential, which would allow a new
housing development.
question had been on and
off the market for decades
and no commercial devel-
opers had ever taken the
opportunity.
The city recently com-
pleted a year-long over-
haul of its comprehen-
sive plan, however, and
councilor Mel Ray ques-
tioned why the city hadn’t
changed the zoning to
residential then if it was
really the best option.
“We’ve only had this
comprehensive plan for
that area in place for four
months. ... All of the sud-
den we’re going to throw
that whole thing out and
build houses?” he asked.
Ribich said he thought
the city should focus on
encouraging
develop-
ers to build new housing
closer to downtown, cre-
ating more of a demand
for businesses to fill emp-
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Mayor David Trott said
he disliked the way peo-
ple talked about being
from McNary or Umatilla
as if they were two sepa-
rate towns.
“I think we ought to fo-
cus on Umatilla as a com-
munity,” he said.
If
McNary,
locat-
ed across the interstate
and down the highway
from the rest of Umatil-
la, seems like a separate
town — that’s because it
started out that way. The
McNary townsite was
built east of Umatilla in
1948 as a “home town”
for the Army Corps of En-
gineers while the McNary
Dam was being built. In
1949 it housed an estimat-
ed 850 people and had its
own post office, library
and shopping center.
Eventually the dam
was completed, however,
and most of the workers
who had called McNary
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STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Umatilla City Council is looking for input on whether to
rezone areas of the McNary subdivision from commercial to
residential, which would allow a new housing development.
home moved on. In 1964
the entire townsite was
purchased from the fed-
eral government by a pri-
vate developer.
McNary
changed
hands again in 1973 when
Jerry D. Smith and Asso-
ciates purchased the 344-
acre site for a reported
$750,000 and began sell-
ing off the houses there.
At the developer’s request
the McNary townsite was
annexed into Umatilla on
Oct. 1, 1973, adding 204
residents to the city.
“The townsite will be
developed as we see the
needs unfold,” developer
Shannon Kollmeyer told
the Hermiston Herald at
the time, noting plans for
new apartments, houses
and 15 acres set aside for
commercial development.
Today McNary’s com-
mercial offerings are
mostly limited to a few
offices, McNary Market,
the Quality Inn and Big
River Golf Course.
Fastrack Inc. owner
Arnie Wick said he re-
cently built two hous-
es in McNary, and the
first time he and his wife
drove through there they
wondered why no one
had snatched up property
across from a golf course
and down the street from
a school for a housing de-
velopment.
“We thought, ‘What’s
going on here?’” he said.
When he found out
from Linda Andreason
of Miller Realty that the
property was zoned com-
mercial and had been on
the market for most years
since 1979, he decided to
approach the city about
changing the zoning des-
ignation so he could build
38 homes with a value
of $130,000 to $160,000
each.
Andreason said there
is a strong demand for
ranch-style homes in that
price range in Hermiston
and Umatilla.
“We get phone calls
all the time,” she said.
“People are looking and
there’s not a lot out there
for them.”
McNary resident Dar-
en Dufloth told the city
council that he supported
the zoning change.
“I drive past there all
the time and I’ve won-
dered the same thing:
Why the heck isn’t there
anything there?” he said.
“If it’s a zoning issue,
let’s fix it.”
The downside to the
proposal is that the de-
velopment would leave
little room for commer-
cial growth in McNary.
Approving
Fastrack’s
request would reduce
the amount of buildable
commercial land there
from 15 acres to 6, spread
across five lots.
Another concern ex-
pressed in planning com-
mission documents and
at the March 1 meeting
is that a crop of tightly
spaced new homes would
overload resources like
parks, schools and on-
street parking.
Citizens wishing to
weigh in on the proposed
zoning change can testify
at the city’s public hear-
ing on April 5 at 7 p.m. at
city hall.