A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
can be difficult. Hermiston
recently changed its stan-
dards for residential devel-
opment — allowing more
lot coverage and shorter
setbacks — to encourage
more homebuilding in the
area.
City planner Clint Spen-
cer said developers are al-
ready taking advantage of
the new rules, which allow
more homes to be placed in
subdivisions and therefore
increase the profit margin
on new developments. He
said Hermiston is seeing
a “mini-surge” of subdivi-
sions, including a new one
just approved for Gettman
Road. Other nearby cities
are also adding new hous-
ing.
“I’m actually fairly ex-
cited for where, regionally,
we will be in another year,”
he said.
Umatilla has had some
good luck in housing de-
velopment lately too, with
construction work just be-
ginning on a 28-lot subdivi-
sion called Virginia’s Place
in McNary across Willa-
mette Avenue from the golf
course. Another 56-lot sub-
division on South Hill east
of Powerline Road plans to
start construction at the end
of the month, according to
community development
director Tamra Mabbott.
She said in the McNary
subdivision 25 percent of
the lots are already spoken
for, and there are a couple
more subdivisions in the
area that are in planning
stages.
Mabbott credited city
manager Russ Pelleberg for
actively calling up contacts
in the Tri-Cities and finding
developers willing to put
up new homes in the Uma-
tilla area. She said it can be
hard to compete with the
larger profit margins that
come from building on the
west side of the state.
“The big challenge is
to get developers to come
here and build ... here in
Umatilla we’re just feel-
ing fortunate that we have
a couple of developers
willing to come in and do
something,” she said.
HOUSING
Continued from Page A1
every year. The housing
authority manages 364
low-income units in Uma-
tilla County and also dis-
tributes Section 8 housing
vouchers. Stradley said
as the quality of housing
stock gets worse and land-
lords decline to fix prob-
lems, fewer apartments in
the area meet HUD stan-
dards for vouchers.
New apartments in
Boardman will likely draw
in some people who have
been commuting, freeing
up some more rentals in
places like Hermiston.
“Any housing will help
relieve some of the over-
crowding,” Stradley said.
The housing authority
purchased a 12-acre piece
of land north of Stanfield
for a 40-unit rent-subsi-
dized housing project to
help with shortages there,
but its grant application
to the state for money to
build the project has been
unsuccessful three times.
The authority plans to sub-
mit another application in
January, but Stradley said
it is hard to get funding
because much of it goes to
Portland-area projects, and
other cities around the state
are also low on affordable
housing.
“For the most part
everyone’s feeling the
crunch,” he said.
Last week the state and
county hosted a joint meet-
ing in Hermiston to get
input on an Oregon State-
wide Housing Plan being
put together.
Government
housing
assistance programs are
based on percentages of
median income, which in
Umatilla County is $58,100
for 2017. Stradley said
the data the federal gov-
ernment uses to calculate
median income is usually
a few years old, so min-
imum wage increases or
new family-wage jobs take
a few years to affect hous-
ing eligibility. The HUD
website states that Umatil-
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2017
FROM PAGE A1
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Representatives of R.D. Offutt Company, BC Contracting
and Boardman break ground on a new 240 unit apartment
complex in Boardman.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Aspens Apartments in Hermiston consists of 48
family-sized apartment units that is part of the Umatilla
County Housing Authority’s 364 low-income units in the
county.
la County’s 2017 median
income was calculated us-
ing U.S. Census data from
2010 to 2014.
Hermiston assistant city
manager Mark Morgan
said he has worked with
apartment developers who
have looked at building
more units in Hermiston,
but part of the problem is
that the land, labor and ma-
terial costs of construction
are so high that to pay for
it the complex would have
to charge more than most
people are willing to pay
for a rental in Hermiston.
Home prices have gone up
in the last couple of years,
but for a long time if rent
went up by very much
people would realize they
could be putting that mon-
ey toward a mortgage pay-
ment instead.
“You kind of bump up
against that threshold,” he
said.
It doesn’t cost develop-
ers that much more to build
a complex in Portland or
Bend instead, but they can
charge hundreds of dollars
more per month for each
unit after it’s built. And
while some companies are
focused on benefits like
cheap utilities, Morgan said
at least one company in the
last couple of years decided
to build in Pasco, Washing-
ton, instead of Hermiston
because it would be easier
for employees to find hous-
ing there.
Even for those who can
afford to own a home, find-
ing something that’s open
in the right price range
BY THE WAY
BTW
Continued from Page A1
uated based primarily on
violent crime and property
crimes. The highest ranking
local town, which came in
fifth, was Umatilla (vio-
lent crimes, 2.42 per 1,000
and property crimes, 11.96
per 1,000). Also ranking in
the top 10 was Boardman,
who placed ninth (violent
crimes, 5.96 per 1,000 and
property crimes, 14.92 per
1,000). For the full list, vis-
it www.safewise.com/blog/
safest-cities-oregon.
• • •
You can submit items
for our weekly By The Way
column by emailing your
tips to editor@hermiston-
herald.com or share them
on social media using the
hashtag #HHBTW. Follow
the Hermiston Herald on
Twitter at @Hermiston-
Herald.
Inaugural natural resource
class includes Echo man
Sam Taylor of Echo was
selected as one of 30 nat-
ural resource professionals
from throughout the state
in the inaugural class for
the REAL (Resource Ed-
ucation & Ag Leadership)
Oregon program.
Other Umatilla County
participants include Bob
Waldher of Athena and
Tom Demianew of Pendle-
ton. The individuals were
selected from a large pool
of applicants and reflect a
diversity of resource pro-
ducers,
agri-businesses,
advocacy
organizations
and government agencies.
Bill Buhrig, with Sim-
plot Food Group and REAL
Oregon board chair, said
the response to the pro-
gram has been overwhelm-
ing. He said the more than
30 applicants exceeded ex-
pectations and are a good
indicator that the program
is long overdue. Oregon,
Buhrig said, is modeling
its program after a similar
program in Idaho.
REAL Oregon is a col-
laboration of industry and
other groups throughout
the state that have recog-
nized the importance of
developing and grooming
natural resource leaders
now and in the future. In
addition to networking
opportunities and learning
more about the state, the
program will bring current
and future leaders togeth-
er from agriculture, fish-
ing and forestry sectors in
a series of five statewide
sessions starting in No-
vember.
Class 1 includes 10 in-
dividuals directly involved
in production agriculture,
three in timber produc-
tion and forestry, 11 from
agri-businesses or natural
resource organizations and
six from local, state and
federal agencies. The in-
augural class will conclude
in March 2018 and recruit-
ment for Class 2 will be
underway in the coming
months. For more infor-
mation, visit www.realore-
gon.net.
Visit us online at
www.HermistonHerald.com
For every vehicle purchased,
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