NEWS
Wednesday, september 16, 2020
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A3
Hermiston council bans shelters near parks
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOr
An ordinance passed unani-
mously by the Hermiston City
Council on Monday, Sept. 14,
would preclude the location for
a proposed homeless shelter in
Hermiston.
The ordinance allows for tem-
porary emergency housing, such
as homeless shelters or camps
for people who have been evac-
uated from a natural disaster, as
a conditional use in industrial
zones. But a rule in the ordinance
states that such shelters must be
at least 1,000 feet from schools
and parks.
A group of Hermiston resi-
dents formed a nonprofit called
Stepping Stones in early 2020,
and in April, presented a plan to
the council to create a homeless
shelter using 6 foot by 10 foot
Conestoga huts placed on a 0.8-
acre lot behind the Agape House
food bank on Harper Road —
less than 1,000 feet from Theater
Sports Park.
The huts would have no run-
ning water or electricity, but
would have access to a commu-
nity building with restrooms,
showers and a gathering space.
Residents would only be allowed
on-site in the evenings after
being checked in by security,
and would have to earn credits
through volunteering, work or
education in order to continue
living at the site.
Stepping Stones at the time
asked the city to consider con-
tributing $85,000 toward the cost
of building the huts and $40,000
annually toward security and
other operating costs for the site.
City councilors in April said they
felt the financial ask was too high
and not enough details had been
worked out, but they voted to
direct the planning commission
to come up with an ordinance
that would at least allow that
type of temporary emergency
shelter inside city limits.
City planner Clint Spencer
told the council on Sept. 14 that
after hearing input from residents
concerned that having a home-
less shelter near a park would
cause problems with loitering,
harassment and drug parapherna-
lia at the park, the planning com-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A fenced lot between the Agape House and the Theater Sports Park was the
proposed site of the Stepping Stones project.
“I THINK THEY FELT LIKE THEY
WANTED TO TRY AND LET THE COM-
MUNITY DISCUSS THIS AND THEN
THEY WILL COME FORWARD WITH A
PROPOSAL IF THEY CAN FIND A SITE
THAT’S WORKABLE.”
Byron Smith, Hermiston city manager
mission decided to include the
provision about shelters being
1,000 feet from parks and K-12
schools.
Based on other feedback
from the community, they also
included a list of other require-
ments. A few of those included
requiring camps to have a com-
munity building with restrooms
and showers; requiring the site to
be covered by a sight-obscuring
fence at least 6 feet high; requir-
ing applicants for a permit to
submit a business plan and secu-
rity plan; limiting residency for
any occupant to 18 months; and
requiring shelters to be co-lo-
cated on a site with another
existing industrial use already in
place.
“This has changed quite a
bit from when you looked at it
during a work session in June,”
Spencer said.
He noted the ordinance merely
allows for emergency shelters
to exist in industrial zones, and
is not tied to approval of Step-
ping Stones or any other specific
projects.
Mayor David Drotzmann said
when looking at a map of where
the ordinance would allow a
shelter, there were “not a lot of
options” left — mostly some
lots along Elm Avenue or South
Highway 395 near Denny’s, if
organizers are able to find an
existing industrial user willing to
allow them to co-locate on their
property.
“I understand (the plan-
ning commission’s) feedback
and their long deliberation that
they’ve taken along with all the
public input; I just hope that
we haven’t handcuffed them so
much that it’s made unreason-
able,” Drotzmann said.
The Stepping Stones board
has already made some improve-
ments to the Agape House site,
including leveling and the addi-
tion of a fence, but city man-
ager Byron Smith said the Step-
ping Stones board had expressed
to him that they didn’t want their
project to trip up the city’s efforts
to create rules for shelters.
“They’re trying to separate
the issue and often it has been
clouded,” Smith said. “This
whole discussion tonight is
about amending the zoning code
to allow (emergency shelter proj-
ects) to happen, and I think it
really got twisted up in their pro-
posal to go on a certain location,
and so I think they felt like they
wanted to try and let the commu-
nity discuss this, and then they
will come forward with a pro-
posal if they can find a site that’s
workable.”
On Sept. 14, the council also
accepted the resignation of coun-
cilor Doug Smith, who has rep-
resented Ward IV on the council
for just under six years.
The city manager stated Smith
had submitted a letter on Sept. 4
stating he was resigning effective
Sept. 5 for “personal reasons.”
Because Smith still has more
than two years left in his four-
year term, the city’s charter
states the city must hold a spe-
cial election to fill his seat. The
council can choose whether to
appoint someone to fill the seat
in the interim, or leave it vacant
until after the election.
City manager Smith told the
council that according to the
city’s bylaws and election rules,
that election will be held on
March 9, 2021.
The council has four at-large
positions and four ward posi-
tions, and the at-large positions
are up for election on Nov. 3. He
noted that two of the five candi-
dates running for those four seats
— current city councilor David
McCarthy and newcomer Nancy
Peterson — live in Ward IV and
would be eligible to run for Doug
Smith’s seat.
City councilor Roy Barron
stated he thought it made the
most sense to wait to appoint an
interim councilor until after the
Nov. 3 election so that if McCa-
rthy or Peterson lost the election
and wanted to apply, they could.
Other councilors agreed, and
the council voted to appoint an
interim councilor after Nov. 3 to
fill the seat until the special elec-
tion in March.
New school
will be called
Loma Vista
Elementary
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOr
Hermiston School Dis-
trict’s new elementary school,
planned for Theater Lane, will
be known as Loma Vista Ele-
mentary School.
The school board approved
the new name during their
Monday, Sept. 14, meeting.
Loma Vista is a Span-
ish phrase that translates into
“Hill View” in English. The
board had previously sup-
ported using a Spanish name
for the new school to reflect the
school district’s demographics,
where more than half the stu-
dents are Hispanic. The name
also reflects the desire voiced
by 60% of respondents to a
previous survey, stating that
they wanted to see the school
named for a geographical fea-
ture instead of a person, in
keeping with all the other ele-
mentary schools in the district.
The other two names the
board had previously consid-
ered were Artemisa Elemen-
tary School and La Senda Ele-
mentary School.
After gathering initial feed-
back and narrowing down sug-
gestions to three choices, the
district sent out a second sur-
vey on Aug. 12. According to
a news release from the dis-
trict, there were almost 600
responses to that survey, and
Loma Vista was the “clear
leader.”
Construction of the new ele-
mentary school on East The-
ater Lane is expected to begin
in spring 2021.
During the Sept. 14 meet-
ing, the district also awarded
the bid for its new softball
fields to Nelson Construction.
The district is building the new
fields behind Hermiston High
School on the old fairgrounds,
in preparation for a new ver-
sion of Rocky Heights Elemen-
tary School to be built where
the current softball fields stand
adjacent to the elementary
school.
A WORC taxi will get you to and
from your job anywhere in western
Umatilla County.
Anyone who comes in through the end
of December, can get four FREE punch
cards, which equals 40 one-way rides
to/from work.
Visit https://hermiston.or.us/public-transit
to find out how to sign up, and how WORC and the HART
bus service work together to connect Hermiston.