A month of public outreach aimed at raising awareness about a proposed urban renewal district in downtown Hermiston culminated Thursday with an open house and a final chance for the public to weigh in.
And while a few concerns were raised, members of the Hermiston Urban Renewal District Planning Advisory Committee (URD-PAC) heard nothing to alter their plans.
URD-PAC consultant Marty Stiven noted the proposed urban renewal district plans have been presented to 245 people in various clubs and service groups in the past month.
“There have been no comments to change the course you’re on,” she told the committee Thursday following the open house.
The aim of the urban renewal district is to revitalize the downtown area and attract new retail businesses to Main Street. The budget for the district has been set at $2.5 million and will pay for a festival street along Second Street (estimated cost of $900,000), a façade grant program ($500,000), jump-start loans ($200,000), and parking improvements ($200,000), among other projects. Funding for the projects will not come from new taxes. Instead, future increases in tax revenue from existing taxing districts will be shifted over to the urban renewal district for the time in which the district exists. The lifespan of the district has been set at 20 years.
Hermiston resident David Lamb told the committee that he was concerned the proposed plans for the district don’t sufficiently address the issue of attracting and keeping businesses in the downtown core.
“Why have downtown people gone away? How are you going to get them back? To me, there has to be some sort of master plan other than a festival street and improved parking,” Lamb said.
Jerry Johnson, another URD-PAC consultant, said the urban renewal district isn’t so much as a plan, but a tool for the city to revitalize the downtown area.
Hermiston City Planner Clint Spencer said attracting new businesses – and keeping existing businesses from fleeing the downtown area – is a key goal of the urban renewal district. To do that, he said, the downtown area has to be a place shoppers want to visit.
“The ultimate goal is to create a downtown environment where people want to come down and walk around,” he said. “We want to get people out of their cars and stay downtown.”
“We want the downtown to be a gathering place,” said Hermiston Chamber of Commerce Director Debbie Pedro, a member of the URD-PAC.
Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann told those gathered at the open house in the breezeway next to Andee’s Boutique Thursday that an urban renewal district will ultimately benefit business owners.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to help the downtown businesses to thrive and this is one opportunity to do that,” he said. “It’s the local vendors we need to support. It’s the local vendors that make our community great.”
The URD-PAC will make a final proposal regarding an Urban Renewal District Plan in July, with city council action expected in August.
For more information on the proposed urban renewal district, visit the city’s website.
