A public hearing is scheduled for July 10 on a proposed North Hermiston Urban Renewal Plan.
The hearing is set for 7 p.m. at Hermiston City Hall.
The aim of the new district is to ease congestion in the busy north Highway 395 corridor between Theater Lane and Elm Avenue and to address infrastructure deficiencies that are limiting the development potential in the proposed district.
In May, the Hermiston City Council gave the go ahead for the plan to go through a public review process.
The plan calls for the construction of a new east-west street connecting Highway 395 to N.E. Aspen Drive and intersecting N.E. Fourth Street. There will also be a north-south extension of N.E. North Street.
This new connecting street will provide nearly 1,300 feet of new street frontage for an area which currently has less than 100 feet of highway frontage. The street will also provide pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
A new signal is also proposed for the Highway 395-Aspen Drive intersection. This signal is
intended to ease congestion on Highway 395 and to provide better traffic spacing, allowing more left turns onto the highway.
A new municipal water line will follow the N.E. Aspen Drive route, looping water between the highway and N.E. Fourth Street and providing service to new businesses along the route.
Creating a new urban renewal district allows the city to take the assessed value within an area and freeze that property tax at today’s value. As the tax increment and assessed value in that district increases over time, that increased revenue is used to pay for improvements.
