The zoning dispute between the city of Umatilla and the Port of Umatilla may be coming to a peaceful end.
It was announced on Tuesday by Port General Manager Kim Puzey and Umatilla City Manager Bob Ward that an agreement in principle has been reached, but that details need to be worked out before the settlement is made public.
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“We have an agreement in principle,” Puzey said Tuesday in a prepared statement during a short meeting with the Port Commission. “There are items that have legal, jurisdictional, and contractual implications which require additional refinement. These issues are related to indemnification, past actions, and future implications. All of these must be addressed.”
Ward said he was pleased with the outcome of negotiations between the port, the city and the land owner, JP Hammer.
At issue is the Umatilla Planning Commission’s denial of site review application for an industrial warehouse on land west of Bud Draper Road near the Big River Golf Course. In June, the city council upheld the commission’s ruling. The city claims the property is zoned residential, while the port claims it is zoned for industrial use. City maps show it as zoned for industrial use, but city officials say that designation was made in error. The port then appealed the city’s decision to Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).
The port and the city, however, put the LUBA appeal on hold and began negotiations led by mediator Joe Franell late last year in an effort to come up with a solution agreeable to both sides. A ruling by LUBA would likely cause a fractured relationship between the two parties, making it difficult to work together in the future.
“It’s an exciting agreement in principle,” said Ward during Tuesday’s Umatilla City Council meeting. “There’s still work to do to hammer out the agreement.”
Ward said once the agreement is finalized, it will be presented to the council and later a public hearing would be held before the council votes on the settlement. Ward expects all that to happen within the next 30 days.
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