Zoning change is on the Pendleton City Council agenda
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, October 17th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Pendleton City Council will have the first reading of a proposal to change the area behind Safeway from light industrial to central mixed use. The zoning change request has already been approved by the Pendleton Planning Commission. It consists of 5.04 acres of land.
The request for the change comes from the three property owners it will benefit. Oxford Suites, the Thoroughbred Car Wash (now under construction), and the owner of the former Cummins Northwest building have made the request. The new owner of the Cummins building plans on locating Head Start there. Light industrial zoning does not permit schools, but commercial mixed use does.
In addition, while motels are conditionally allowed in light industrial zones, they are allowed as an outright use in commercial mixed use. That would ease the application process if Oxford Suites decided to expand. Car wash operations are allowed in either zone, but city staff reports that resale of the property would increase if the land is zoned CMU.
This is only the first reading of the request. The second reading and a public hearing are scheduled for the council meeting on Nov. 7.
Also on the agenda is a motion to approve a contract with Mike Becker General Contracting, Inc. of La Grande for the construction of the east end booster pump station contract. That company had the low bid of $2,477,701.
The council will also vote on renewing its intergovernmental agreement with the city of Hermiston for IT support services. The current contract expires on Oct. 31. The new contract would expire on June 30, 2024, which would bring the contract up for renewal at the end of fiscal years in the future. It calls for a three percent increase for the hourly rates and the monthly billed rates.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. It will be preceded at 6 p.m. with a meeting of the Pendleton Development Commission. Both meetings are held in council chambers of Pendleton City Hall. They are also available on Zoom with that information given on the agenda for the meeting as posted on the calendar on the city’s website.
