Council begins work on duplex code

By Terry Murry on Monday, March 22nd, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

HERMISTON – The Hermiston City Council and Hermiston Planning Commission are holding a joint work session at 5:30 p.m. today (Monday) to work on changes to the duplex housing code. Due to a new state law, those changes have to be in place by June 30.

The law requires that all residential zones that permit single family dwellings must also permit duplexes for cities with populations between 10,000 and 25,000. The planning commission and a team of consultants have been working on those changes for the past six months.

There will be no formal action taken at the work session. The two bodies will discuss policy direction and the various options that could be chosen.

The regular council meeting will convene at 7 p.m. On the agenda is a proposal to apply for federal funds to reconstruct the aircraft apron. It would complete the work that was done on part of the apron when the taxiway was rebuilt in 2016.

The council will also report on its two-day goal setting retreat held earlier this year. The meetings are streamed live on Hermiston’s YouTube channel.