Council votes to purchase land in South Hermiston Industrial Park
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, December 13th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – The Hermiston City Council has authorized the purchase of 44 acres of land within the South Hermiston Industrial Park to prevent a so-called ‘zombie property.’ The land is part of the former Cook Industrial site which had been marketed for economic development by the City but had recently been purchased for cloud computing developments.
City staff had worked with developers to identify the 44 acres which would be unnecessary for current developments, but is otherwise ‘shovel ready’ for other future job-creating opportunities.
Hermiston Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan says that when highly developable land is held by large out of state corporations with no plans for development, it can turn in to a ‘zombie property’ that holds back economic growth in the community.
“This opportunity allows us to invest resources in to a local asset and maintain local control of a key piece of our economic development resources,” Morgan said.
The city council authorized purchasing the property at market rate for approximately $1.9 million using cash reserves from the Utility Fund. He said those funds would otherwise be sitting in other low-risk, low-yield investments, and this purchase is simply moving those funds in to a local low-risk investment.
The city plans to actively market the property for economic development for five years, and return all proceeds back to the utility fund.
In other action, the council voted Monday night to begin processing and prosecuting class-A misdemeanors through Hermiston Municipal Court. The court had transferred that process to the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office in 2014.
Since that time the Hermiston court has improved operations and become more efficient by implementing new technologies. City court staff indicated they now have the capacity to take back those cases, like driving under the influence charges, which should improve the overall efficiency of the entire regional criminal justice system.
The transition is set to begin in January.
MyCB file photo of the South Hermiston Industrial Park
