City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, Okay. Smith, do we have any changes to the agenda or changes? None. Okay.

So right now is the time for citizen input on non-agenda items. Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council that is not on the agenda is asked to please do the following. Limit your comments to not more than five minutes, state your name and place of residence, and direct your comments to me. Anybody wishing to do so? Seeing none, moving on. OK, consent agenda. We have consent agenda items A through I. Do we have any council questions on consent agenda items A through I? Seeing none. Do we have any public comment on consent agenda items A through I? Seeing none. Public council comments? Seeing none, does council wish to remove any of the items? None removed. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A through I? Motion to approve. Second. Second. Let's see. Just by chance that Ms. Duran is closest and sound travels that fast, give her the motion. And second to Councillor Hayward.

Robert's had it.

I gave it to you.

Okay.

I figured I'd be nice. Okay. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. No items removed. Next up. Public hearings. Appeal of planning commission decision. Henry K.'s subdivision, phase four, preliminary plat 4N2813TL, tax lot 210, 1200 Southeast Columbia Drive. OK, got a long thing to read here, folks, so hang on. This is a quasi-judicial public hearing to consider an appeal of a Planning Commission decision approving a preliminary subdivision plat for Phase 4 of Henry K.'s subdivision located at 1200 Southeast Columbia Drive. The Planning Commission approved the preliminary plat on April 15, 2026, subject to 11 conditions of approval. The applicant has filed an appeal of one approval condition. Condition number one is being appealed to the City Council. The City Council is holding an on-the-record hearing to consider this appeal. The hearing will be limited to arguments and evidence based on the issues and evidence presented during the Planning Commission review, including the subdivision standards in little squiggly line, 154.15 through 154.35 and 157.166 of the Hermiston Code of Ordinances. Testimony, arguments, and evidence must be based on the record and directed towards the criteria described above or to other criteria in the plan or land use regulations which apply to the decision. Failure to provide statements or evidence sufficient to afford the decision maker and the parties an opportunity to respond to that issue precludes appeal to LUBA based on that issue. failure of the applicant to raise constitutional or other issues relating to proposed conditions of approval sufficiently specific to allow the local government to respond to the issue or its designee to respond to the issues precludes an action for damages in circuit court. The City Council may affirm a reverse or amend the Planning Commission decision. The City Council may also choose to remand the decision to the Planning Commission for additional refinement. Staff report was made available to the public on May 18, at least seven days in advance of this hearing. Planning Director Clint Spencer, would you confirm that the entire file on this matter is physically before the City Council?

CLINT SPENCER. It is, Your Honor.

The procedure for this hearing is as follows. The City Council may ask questions of any person or staff at any time. The City Council will disclose any bias, conflict of interest, or ex parte contacts. Ex parte contacts are conversations about the appeal with persons other than staff before tonight's hearing. Following any such disclosure, any person may challenge a City Council member's right to participate in the hearing. The substance of an ex parte contact The City Council's jurisdiction to hear the matter the City Council will then act on any challenges before proceeding with the hearing Second is the staff report third Testimony in favor of the appeal will be received from from those who participated orally or in writing before the Planning Commission Testimony and opposition will be received from those who participated orally or in writing before the Planning Commission and When you begin your testimony, please give us your name and your mailing address. Following public testimony, staff may provide a summary of the issues discussed in the hearing, respond to any testimony, and answer any questions from the city council. The city council will then decide how to proceed on the appeal. It may close the public hearing. It may continue the public hearing on a date certain. It may leave the record open for submittal of additional written testimony only. If the City Council decides to continue the public hearing or leave the record open, it will give the date, time, and place of the continued hearing or the period of time the written record will be left open. We will now proceed to the City Council's disclosure of bias, conflict of interest, or ex parte contact. Council, are there any to disclose? I want the record show.