Hermiston City Hall, photographed Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2022, is at 180 N.E. Second St. The Hermiston City Council held a meeting in this building the day prior to discuss a driveway ordinance and other issues.
Hermiston City Hall, photographed Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2022, is at 180 N.E. Second St. The Hermiston City Council held a meeting in this building the day prior to discuss a driveway ordinance and other issues.
This article first appeared on Northeast Oregon Now and is part of a content-sharing partnership between the Hermiston Herald and Northeast Oregon Now.
The proliferation of three-car garages and RV pads in single-family neighborhoods in Hermiston has prompted the city to increase the maximum allowable width of driveways.
The Hermiston City Council on Monday, Jan. 23, passed an ordinance to allow driveway widths to increase from 36 feet to 50 feet or 50% of the lot width — whichever is smaller.
In 2018, the city council passed an ordinance that set a uniform driveway width of 36 feet to accommodate larger driveway demand in single-family neighborhoods.
That, however, hasn’t proved to be wide enough.
Since 2018, the city has had to grant numerous driveway variances, especially in subdivisions such as the Desert Sky neighborhood which have wide lots and large homesites.
Each driveway variance must be reviewed by the street superintendent and city engineer and requires significant staff resources, City Planner Clint Spencer said.
That additional time not only frustrates residents but creates a “bottleneck in closing new construction.”
For some perspective, Spencer said he measured the distance between curbs at the four-way intersection by Hermiston High School and it came to 47 feet.
“So, 50 feet will be awfully wide,” Spencer said.
Residents can still apply for a width variance if the new standard isn’t big enough.
The council voted unanimously to approve the new width standard.
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