Planner Nick Foster outlines Hermiston transportation system plan update, highlights 61 roadway projects

Nick Foster, a planner with Kittelson and Associates, presented the city’s draft Transportation System Plan (TSP) on March 9, describing a 20‑plus year vision that prioritizes safety, reliability and multimodal connectivity across Hermiston.

The plan covers public roads inside the Hermiston urban growth boundary, includes projects drawn from the city’s Transportation Safety Action Plan and school‑related walking improvements, and was developed after three rounds of community outreach and technical advisory committee review. Foster said the consultant team recorded over 120 in‑person contacts and more than 260 online comments during the outreach process.

Foster summarized the project list: about 61 roadway projects (many modernization efforts that bring existing streets up to current city standards), roughly 43 stand‑alone intersection projects focused on control changes (signals or roundabouts) and a set of pedestrian, bicycle and trail investments. "This is supposed to be a longer term look — what are we going to build out over the next 20 plus years?" Foster said, adding that projects were scored against six guiding principles to prioritize limited funding.

Key specifics in the draft plan include: - Roadway projects: 61 projects that generally modernize and extend local and collector streets; roughly two‑thirds of these include filling sidewalk gaps and nearly half include bike lanes or other bicycling facilities. Foster cited East 4th and East 10th as examples where streets would be brought up to current standards. - Intersection projects: 43 stand‑alone intersection improvements; many entries call for future intersection‑control evaluations, particularly where ODOT (the Oregon Department of Transportation) highways are involved. - Pedestrian and bike network: 11 stand‑alone sidewalk gap projects, multiple crossing improvements downtown (curb extensions), four stand‑alone bike‑lane projects and roughly 18 trail projects; many roadway projects include sidewalks or multiuse trails as part of the scope. - Transit and mobility: staff identified four potential mobility‑hub locations and recommended continuing coordination with Kayak (the local transit provider) and Umatilla County transit planning.

City staff and consultants stressed that some corridor options — notably changes along Highway 395 — would require ODOT coordination and future intersection‑control studies. Foster noted the plan proposes lowering the trip threshold that triggers a transportation impact analysis to be more consistent with peer cities.

Marcy McAnally of Herbst Works reviewed proposed code changes that will follow the TSP. Those changes focus on residential street cross sections (right‑sizing to reduce excessive pavement, provide plant strips for street trees, and improve pedestrian buffers), clearer guidance for constrained right‑of‑way situations, and connectivity standards that shorten maximum block length to encourage more cross streets.

Councilors and members of the technical advisory committee pressed staff for more detailed drawings and standards in later stages, asked how narrower streets might affect on‑street parking, and sought clarification on where plant strips and sidewalks would be required. Foster and McAnally said more detailed standard drawings and an appendix approach for optional cross sections are planned before adoption.

Next steps: staff said the draft will be finalized for an adoption packet that will go to the Planning Commission and then the City Council as a comprehensive plan amendment. The package will be noticed with the Department of Land Conservation and Development; staff projected a summer adoption schedule, with the land‑use code amendments processed separately as a legislative code amendment.

The council did not take action on the TSP during the March 9 meeting; the plan will return for formal review and adoption hearings.