HERMISTON — The city of Hermiston is facing a shortage of buildable land to accommodate what is expected to be a 50% increase in jobs over the next 20 years.

To remedy that problem, the city is looking to expand its urban growth boundary for the first time since 2004 and has partnered with a consultant group to identify potential land that is suited for large-scale development.

At its meeting Sept. 9, the Hermiston City Council voted to accept an updated economic opportunities analysis that projects future industry growth and the city’s need for more buildable land.

City Planner Clint Spencer said the city had an EOA done in 2014 that projected the city’s land needs through 2035, but much has changed since then.

“A large portion of our employment land has been absorbed through data centers,” Spencer told the council. “We went from having 500 acres available and in the space of six months we lost 300 acres of our available land.”

That, he said, prompted the city to consider if it needs to amend its UGB as the city no longer has any parcels that are more than 100 acres in size needed by large-scale development, such as data centers.

That led the city to pursue an updated EOA “where you have, basically, a buildable land inventory,” Spencer said. Buildable land is defined as any land zoned as commercial or industrial.

“You look at what you have within the UGB and then you forecast out where different employment drivers are going to be over the next 20 years,” he said.

Those drivers, according to the report, will be led by the information sector such as data centers. Construction jobs are expected to increase, as well, to support the new information sector jobs.

Spencer said the city has a deficit of 1,000 to 1,400 acres to accommodate a 20-year supply of buildable land.

“Our comprehensive plan said that we had enough land, but changes in economic development have led to the point where now we’re looking at a deficiency,” he said. “So, we have to excise the current EOA out of the city’s comprehensive plan and adopt this new one that is based on more updated and current data.”

Brendan Buckley, senior project manager with Johnson Economics, also spoke at the meting. Johnson Economics prepared the latest EOA for the city.

Buckley said the EOA looks at trends in job growth, the city’s economic development goals and then targets potential industries. It also takes inventory of current available land.

“We forecast that by 2044, we’ll get to about 15,000 total jobs, so that’s a growth of 5,080 jobs or roughly a 50% increase over the current level,” he said.

Buckley said since 2014, nine data centers have been built in Umatilla and Morrow counties, with seven of those in the last five years, and and eight more are either underway or in the planning stages.

“This activity has actually been accelerating,” he said. Buckley said the centers require an average of 108 acres.

Hermiston has about 690 acres available — 267 acres for commercial and 423 acres for industrial. Nearly all of the sites, however, are less than 20 acres in size and none are more than 50 acres.

“Hermiston has very few large- or even medium-sized commercial or industrial sites remaining,” Buckley said. Hermiston needs about 563 additional acres of buildable land to accommodate large-scale sites needed by industries such as data centers.

Councilor Jackie Linton asked if the city would need to initiate eminent domain on any of the land needed to accommodate future large-scale industry.

“We would not do an eminent domain,” Spencer said. “That’s not how you expand an urban growth boundary. These would remain in private ownership, but then they would develop within the city.”

The council voted 5-1 to accept the new EOA with Councilor Jackie Linton in opposition.

“These are not easy processes and can be contentious as we’ve seen in some locations across the state,” said Mayor Dave Drotzmann. “The process is pretty open with lots of opportunity to participate and speak their mind. But this is the city’s attempt to try to address the need for more lands for economic opportunity within our community and our region.”