UMATILLA, MORROW COUNTIES — The Port of Umatilla and Umatilla County hope to reach an agreement within the next week to end the lawsuit the county brought against the Columbia Development Authority, the port and other CDA members.

Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer and Port of Umatilla General Manager Kim Puzey confirmed a final agreement is close. Puzey said he hopes to have “something definitive” by the CDA’s upcoming meeting Tuesday afternoon, April 22. Shafer said the same.

“We are very, very, very close,” Shafer said. “I think it’s just down to dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.”

Umatilla County brought the suit in July 2024 against the Columbia Development Authority, the Port of Umatilla and Port of Morrow, and Morrow County, after the county said the CDA board took an improper vote in March to allocate land control to the two ports rather than keep it under the management of the development authority as a whole. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the fifth entity on the CDA board, wis not a party in the suit.

Negotiations since then have been ongoing, with the county saying numerous times during the course of nine months that a deal with the port was close. This marks the first time both sides have had the same message at the same time.

The lawsuit has created challenges for the CDA board to move forward with decisions involving the acreage in question. With the parties in agreement, the authority could focus on its main purpose of regional economic development.