Baker County plans public meeting regarding Hughes Lane property

Published 7:38 am Thursday, February 26, 2026

BAKER CITY — Baker County commissioners plan to schedule a public town hall during March to hear what residents think the county should do with the 62-acre parcel it bought in late 2022 in north Baker City.

The future of that property, just south of Hughes Lane between the Powder River and the Baker Sports Complex, was among the topics commissioners discussed during a work session Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 25, at the courthouse.

Commissioners, in announcing the work session, noted that they wouldn’t make any decisions.

They agreed, though, after talking about the county property, that scheduling an event to solicit opinions from local residents would be helpful as commissioners ponder the parcel’s future.

Commission chairman Shane Alderson said commissioners will hear a presentation from R3, a regional, state-funded consortium that seeks to boost housing, about a potential residential development on the property. That presentation will happen during a work session at 1 p.m. on March 4, following commissioners’ regular meeting that morning.

Alderson said the public meeting will be scheduled later in March.

None of the current commissioners — Alderson, Christina Witham and Michelle Kaseberg — was in office when the commission decided in December 2022 to buy the property, farmland owned by Ward Ranches, for $1.45 million.

The commission at that time comprised chairman Bill Harvey, Mark Bennett and Bruce Nichols.

Those commissioners initially discussed buying the property in June 2022.

In August 2022 commissioners approved a lease-purchase deal for the property, with a plan to use lodging tax revenue to make lease payments of $72,500 per year over five years, with no interest charged. Commissioners planned to seek grants to pay the remainder of the price, almost $1.1 million, after five years.

But in October 2022, commissioners decided to use some of the $6.5 million in pandemic aid the county received from the federal government to buy the property outright, rather than making payments over multiple years.

A February 2023 report from PARC Resources, a Bend consulting firm, outlines potential uses for the property, focusing on a multipurpose sports facility that could also be used for conventions, conferences and other events.

The county’s 2023 business plan for the property concluded that the complex “could operate successfully in Baker City and see thousands of annual users and visitors, including regular use by local residents and businesses. An Event Center that is supported and used by the County, the schools, city, chamber of commerce and local nonprofit organizations, Blue Mountain Community College, as well as by the community, will not only be self-sustaining, but also it will make a positive impact on the health and quality of life in Baker County.”

In the fall of 2023, commissioners voted to hire Steele Associates Architects of Bend to write a master site plan for the property. The contract was for $48,000.

The commission then consisted of Alderson, whom voters elected as chairman in November 2022 (he took office in January 2023), Witham and Nichols.

On Jan. 16, 2024, commissioners watched a presentation from Bend architects Scott Steele and Charles Smith.

The preliminary concept that Steele and Smith presented to commissioners includes:

• Event center with 3,000 to 4,000 fixed seats, four to six basketball/volleyball courts, locker rooms with showers, multiple meeting rooms, five to eight office spaces, concessions and a commercial kitchen.

The building could be used for sporting events, banquets, trade shows and as an emergency shelter, according to the preliminary concept.

• Indoor rodeo arena with 3,000 to 4,000 bleacher seats.

• A covered riding/staging arena for animals.

The conceptual plan also envisions an RV park with 30 spaces with full hookups, as well as a range of parking options ranging from 1,000 to 3,333 spaces.

Bryan Tweit, the county’s contracted economic developer, said at the time that the proposed event center could cost from $30 million to $70 million. County officials said the plan was to use grants to pay for the facility, not county dollars.

Opposition to event center

In the summer of 2025, after commissioners voted in May to buy a 3.15-acre property from St. Francis de Sales Cathedral just south of the Hughes Lane parcel, a few residents in an adjacent neighborhood complained about the purchase and the potential extension of College Street along the west side of the county property.

Sharon Bass, who lives just west of where College Street ends now, filed a petition for a ballot measure requiring the county to get voter approval for any event center in the county that would cost $1 million or more in “total construction costs and also meets any of these criteria:

• Might require an increase in taxes, including the development of a special taxing district on construction or in the future.

• Might require the county to hire full- or part-time employees, whether permanent or temporary.

• Might result in using condemnation (eminent domain) to acquire property.

In the Nov. 6, 2025, election, Baker County voters, by a margin of 84% to 16%, approved the ballot measure.

Three months earlier, Alderson said that although he initially supported the event center proposal, he no longer considered it a plausible project.

“It’s not going to come to fruition,” Alderson said during the commissioners’ Aug. 6 meeting.

During the commission’s Feb. 4 meeting, Alderson said he thinks the Hughes Lane property would be better used for “workforce housing.”

Alderson said he envisioned the county selling parcels to developers to build homes priced in the low to mid $200,000s up to the mid $300,000s. The housing would be privately owned, not public or subsidized housing.

The discussion during the Feb. 4 meeting, and at a Feb. 10 meeting of the Baker County Economic Development Council, which advises commissioners and led the proposed event center project along with Tweit, prompted Wednesday’s work session.

A scaled-down sports facility?

Jerry Peacock, chairman of the EDC, said during Wednesday’s work session that although the multipurpose event center seems not to be feasible, a much smaller structure, with multiple courts for basketball, volleyball, wrestling, pickleball and other sports, could be a more viable, and affordable, option.

Peacock said he recently attended a youth basketball tournament at the Mettle Center in Nampa, Idaho, which was built in 2019 for $3 million and has four courts and covers 33,000 square feet. Peacock said that although the cost for a similar building now would likely be at least twice as much, the price would be considerably less than the larger multipurpose center county officials have considered in the past.

Witham asked Tara Micka, the county’s planning director, about possible issues due to the property being in the floodplain of the Powder River.

Micka said that although any structures built in the floodplain, whether homes or commercial buildings, would have to meet floodplain requirements, those would not be major obstacles. Micka said she thinks it would be easier to build homes on the property than a commercial structure.

Kaseberg said her concern about an event center, regardless of its size, is that if there aren’t enough events to raise money to maintain the facility, the county would be stuck with the bill. That’s not a cost the county has budgeted for, Kaseberg said.

Peacock said he believes that user fees would cover maintenance for any facility.

Kaseberg pointed out that Nampa is in the Treasure Valley, which has a population many times that of Baker County and is one of the faster-growing metropolitan areas in the country. She questioned whether a similar sports facility in Baker County would attract enough events to pay for its upkeep.

Peacock said he thinks Baker City’s location is attractive, being approximately midway between population centers in the Tri Cities, Washington, and the Boise metro area.

Alderson reiterated what he said during the Feb. 4 meeting — that he thinks housing is the more appropriate use for the property.

Alderson said housing is a form of economic development that would help local businesses who are looking for employees but who might be discouraged from applying due to the lack of housing.

Soliciting public opinion

Kaseberg said that although she is concerned about maintenance costs for an event center or sports facility, she is not opposed to the concept.

“I’m torn” between the options, including housing, Kaseberg said.

She said she wants to hear from county residents before she decides.

Witham and Alderson agreed.

“Sooner than later,” Witham said.

She said she likes the concept of an event center that could host not only sports but concerts, hunting shows and other events that could bring visitors to Baker County and boost the local economy.

“It’s economic development,” Witham said.