The Banks City Council will meet for a regular business meeting Tuesday with a public hearing scheduled during the meeting to discuss the adoption of a developer agreement with Holt Homes.
The agenda for the meeting was first emailed to a list of interested parties Thursday, February 8.
The developer agreement is the first step in many other hurdles Holt would need to clear as it hopes to build up to 955 homes along with some industrial and commercial facilities on property on and near what is currently the Quail Valley Golf Course.
The meeting is scheduled as a hybrid meeting with options to follow along in-person at city hall or online via Zoom. Prior to the public portion of the meeting, an Executive Session—closed to the public—will be held from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Starting at 6:30 p.m., a work session will begin, where councilors will discuss but not take action on two agenda items, including a request to allow Rural Ramblers, a recently-established fitness group to build a parcourse at Greenville City Park.
Following that, the business meeting will begin, with the public hearing regarding the Holt Homes developer agreement and changes to the city’s System Development Charges starting after a series of city reports and routine agenda items.
The full agenda and work packet can be found online (.pdf), including instructions on how to testify.
Several documents including and supporting the proposed developer agreement, replete with maps, redlines, and comments from city staff, can be found on the calendar listing for the meeting on the city’s website.
The city has discussed the developer agreement in work sessions before, but this will be the first time councilors may take action on approving an agreement between the city and the potential developers.
During a hybrid work session held in January to review the developer agreement, the Zoom portion of the meeting was briefly interrupted by a “Zoombombing,” a type of malicious prank that allows someone to “bomb” viewers with unwanted imagery and audio—in this case, an explicit adult scene and a string of racial slurs. City staff quickly were able to put a halt to it, but not before the dozens watching online got a bit more than they bargained for.
Tuesday’s meeting can be accessed via Zoom or by dialing 1-253-215-8782 and using webinar ID 899 8557 5148 and passcode 107069.
City council chambers are located at 13690 NW Main Street.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.