city news
july
2009
7
What’s the Plan Stan? A Monthly Update on City Planning
What You Need to Know About Changes to City Development Regulations
By Seth Lenaerts
In the May article, I wrote about the
Planning Commission’s duties, responsibilities
and work plan for the next few months. It is
time for an update. On Monday, June 15, the
consultant City Planner Carol Connell was on
hand at the City Council meeting for the public
hearing and first reading of some of the proposed
changes. The second reading will be at the next
City Council meeting, Monday, July 6, at 7:00
PM. At that time, the council will vote and it is
likely the proposed changes will pass.
These changes are part of a larger effort
to update, organize, simplify and clarify the
City’s planning code and processes. Eventually,
all planning ordinances and standards will be
compiled into one planning document called
Municipal Planning Code: Title 9.
The Monday, July 6 th Council vote will address
the following issues:
Home Occupations,
Institutional Zone, Conditional Use Permits,
Temporary Uses, Floodway Standards and Flood
Plain Standards. Here is a brief explanation of
proposed changes.
Home Occupations-- Proposed changes are
meant to encourage small business and clarify
home occupation standards. To qualify as a home
occupation, applicants must abide by several rules,
some of which are: signage, parking, number of
daily or hourly customers and hours of business.
Conditional Use Permits-- Conditional uses
are uses that are allowed, granted the applicant,
developer, homeowner, etc., meet the conditions
set by the Planning Commission. For example,
say you apply for a home occupation permit, but
your business will exceed the number of daily
customers stated in the code. The Commission
might decide you can still have the business on
the condition that you create extra parking.
Proposed changes are meant to provide
applicants clarity and equality as well as criteria
for both the applicant and the Commission.
Historically, there have not been clear criteria for
what an applicant must do to meet the conditional
use requirements, nor has the Commission had
clear criteria to make the judgment. This can lead
to inconsistent decisions.
Institutional Zone-- The City of Vernonia’s
Zoning Map is not accurate. One of the major
problems is that land is zoned for uses that will
never occur there. An Institutional Zone will
be used for such uses as schools, churches,
government offices, utility structures and other
public and quasi-public uses. Proposed changes
are meant to create a realistic inventory of land
use.
Temporary Uses-- Temporary Uses primarily
deal with structures that are meant to be temporary,
such as trailers, pods, vendor stands, kiosks or
temporary offices. These are broken down into
three categories; other standards apply, but here is
the gist of it:
Seasonal Temporary Event-- Once in a
calendar year, for no longer then 30 days.
Temporary building, trailer, kiosk or
structure, i.e., PODS-- Structure may stay on the
property for no longer then six months and may
not be on the property in the flood plain during
flood season (November 1- May 1).
Temporary Sales Office or model
home-- Must be located where the business is
taking place.
Floodplain Permits-- Proposed changes are
meant to come into compliance with FEMA
standards, decrease insurance rates and decrease
possible obstructions to flood waters. New
regulations require that homes in the floodplain
submit plans for new development including
walls, fences, stairs and landscaping, in addition
to the structure designs. Yes, if you plan on
planting things and you live in the Flood plain you
must get it approved.
Floodway Development-- Proposed changes
follow FEMA guidelines and regulations. The
new code reads, “Vernonia shall restrict land
uses within such areas to include the prohibition
of construction or reconstruction of residential
structures EXCEPT FOR: repairs, reconstruction,
or improvements to a structure which does not
alter the original footprint or proof of a no-rise
certificate.” Reconstruction of a house in the
floodway is allowable as long as it is on the same
footprint,or a FEMA no-rise certificate is needed.
Finally, Fence Standards were updated. Fences
are allowed to be maximum four feet in the front
of the property and can not exceed six feet on
the sides and back of the property. Speaking of
fences and yards, grass is not allowed to exceed
12 inches. Grass that does exceed 12 inches is
considered a nuisance which is a citable offense.
If you have any questions, please
contact City Hall. Until next time, you don’t have
to be coy, Roy, just listen to me.
Geography Mattters will be back next month.
Find out about Vernonia’s monkey problem and the spacial distribution of palm trees in the area.
Commissioners and Department,
Sheriff
Work to Find Solution to Budget Shortfall
and the announcement by Dicker- going into this years budget process,” said daily cost. That’s our taxpayer money they’re
By Scott Laird
Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dick-
erson announced major cuts to his patrol offi-
cers in late May. Dickerson’s announcement
has lead to public disagreements as the County
rounded out their two Public Budget Hearings in
mid June. But it looks like at least a partial solu-
tion is being worked out to keep some of the po-
sitions that were expected to be cut on August 1.
The County Budget had to
be completed by June 30, so a num-
ber of last minute changes were in the
works as Vernonia’s Voice went to press.
After the budget meetings were
held in Vernonia on June 17 and St. Hel-
ens on June 18, it appeared some suggested
changes to the budget had been put on the
table that would allow the County to retain
at least five positions, according to County
Commissioner and Budget officer Tony Hyde.
“It looks like we ‘re close
to an agreement,” said Hyde in an in-
terview
after
the
public
hearings.
The issue started in late May when
it was leaked that the US Marshals would be
significantly reducing the number of prisoners
housed in the Columbia County Jails. Colum-
bia County had been keeping about sixty pris-
oners a day, providing a steady income for the
county and the Sheriffs Department. This last
minute change caused a panic in the Sheriff’s
son that he would be laying off fourteen employ-
ees, including ten patrol deputies who cover the
640 square miles of Columbia County. “Sheriff
Dickerson came to me literally twelve hours
before my final budget was to be delivered,”
said Hyde “And now I had a $1.2 million hole
in revenue in the Sheriff’s office,” said Hyde.
Dickerson’s announcement led to a
somewhat public disagreement about how Co-
lumbia County should manage it’s budget.
Prior to the second public hearing a more uni-
fied message was on display. Dickerson of-
fered some concessions to the Sheriffs budget,
and by not making certain requests that were
planned, would allow the Commissioners to
sequester some funds for next year. Dicker-
son said he would not build a planned security
fence around the jail and would hold off on
the purchase a new all-weather patrol vehicle.
There is also a plan on the table
that would restore the Oregon State Ma-
rine Board fund grant for 80 percent of the
cost of two and a half Marine Patrol depu-
ties positions that were scheduled to be cut.
“I was very pleased to see the
Sheriff offer some ideas for cuts he could
make, and I look forward to working with
him to find solutions to these issues,” said
Hyde. “We will try to match his cuts, in
fact we’ll try to do more than match them.”
“We had a two million dollar hole
Hyde “Your talking about a twenty plus mil-
lion dollar general fund, but most of it’s pass
through. Out of that, only twenty percent is
discretionary We have to provide state man-
dated services first. It’s often not our option
to say one thing is a priority over another.”
The commissioners in turn may hold
off on repaving the county courthouse parking
lot, and Hyde suggested he had some other pos-
sible ways to help fund deputy positions, includ-
ing use of some reserve fund s “Fortunately we
have reserve funds that we can use as a partial
one time stop gap,” said Hyde. “We expect
next year to be worse than this year. It would
be irresponsible to spend down all of that re-
serve fund in one
year. But we will
use part of it.”
“ I ’ m
also not giving
up on the possi-
bility of getting
those prisoners
back from the US
Marshal,” said
Hyde.
“They
have
decided
to house them
with Multnomah
County, at a sig-
nificantly higher
Columbia County Rider Makes Some Changes
New Vernonia Fixed Route and New Look are Not the Only Changes for Local Public Transit
By Scott Laird
The announcement that
Columbia County Rider is adding
regular transit service for Vernonia
is a welcome addition for this
community.
Starting on July 1, Fixed
Route Service will be available from
Vernonia to the Beaverton Willow
Creek Transit Center and to Portland
Community College’s Rock Creek
Campus every morning and evening,
Monday through Friday. The Bus
will leave around 6:15 AM each
morning from Vernonia and return
from Rock Creek around 5:30 PM.
Schedules were still being adjusted at
press time.
In addition, a new Flex
Route Service is now available
from Vernonia to St. Helens via
Scappoose. This bus will run on
a continuous two or two and a half
hour loop on Tuesdays and Thursdays
only.
According to Columbia
County Transit Coordinator Henry
Heimuller, the bus will make
regular stops at major locations
like the Medical complex, county
courthouse, the unemployment office
and major shopping centers. The bus
will also have the ability to divert
short distances (no more than a half
mile) from its regular route in order
to assist any passengers with special
needs. Exact details were still being
planned.
“We did a survey about a
year ago in Vernonia, and it appeared
there was quite a bit of interest,” said
Heimuller. “We started looking for
funding to start service in Vernonia,
but have been turned down from a
number of sources. But we decided
to go ahead and start this as a pilot
project and hope people will support
it. And, in a year or so, we can apply
for grant money to continue it if we
can show there is a need.”
But that’s not the only
change to the transit service for
Columbia County. Columbia County
Rider is changing the look of its logo
and embracing its nickname that
most passengers refer to it by: CC
Rider. “We’ve had a lot of good
comments about the new logo,”
said Heimuller. “We just wanted to
spruce things up a bit and thought it
was time for an update, and CC Rider
is what a lot of people already call us.
I just want people to know there has
been no change in our operation, in
our ownership or in our service. It’s
still the Columbia County Transit
Division.”
One other major change
in the works-- CC Rider is in the
process of building a new Transit
Center in St. Helens.
Funding
has been secured for the purchase,
renovation and construction, and the
county was getting ready to close on
five acres at Deer island and Highway
30-- the site of the old Stimson
Lumber Mill. The new facility will
house administrative offices, a fleet
maintence facility, secure bus storage
and space for seventy-five vehicles to
park and ride.
For more information about
changes in Transit Service, contact
Henry Heimuller, Transit Coordinator
at 503-366-8503 or at H.Heimuller@
ColumbiaCountyRider.com or go to
www.columbiacountyrider.com.
spending, and I don’t understand why. Something
is not right with this and I want to look into it.”
“We need to look at long term
funding,” said Hyde. “We will be for-
mally forming a Task Force that recogniz-
es all stake holders, with a mission state-
ment to look at long term, stable funding
for law enforcement in Columbia County.”
The Commissioners were working to
pass a budget and meet their required deadline
of June 30. But the bottom line is it looks like
Columbia County will have less of a Sheriffs
Department presence on local roads, at least in
the near future.