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Planning Commission Considers Zoning Changes continued from front page
in order to hear about concerns. “We
wanted to know what the input was and
flesh out any concerns,” said Brown.
“We want to be able to research any
questions and find out for sure what the
impacts might be.”
The City currently has three
zoning designated areas that can accom-
modate business: General Commercial,
Light Industrial and Downtown.
“What we are desperately lack-
ing is zoning for businesses,” said
Brown. “A lot of people don’t under-
stand how critical businesses are to sup-
porting the City. The less businesses
we have the more burden the citizens
are going to have to bear themselves.
In fact, I think that is what we seeing
right now—we don’t have anybody to
help pick up the rate increases and so the
citizens are being required to bear all of
that.”
The City lost the ability to make
use of large pieces of property that
were zoned Light Industrial and General
Commercial at the old mill site next to
Vernonia Lake when that area flooded
in 2007. Many other low lying areas
that were flooded have also been lost
to development because of FEMA re-
strictions, including properties around
the Green Bridge, the old West Oregon
Electric property, and properties along
Bridge Street near Rock Creek.
“Close to 85% of our General
Commercial disappeared as a result of
the last flood,” said Brown. “In fact
the only piece of unbuilt General Com-
mercial land that the City has is where
the Rose Avenue Project is already be-
ing planned for construction. There are
no other pieces for General Commercial
within the City limits, period.”
According to Brown the only
property that is available for develop-
ment as Light Industrial is property on
Knott Street, which was rezoned many
years ago. Brown says that property
comes with its own set of issues, includ-
ing infrastructure problems with water
and sewer pressure and volume.
The other option for commer-
cial development is the Downtown
Zone which currently runs along Bridge
Street, from the south side of Rock Creek
to Rose Avenue. “The Downtown Zone
is fairly flexible in its uses,” explains
Brown. “It serves the downtown, is a
pedestrian corridor for your community,
it houses a number of different types of
Mariolino’s
Pizza & Grill
Open for
breakfast,
lunch & dinner
businesses on a small scale and accom-
modates a variety of mixed uses includ-
ing residential, like we currently see in
our downtown.”
A look at the current Downtown
Zone shows that there are a limited num-
ber of buildings that are available for a
new business to occupy, and a limited
number of lots that could be developed.
“It limits the City’s ability to at-
tract any additional businesses into the
city limits,” says Brown. “We’re not at
100% capacity but unfortunately select-
ing a business location is like walking
into a public meeting or a church—when
the seats are 80% full, it’s at capacity. If
you don’t have 20% vacancy then you
don’t really have any place for some-
body to sit. It’s the same thing with
building.”
Brown says the Planning Com-
mission has not reached any decisions
about what changes they might make or
where they might make them. He does
admit that the Planning Commission is
extremely limited in what they have to
work with. Brown says he wants any
new businesses that come to Vernonia
to have a good chance to succeed. “We
know that if we do any more Downtown
zoning it has to be contiguous with the
current Downtown Zone. It’s just a
fact.”
According to Brown these re-
zoning changes have been under con-
sideration for many years and that the
Commission has already considered
most available options. The area along
Rose and Weed Avenues seems to make
the most sense.
“We know we can’t do an Ur-
ban Growth Boundary expansion. We
cashed in all our chips in that regard
when the state allowed us to do an in-
crease to bring in the new school prop-
erty,” explains Brown.
“To not have places for busi-
nesses to come into Vernonia is really
irresponsible on our part,” continues
Brown. “We need businesses so desper-
ately in this town. We all know it and
we’re all paying the costs of not having
it. And to not accommodate the poten-
tial is just plain poor planning on our
part. And at the same time, we can’t find
an area that’s completely compatible.”
Next Issue--Part II: How this re-
zoning could impact citizens.
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