october9 2012
VERNONIA’S
reflecting the spirit of our community
volume6 issue19
Council Makes No Decision on Rezoning
By Scott Laird
The Vernonia City Council chose to make
no decision on a major rezoning project following a
public hearing that was part of the regular City Council
meeting on October 1, 2012.
free
Salmon Festival 2012
project. The first includes changes in the
designation of ninety private and four
public parcels in flood hazard areas
to Institutional Public (IP) or Public
Recreation (PR). The second component
would rezone thirty-five parcels from
General Residential (GR) to Downtown
(DT) commercial. The third area for
rezoning is a single parcel on California
Avenue that would be changed from
General Residential to Light Industrial
(LI).
At the hearing on October 1st,
two people, Dr. Kenneth Cox and Casey
Mitchell testified in favor of the zoning
changes, plus a third testimony from Brad
Curtis was read into the record. Four
citizens, Sally Harrison, Don Willard,
Kristie Freeman and Gary Meyer testified
against the rezoning. One citizen, Sam
Poetter, testified neither for nor against
the rezoning.
Maddox Brewer Knight carving her pumpkin at the
There did not seem to be much
10th Annual Vernonia Salmon Festival on October 6, 2012.
concern about the change of parcels to IP
See page 19 for more photos.
in the flood hazard zone, although there
are questions about how the city will
manage these properties. A plan to lease
The Planning Commission has proposed the
these properties to adjacent landowners for personal changes in this neighborhood based on information
use in exchange for maintenance of the property is found in the City of Vernonia Economic Opportunity
not allowable under Community Development Block Analysis (EOA) report which demonstrates a need
Grant guidelines.
for more property to be made available for business
Objections to the rezoning project have been raised development. The EOA report is based on updated
by several residents along Rose and Weed Avenues land inventory and population projections.
who would be affected by the second component of the
According to the City Staff Report from City
rezoning. Those parcels would see a change in zoning Planner Carole Connell, the City has found that, based
from residential to commercial and would allow the on existing mixed use patterns of development in the
development of businesses in the neighborhood.
continued on page 3
After listening to public testimony, the Council
members agreed that they could wait for more
information to adequately answer questions from the
audience and scheduled a continuance of the hearing
on November 19, 2012.
At the start of the hearing Vernonia Mayor Josette
Mitchell stated that she would abstain from voting on
any decision since she is related to one of the property
owners included in the rezoning. Councilors Donna
Webb and Kim Tierney were present for the meeting;
Councilors Bruce McNair and Randy Parrow attended
the meeting via conference call. It was unclear whether
Parrow remained in contact after initially connecting
with the meeting, as he failed to respond to questions
later in the hearing.
The hearing in front of the Vernonia City
Council followed a hearing by the Vernonia Planning
Commission on September 20, 2012, in which the
Planning Commission recommended to Council
approval of the rezoning by a 4-1 vote. The Planning
Commission held three informal public meetings about
the rezoning prior to their September 20th hearing.
The City of Vernonia has entered into this
rezoning project following significant use changes
as a result of the 2007 Flood and mitigation that has
been performed in ensuing years. Currently eight
commercial properties and 133 residential properties
have been declared “substantially damaged” within the
city limits. Forty homes and six commercial buildings
were demolished and transferred to City ownership.
Twenty-one homes were demolished and replaced
by private owners. Eleven homes were lost to
foreclosure. Thirty-six homes were elevated
above the flood line.
Based on city economic goals and the
After an absence of several
loss of previously available employment lands,
the Planning Commission has proposed several years, Cheerleading has returned to
changes to create 3.5 acres of new commercial Vernonia High School.
potential properties and 7.6 acres of new industrial
New Cheerleading coach
potential property through the rezoning process.
Denise Way has revived the program,
There are three components to this rezoning formed a new squad and is working
to instill a sense of school spirit on
campus.
“We’ve had a huge interest in
the squad once we got it started this
year,” say Way, or Coach Dee as the
girls on the squad like to call her.
The VHS Cheerleading squad
has fifteen girls this year. “None of
these girls have been cheerleaders be-
fore,” says Way, who has been some-
what surprised by her squad. “In all
my years of coaching I have never
seen a group of girls pick this up and
learn it, and want to learn, and get this
stuff down, as quick as they have. It
absolutely floors me.”
Way says the squad has been
pretty active in the community head-
ing into the fall sports season. In ad-
dition to their regular training, the
girls helped out at the Booster Day
Camp, running a popular face paint-
ing booth. The squad also marched in
the Jamboree Parade in August. They
were also responsible for painting the
grandstands at Greenman Field this
summer. Since school began Way
and her squad have been decorating
the lockers, hallways and bulletin
Let’s Go Loggers! Cheerleading is Back at VHS
inside
boards around the school campus as
well as a way of boosting school spir-
it.
Recently the squad held a
“Little Loggers Cheer Clinic,” for
girls from K through 8 th grade. A total
of eight girls participated in the three
hour clinic. “This is all being orga-
nized by our cheerleaders,” says Way.
“They created the material and they
are teaching the younger girls. It’s all
son. “They’ve melded really well
with the team and the rest of the girls
have really welcomed them and have
enjoyed having them be part of the
team,” says Way. Hanna Hofer is an
exchange student from Germany who
is a member of the VHS Cheerlead-
ing squad. Hofer says she has never
done any kind of cheerleading before
but participates in ballroom dancing
and other Latin styles of dance back
11
cleaning the
scoreboard
11
vhs
sports
19
quilt
fair
VHS Cheerleaders Sheyanne Pedersen, Mikila Solberg, Hanna Farsch,
Jessica Gardner. Photo courtesy of Denise Way.
them.” The Little Loggers performed
at the October 5 th VHS home football
game. They will also perform at an
evening Little Guy football game this
season.
The squad includes three
foreign exchange students this sea-
in Germany. “I was very happy they
had a cheerleader squad here, because
I thought I couldn’t dance here,” says
Hofer. “It is one of the real stereo-
types from the United States—in
all the movies you always see the
continued on page 12
