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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2018)
november15 2018 volume12 issue22 free VERNONIA’S reflecting the spirit of our community Wood Man Art A new business has opened in Vernonia featuring functional art created from exotic and local woods By Scott Laird Pertti Laine has been work- ing with wood almost his entire life. From Minnesota to Southern Califor- nia, and now in Vernonia, Laine has a real appreciation for the natural beauty of wood and the functional and artistic ways it can be used to create real and lasting pieces of work that will be trea- sured by his customers. “My father was carpenter, so I was sort of born into this,” said Laine during a recent visit to his shop on Bridge Street in downtown Vernonia; he is currently set up on one side of the old Lew’s/Buckhorn building that is in the process of being renovated by its new owners. “My dad did a lot of fancy woodwork in Catholic churches. He also ran two huge jobs over in Sau- di Arabia. So I grew up around this kind of work.” Laine started out as a carpen- ter and general contractor. “I’ve done everything from pouring footings to putting a roof on,” he says. Now in his early 60s, he still has his contrac- tors license, but he’s more interested in fine woodworking projects. “It’s nice to be able to pick and choose the jobs I want to do now.” Laine started his own business in 2006 in Minnesota. His wife re- “Basically from January to September of this year, I’ve been working seven days a week. I took one day off in June for my anniversary. Now things are starting to settle in a little bit.” When asked what kinds of things he makes, Laine re- sponds, “When it comes to wood, I can make it.” He says he makes jewelry boxes, cus- tom cabinets, vanities, fireplace mantels, entertainment centers, bookshelves, counter tops, and more, all from solid wood. “As a general contractor I make a lot of things for my jobs,” he ex- plains. “Now I’m trying to tran- sition out of construction and make the things I want to make. I’ll still make tables and benches and those kinds of things, but I’ll put my artistic twist on it. The reason a lot of people hire me is because I do things a little bit differently.” Laine says he wants to create pieces that will last a lifetime... Pertti Laine with a slab of black walnut and longer. “My main goal when from the Pacific Northwest I make something is that people will be able to hand it down,” he The commute got to be too much, so says. “Just like antiques, things were they relocated to Vernonia this past made out of solid woods and they sur- April, purchasing a home here and vived and people handed them down. setting up the shop on Bridge Street in Then there’s a story that goes with it. May. It just adds such a flavor to your home. “It’s been interesting this year, That’s the kind of thing I like to do.” trying to get the shop set up here and Laine currently has a varied keep my jobs going,” says Laine. continued on page 9 ceived a job opportunity in Los Angles so they moved there. That job didn’t work out so they moved to Hillsboro and Laine set up shop in Vancouver. Vernonia Council Will See Changes The City of Vernonia will have a new Mayor and two new City Councilors follow- ing the November 6 election. Rick Hobart was elected as Mayor with 563 votes. He defeated current City Councilor Jill Hult, who chose to run for Mayor instead of her Council seat, who re- ceived 283 votes, and David Sterner who re- ceived 107. Dale Webb and J.R. Allen were elect- ed to the City Council, receiving 608 and 564 votes. Trailing Webb and Allen were Richard Traver with 262 votes and current Councilor Mike Seager with 214. In Columbia County elections, cur- rent Columbia County Sheriff’s Deputy Bri- an Pixley was elected as the new Sheriff with 10,049 votes, defeating Dave Brown who received 8,761 votes and Jim Gibson who re- ceived 2,525 votes. Henry Heimuller was re-elected as Columbia County Commissioner, after he ran unopposed in the November election. Columbia County voters approved the Second Amendment Preservation Ordi- nance with 12,699 yes votes to 10,438 no votes. Voter turnout was high in Columbia County with 66.4% of eligible voters return- ing ballots. Turnout was even higher across all of Oregon, with 69.1% of eligible voters participating. In State elections, Representative Brad Witt was re-elected to the State House in District 31 with 53.5% of the vote. State Senator Betsy Johnson was re-elected in the District 16 with 82.1% of the vote. Council Approves Amending Zoning Code Cottage Home Cluster developments now allowed in City By Scott Laird The Vernonia City Council vot- ed 4-0 to adopt Resolution 918, amend- ing Title 9 at their meeting on November 5, 2018. The amendments do several things, including allowing tiny homes inside 8 vernonia ballet 10 spirit of christmas in vernonia schedule 15 halloween parade (cottage homes) as well as Cottage Home Clusters, adding street vacation criteria to the City codes, and making several other small changes to zoning code language. The Council’s decision followed a Public Hearing, held as part of the regular City Council meeting. The Resolution containing vari- ous changes to zoning regulations was brought forward to the City Council by the Vernonia Planning Commis- sion. City Planner Matt Straite pre- sented the proposed changes to the Council, and explained the purpose was to help address affordable hous- ing needs and further the City’s tour- ism. The biggest change to local zoning code involved the addition of standards and regulations for tiny homes. In his presentation Planner Straite told the Council that the Plan- ning Commission held several public workshops to discuss the issues and proposed changes to be brought for- ward. During their work the Plan- ning Commission decided to remove a 950 sq. ft. minimum for mobile homes; there is no minimum size re- quirement for stick built homes. The adopted ordinance adds provisions to allow Cottage Home Clusters, tiny home village-style developments. “Cottage Homes are basically tiny homes but arranged in a way where they are clustered around amenities,” explained Straite. “The idea is, if you have one larger site and master plan a tiny home community on that site, you can take more advantage of open spaces, landscaping, parking, and community amenities.” Straite went on to explain that housing density would not change in Cottage Home Clusters, as the same number of housing units already allowed on a certain size property would remain the same. “But, you could now make a group of tiny homes with a lot more flex- ibility and take advantage of hillsides and other elements of the property,” said Straite. The Resolution creates a “Cot- tage Cluster Planned Unit Develop- ment” (PUD) section in the City zoning code, which includes specific standards for tiny home development, includ- ing things like how much space needs to be between structures, how much open space is required, how parking is arranged, and how fencing can be in- stalled. Other changes to the zoning code included the addition of porch, pa- tio and deck standards, parking standards for homes, clarification on set-back stan- dards for detached accessory structures, established criteria and process for street vacations, removed minimum lot dimen- sions in residential zones, changed code to no longer allow the display of vehi- cles for sale in permitted parking areas, creates a maximum of two permit exten- sions (two years each), and clarifies how buildings over lot lines will be handled. During the Public Testimony portion of the Public Hearing, Steve Calhoun spoke in favor of the proposed changes, stating the changes would now allow the sale of a property that was fac- ing challenges due to the old code. No one spoke in opposition to the Ordinance. During neutral testimony, sev- eral members of the audience offered comments. Dale Webb said he didn’t feel the public was informed about the proposed changes and asked about how the changes might impact density and whether there were occupancy limits on tiny homes. Webb was told density would not be affected and that the City can not place occupancy limits on pri- vate residences. Waylon Easley asked what incentives the City would offer to developers to create Cottage Clus- ter Homes. J.R. Allen also raised con- cerns about communication by the City to inform the public about the hearing and said he is against clusters of homes. He said people who want to live in tiny continued on page 5