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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015 Music fest: ‘We don’t want the festival to go away’ Continued from Page 1A co-exist with another Keith Clark festival in Astoria.” This year’s festival featured 23 performances of symphon- ic and chamber music, operas and educational events. Within the last decade, the festival has grown into a classical music institution of the North Coast, as cherished as it is distin- guished. “We don’t want the festival to go away. That’s the bottom line,” Debby Halliburton, the outgoing board vice presi- dent, said. “If Keith isn’t able to work with the board as it is now, well, we don’t want him to go away.” Keep the music going However, Clark said that several of the board’s asser- tions are “totally inaccurate.” “I, frankly, am sorry that they sent this (press release) out,” he said, adding that he wishes the kerfufÀe had played out privately rather than publicly. Clark told the board in an email, “Whoever wrote the press release did harm to the future of the Astoria Music Festival — if, indeed, there will be a future.” “It was never my intention or hope that there would be any separation,” he said. For six months, the board “refused to con¿rm that I would continue as the musical director until after the music festival,” he said. “I’m a pro- fessional conductor. I’ve con- ducted all over the world. I’ve never been treated like that before. It’s either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’” With speculation beginning to circulate that he would be replaced, Clark said his top concern was to keep the per- formances going. great international artists, great involvement of the communi- ty,” he said. However, he said he wants the musicians to be more in- volved at the decision-making level and in a position to vote about “their own artistic life.” “All I’m interested in is that we continue to build the Asto- ria Music Festival,” he said. Differences of opinion Dwight Caswell/For The Daily Astorian Astoria Music Festival Artistic Director Keith Clark con- ducts Hideki Yamaya, left, Leslie Green and Adaiha Mac- Adam-Somer at this year’s festival. “My stance — and that of some of the musicians — was that, if I was discontinued, we would just continue to do our concerts as we’ve always done them,” he said. In addition, the notion that he wanted to take the festival in a different direction is false, he said. “I don’t want to change anything. I want to continue the trajectory of the Astoria Music Festival in exactly the same direction in which it’s been going: great concert, “There’s a lot of pieces to (the festival), and there’s a lot of opportunity for mis- communication and for things to fall through the cracks be- cause it’s such a complicat- ed festival,” said Rosemary Baker-Monaghan, executive director of the Liberty The- ater, where most of the festival performances are held. “It’s a fabulous festival, but it’s a big job to pull that together every year.” Clark said he hopes that the outgoing board mem- bers remain involved long enough to nominate and elect the next board, though Diane Tiedeman, the outgoing board president, requested in a letter to Clark that he appoint new board members by Sept. 1. Both the outgoing board, in its statement, and Clark said they harbor no ill will. Clark also said that Tiedeman “has been fantastic” to work with. “We wouldn’t exist as a music festival without her,” he said. “I’m disappointed that any- body resigned. They certainly didn’t have to do that,” Clark said. “There were certainly some differences of opinion, but in any organization there are differences of opinion, and none of these are differences of opinion that should threat- en an organization that’s had a 13-year history of continued success.” Seaside: South East Hills site is favored because it contains the necessary acres Continued from Page 1A boundary started two years ago in order to comply with statewide planning goals and guidelines for land use planning. Through consultation with Otak, the city forecast the rate of growth in Seaside over the next two decades and estimated how much land needs to come into the urban-growth boundary to accommodate the city’s growth, Hanson said. Otak and the city collaborat- ed to create a land-need analy- sis showing the city will require 154.6 acres of residential land, 10.6 acres of parkland and 35.6 acres of industrial and institution- al land, for a total of 200.8 acres. With that “land budget” in mind, they considered where in Seaside it could be found, in pieces or as a whole, Cupples said. Cupples and Otak picked four study areas for further anal- ysis: North Hills, east of North Wahanna Road with access from Shore Terrace and Forest Drive; Lewis and Clark, north of Lewis and Clark Road; East Hills, east of South Wahanna Road; and South Hills, south of Avenue S and encompassing part of South Wahanna Road. The team evaluated slope conditions, infrastructure, emergency access and utilities, among other criteria, Hanson said. Additionally, any proper- ty under consideration must be outside the tsunami inundation zone. Cupples and Otak came up with a preferred site proposal that incorporated components of the South Hills and East Hills sites. The South East Hills site was fa- vored because it contains all the necessary 200.8 acres. “We saw that as the least con- strained area to grow the city in the future,” Hanson said. The South East Hills map in- dicates a potential multi-acre site for Seaside School District 10 to build a new campus. The school district will need to make its own request of the city and state to expand the Submitted Photo South East Hills, an area considered for potential expansion of Seaside’s urban-growth boundary. YOUR SAY If property owners in the expanded urban-growth boundary wanted to develop their sites they need to: • Request annexation into the city of Seaside; • Request a zone change in conformance with the overall plan; and • Go through an individual approval process, which means their plans would be vetted publicly. boundary to include the site if or when the time comes. Landowners concerned Landowners are not entirely on board with the idea of their property being brought into the urban-growth boundary. Several said they need more information. During the Planning Com- mission meeting, Marie Pince- tich, the owner of about a dozen acres near South Wahanna Road, asked if it is too late for the city to change direction and choose a different site. She said she was concerned that some people in her neighborhood could get priced out of their properties be- cause of higher taxes. In addition, residents already have invested in the area’s infra- structure, Pincetich said. “That just doesn’t seem fair that we bear all that for the good of the city.” Pincetich asked if the city would reconsider plans to ex- pand the UGB zone. “This is not the plan we want- ed for our properties,” added landowner Mary Kemhus. “We like the way South Wahanna is and we’d like to keep it that way. We don’t want to be forced into anything.” Landowner Janet Ottem questioned why Seaside needs to grow at all. She said she believes expanding the urban-growth boundary could pave the way for some of her neighbors to subdi- vide their property and sell it for pro¿t. “I live in a small town, be- cause I want to live in a small town,” she said. “It does not thrill me to have roads going by my house for more houses to be de- veloped eventually.” “It’s this kind of juggling act to try and come up with some way of doing it in a planned fash- ion,” Commissioner Chris Hoth said. “Everybody is not going to get what they want.” Based on the property own- ers’ concerns, the city is revisit- ing the possibility of expanding the boundary with some land from a different site. One way or another, though, Cupples said, they need to account for about 200 acres. The Planning Commission will revisit the topic at an upcom- ing meeting before making a rec- ommendation to City Council. Congratulations to our #1 Real Estate Team! 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