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!
Wauna Credit Union ranked as the top Real Estate
lender in Clatsop County for the month of June 2015.
Natasha Corder
Mortgage Loan Officer
10/6
RU([W
Natasha.corder@waunafcu.org
Monica Lauber
AVP-Mortgage
10/6
RU([W
Monica.lauber@waunafcu.org
We are the only LOCAL credit union serving Clatsop County!
Michael Bradshaw
Mortgage Loan Manager
800-773-3236 ZDXQDIFXRUJ
10/6
RU([W
Michael.bradshaw@waunafcu.org
10/6