Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 Clash: Company invested tens of thousands of dollars in patio upgrades from a 50-person outdoor restaurant where everybody the restaurant, yet to be col- is looking through your yard lected. to see Haystack Rock. The Neighboring property noise generated by the new owner Nick Sears said the patio when it is in use can be restaurant continues to op- heard inside my house even erate despite the city’s order, with the windows closed.” failed to go through the De- He called Martin Hospi- sign Review Board process tality’s response “arrogant” and is violating the city’s and said the new patio is noise ordinance. preventing his duplex from The Cannon Beach being sold at full-market 0XQLFLSDO &RGH FODVVL¿HV value. family dwellings as “noise “I understand when peo- sensitive” areas and Sears ple disagree with a deci- said he was able to demon- sion,” Sears added. “I dis- VWUDWH WR FLW\ RI¿FLDOV ZLWK agreed with the decision to a sound-level meter that the approve the new patio, but Wayfarer exceeds those lim- as a law-abiding citizen, I its. had to live with its existence Martin Hospitality Pres- until the city had time to ident Ryan Snyder said the review my complaint and Wayfarer did receive ap- take action. They are inten- proval through the proper tionally taking the value of channels — city code al- P\SURSHUW\IRUWKHSUR¿WRI ORZLQJ PLQRU PRGL¿FDWLRQV their business.” without Design Review PeaN season pro¿ts Board approval — and will In a second letter sent not stop using the new patio. Snyder said they’re July 24, the city followed moving forward with initial up on its July 2 correspon- approval — even with the dence, asking the Wayfarer WKUHDW RI ¿QHV ² EHFDXVH not to seat anyone on the the company has invested new patio until proper ap- tens of thousands of dollars proval was given. City Manager Brant in outdoor patio upgrades. Sears said he understands Kucera warned Martin Hos- the restaurant owners’ frus- pitality the restaurant would tration after investing the be in violation of municipal money on patio improve- FRGHDQG¿QHGSHUGD\ ments. Nevertheless, he said beginning July 27 if it didn’t the Wayfarer is violating stop using the outdoor patio. Snyder said the compa- municipal code and “com- pletely disregarding my ny received the city’s letter property rights.” in early July and did not re- ceive a date to appear on the The letters Design Review Board agen- The city’s letter to Martin da until September, despite Hospitality cited two factors a request to be heard at the for revocation of the outdoor board’s August meeting. patio license: the city’s fail- The company is willing ure to review the proposal to go through the Design Re- against screening require- view Board process, he not- ments and Martin Hospitali- ed, but has no plans to cur- ty’s failure to implement the tail use of the new outdoor plans as approved. patio in the meantime. Ev- A privacy screen was ery day the patio would be not installed and removal of closed, Snyder said, would shrubbery along the south result in lost revenue, partic- property line was not ap- ularly during busy summer proved, the letter stated. months. Sears added that a con- Martin Hospitality will crete patio less than two feet “not allow that to happen,” from the shared property he said. line replaced what was once He added that the restau- hedge and grass, providing rant has been in the same visual and sound buffers be- location since 1977, with a tween the two properties. patio since 1997, so Sears The patio, adjacent to the knew what he was getting main living area and ocean into when he bought a prop- front yard, has ruined his erty next door. view, he said. When he pur- “I think the complaint is chased the property in 2008, self-serving,” Snyder said. the restaurant had a small Sears called the dispute wood patio on the side of between himself and Can- his property and seated 20. non Beach’s largest employ- The wood patio and seating er a “David and Goliath” remains, with an additional one. patio area with a 50-diner Even if police enforce capacity. WKHFLW\¶V¿QH6HDUVVDLGD “The negative impact of court may ultimately decide the new patio on my prop- whether Martin Hospitality erty is substantial,” he said. pays or not. “I lost the landscape buffer The Design Review that previously existed, I Board will examine the lost all visual privacy. Imag- Wayfarer’s patio plans later ine being 1 1/2 feet away this month. Continued from Page 1A LNG: Astoria resolution describes project as a threat to health, safety LNG must win for the project to advance. The resolution depicts the Price hopes the city’s res- project, which involves a ter- olution sends a message to minal on the Skipanon Pen- Gov. Kate Brown, U.S. Sen. insula and an 87-mile pipe- Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and oth- line to a natural gas line in HU HOHFWHG RI¿FLDOV DERXW WKH Washington state, as a threat degree of community oppo- to health and safety and the sition. environment. Mayor Arline “We need to let them hear LaMear and City Councilor from Astoria,” Price said, Cindy Price timed the resolu- “and I’m very happy that we WLRQWRLQÀXHQFHWKHGHFLVLRQ will.” in Warrenton and the public City Councilor Russ Warr, hearings later this month on who voted against the resolu- the Federal Energy Regu- tion, questioned whether the latory Commission’s draft city has proven that the proj- environmental review of the ect is a risk to health and safe- project. ty and the environment. The development permits Warr warned that the res- in Warrenton are among sev- olution could have an impact eral local, state and federal on Astoria’s relationship with regulatory approvals Oregon Warrenton. “I think we should Continued from Page 1A Continued from Page 1A over, in two portable build- ings purchased by the district to meet the needs of its boom- ing enrollment. Kindergarten classes in Warrenton, usually with 60 to 70-plus students, have jumped to 100, 80 and 108 over the last three years. Part of the increase was Warrenton’s offering full-day kindergarten several years before a similar state man- date. Kindergarten enroll- ment is back down to 75 so far this year, as other schools offer full-day programs. But Superintendent Mark Jef- fery said he has researched Warrenton-Hammond’s birth UDWHVDQGFDQ¶W¿QGDFRUUHOD- tion with the growth in en- rollment. “Because of the afford- ability of our land, we tend to attract younger families,” Jeffery said. Warrenton High School lost 23 students between 2006-07 and last year. For the past few years, Jeffery said, the majority of students Warrenton lost transferred to Astoria, a trend he said the district has cut down by im- proving its programs and peo- ple’s perception of the district. Urban migration “I came here in 1996, and we had 200 kids per class,” Hoppes said of Astoria. “It’s gone down quite a bit.” Astoria consolidated into its four main schools in the early 2000s, a move Hop- pes said mirrored what other districts did during the most recent recession to save mon- ey. Up and down the Oregon coast, he said, has seen a drop in enrollment since the 1990s. While cautioning he doesn’t have any proof, Hop- pes said the enrollment trends point toward a migration from rural to urban Oregon by fam- ilies seeking better job oppor- tunities. “It would be interesting Continued from Page 1A ‘Dangerous step’ Donna Quinn, who lives Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Clatsop Community College wanted the city to rezone the Josie Peper Building and the Performing Arts Center from high-density residential to general commercial. A pro- spective buyer wanted to use the Josie Peper Building as a second home and vacation rental. on Franklin Avenue, is the director of sales and mar- keting at the Cannery Pier Hotel. She had submitted a petition to the Planning Commission from neighbors who opposed the zoning change. Quinn framed the deci- ‘Respect the city’ Kujala said he respects the ordinances, codes and stan- dards of other municipalities, including Astoria’s, “and I would ask that Astoria elect- HGDQGDSSRLQWHGRI¿FLDOVUH- spect the city of Warrenton’s process as well.” “I think we’ve worked well together — Warren- ton and Astoria and Clatsop County — on issues regard- ing (Federal Emergency Man- DJHPHQW$JHQF\ ÀRRG SODLQ mapping, and I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us to work together in the future,” he continued. “However, I’m FRQ¿GHQWWKDWWKLV&LW\&RP- mission will make the best decision for what is in War- UHQWRQ¶VEHVWLQWHUHVW¿UVWDQG foremost, and we will be re- garding the application’s con- sistency with the Warrenton ordinances, codes and stan- dards that we have in place.” Students: Warrenton offered full-day kindergarten before a similar state mandate Rentals: Offer to purchase college building was contingent on rezoning City planning staff found that converting the Josie Peper Building into a second home and vacation rental would not be any more intensive than the previous uses, including the ODZ¿UPZKLFKZDVLPSURSHU for a residential zone. Plan- ning staff determined that a zoning change to commercial might provide a market-driv- en incentive to invest and pre- serve a property the college has deemed surplus. The Planning Commission voted 4-1 in July to recom- mend approval of the zoning change. JoAnn Zahn, the college’s YLFH SUHVLGHQW RI ¿QDQFH and operations, told the City Council Tuesday night that the college had accepted a purchase offer for the Josie Peper Building in June con- tingent on the rezoning. think about that,” he said. “We’re going to need them for a long, long time. And when we act in our own interests, we don’t want people object- ing to what we’re doing. “I think we should give them the same consideration.” Price said the resolution is not “anti-Warrenton.” “Our purpose here tonight is to stand up for our con- stituents, who have asked us over and over again and have gone to every hearing for 10, 12 years, to say a resounding ‘no,’” she said. sion for the City Council as about protecting historic neighborhoods and not be- coming an “absentee owner, vacation rental town.” She said the zoning change would be “a danger- ous step in the wrong direc- tion for Astoria.” Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Students arrive Tuesday morning for the first day of the year at Astoria High School. The student population has dropped by 20 percent between 2008 and 2014. to analyze the effect of com- ing out of the recession and people being confident in finding employment in rural areas,” Jackson said. Astoria School District can’t control the affordability of housing or the economy, Hoppes said. “All we can do as a district is continue to work to build quality pro- grams.” FODWVRSFRPPXQLW\FROOHJHSUHVHQWVLWV QG DQQXDO &RQIHUHQFHRQ H[WUDRUGLQDU\OLYLQJ /XQFKSURYLGHG /LYH/LIHWRWKH)XOOHVW 6DWXUGD\6HSW8:30am-4pm Clatsop Community College, Columbia Hall, Rm 219 .H\QRWHDGGUHVVE\0DF%XUQVRIWKH2UHJRQ)LOP0XVHXP “Hey Doc–What’s Up?” Q&A with Drs. Cosmina Popa and Robert Wayne 13 Informative Breakout Sessions: Travel – tips & information Genealogy Hiking and an introduction to National 5HJLVWHUE\6HSW Parks Call 503-894-0187 Art, music and theater or email Robert McClelland at Transitioning to retirement Healthy mind/healthy body rmcclelland@clatsopcc.edu Know your foods/food for nutrition What is timebanking? Opportunities for education & community service Emergency/disaster preparedness Alternative medicine Starting your own business or a second career Facebook – to friend or not to friend 6XJJHVWHGGRQDWLRQDWWKHGRRU Clatsop Community College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. ADA Accessible. Clatsop Community College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. ADA Accessible.