THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015
NORTH COAST
3A
Charter school wins approval in Cannon Beach
First year
limited to
kindergarten
and ¿rst grade
By DANI PALMER
EO Media Group
SEASIDE — Cannon
Beach will once again have an
elementary school next fall.
The Seaside School Dis-
trict 10 Board of Directors
unanimously approved a
three-year contract with
Cannon Beach Academy on
Wednesday evening in front
of a packed room.
Under the district’s condi-
tions, the new charter school
will serve a minimum of 44
kindergarten and ¿rst-grade
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Audience members at an
August meeting hear a
presentation by Ryan Hull,
president of the Cannon
Beach Academy Board of
Directors.
students its ¿rst year, with
the ability to add grades over
time. The charter eventually
wants to host kindergarten
through ¿fth-grade students.
“We’re very willing to
work together to compro-
mise,” said Ryan Hull, pres-
ident of the academy’s board
of directors.
Hull noted he will have to
“chew on” the ¿rst year grade
limit to analyze how it will
impact the school, but added
he understands the decision
from the district’s point of
view.
Board Chairman Steve
Phillips said the limited num-
ber of students that ¿rst year
will make the charter “eco-
nomically more viable” for
the district.
Charter had planned
higher capacity
Cannon Beach Academy
had planned on a student ca-
pacity of for the ¿rst year.
Superintendent Doug Dough-
erty noted the loss of a little
more than half that number
of students will drain roughly
$255,900 from the district.
Board member Hugh Stel-
son said Seaside will not only
see a small reduction in staff,
but likely cuts in programs.
“This district seems to
piece little pieces together and
run on duct tape sometimes,”
he said. “There’s not a lot of
extra money around.”
Phillips said Seaside
School District 10 will adjust.
Cuts have been made in the
past and “we still have a great
school district,” he said.
Other conditions include
the academy’s ability to secure
proof of its English Language
Learners program by March
1, building safety permits by
Aug. 15, proof of insurance
by Aug. 30, documents show-
casing ¿nancial stability and
an ability to comply with any
tsunami inundation zone line
changes.
Stelson said the academy
should have an accountability
metric to prove it is “just as
good as the district.”
Vice Chairman Mark Tru-
ax said the school will be a
part of the district and under
its responsibility.
While negotiations remain,
Hull said none of the condi-
tions seem unreasonable. “I
think we can achieve every
condition imposed,” he add-
ed.
Building requirements
top priority
Top priority for the acade-
my is meeting physical build-
ing requirements at its tem-
porary location at 171 Sunset
Blvd. The vacated space,
which takes up 3,500 square
feet of the 6,000-square-foot
building, once housed the
Cannon Beach Athletic Club.
The charter school plans to
open next fall if it can meet all
conditions.
Cannon Beach Elementary
closed in 2013 for ¿nancial
reasons and fears for student
safety. The building, now
shuttered, lies in the tsunami
inundation zone.
The school district had is-
sued two previous denials to
the academy last year, citing
lack of an adequate location
and secure start-up funds.
The school plans to even-
tually settle into a permanent
site south of town and east of
U.S. Highway 101.
Southeast Hills site remains leading candidate for Seaside expansion
Some residents
question need,
wisdom of growth
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
SEASIDE — As Seaside
planning commissioners wade
through consideration of an
urban growth boundary expan-
sion, some residents are won-
dering if the process is even
necessary.
Buz Ottem, a landowner,
said Seaside does not have ad-
equate infrastructure to support
its current population in case of
an earthquake or tsunami, so
it does not make sense to ac-
commodate population growth.
“We have the cart in front of the
horse, and we shouldn’t even
be discussing it,” he said. “We
can’t provide for the safety of
the residents we have here.”
For a fourth month, the
commission listened to public
comments last week on amend-
ing Seaside’s comprehensive
plan to incorporate about 200
acres of new land into the urban
growth boundary. The South-
east Hills site under consider-
ation is located to the south and
east of Seaside city limits near
South Wahanna Road. A new
potential site on the northern
boundary of Seaside was also
thrown into the mix.
“What do we want the com-
munity to be?” asked Planning
Commission Chairman Ray
Romine. “What do we want the
community to have available
for residents going into the fu-
ture? The land we choose will
signi¿cantly impact the future
of who we bring to the com-
munity and who can afford to
stay.”
Considering the North
Hills
In response to requests to
review alternatives to Southeast
Hills, the commissioners con-
sidered the North Hills site, east
of North Wahanna Road. Cur-
rently, the site is accessed from
Shore Terrace and Forest Drive.
Vernonia resident Mike Pihl
owns about 40 acres on the
North Hills site and proposed
the area be incorporated into
the urban growth boundary.
The area is easily accessible
and outside the tsunami inunda-
tion zone, he said, two factors
commissioners are considering
throughout the process.
Commissioner Tom Horn-
ing, a geologist, said he is
concerned about heavily de-
veloping the property, which
has “large blocks of landslide
material that have moved down
the hill and are still probably
moving, to some degree.”
“It’s not a great place to put
a neighborhood,” he said, add-
ing he thinks it would be appro-
priate for an unapproved camp-
ground or tsunami evacuation
site instead. “Our planning
process is not designed around
landslides, but one cannot dis-
regard that when making con-
siderations between property A
and property B.”
He and other commission-
ers favor the Southeast Hills
site as the better option, citing
concerns that only a third of the
60-acre North Hills site would
likely be suitable for develop-
ment.
The city is mandated to
use land in the urban growth
boundary ef¿ciently, so it is not
wise to include property that
can’t be developed, City Plan-
ner Kevin Cupples said.
If the city cherry-picked
land from the North Hills site
that reasonably could be de-
veloped, the next issue would
be drawing a map “that’s a re-
alistic con¿guration” for the
boundary, said consultant Don
Hanson, of Otak Inc.
“There are bene¿ts to a
compact city limit and a com-
pact UGB,” he said.
Even if the city took some
land from the North Hills site,
a portion of the Southeast
Hills likely would be incor-
porated, since a lands-need
analysis completed at the start
of the project called for about
200 acres to satisfy Seaside’s
estimated population growth
during the next two decades. “I
like to call it a ‘balance sheet,’
because that’s basically what it
is,” Cupples said.
What’s best for Seaside
Residents, primarily land-
owners in the Southeast Hills
area, have attended the past
several meetings to get more
information and question why
Seaside needs to expand its
developable land at all. Many
remain unconvinced the city
needs that much land in the
boundary and worry the rural
characteristics of the South Wa-
hanna Road area are at stake.
Southeast Hills residents
Mary Kemhus and Maria Pin-
cetich said they feel the growth
indicators used for calculating
how much land Seaside needs
are not accurate. The city’s pop-
ulation is not growing as much
as estimated several years ago
using 2000 census data. Sea-
side’s recent annual growth rate
using updated demographics,
excluding “seasonal, recre-
ational or occasional use” vis-
itors. If those numbers were
considered, “The combined ef-
fect of these choices would sub-
stantially reduce the need for a
UBG expansion,” Nelson said.
Action required by state
Submitted Photo
The Southeast Hills area considered for a potential urban
growth boundary expansion.
has been closer to 0.7 percent
rather than 1 percent, as forecast.
Taking into consideration
the July New Yorker article
“The Really Big One” and the
recent Oregon Public Broad-
casting series “Unprepared,”
Kemhus expects fewer people
will want to live in Seaside be-
cause of the earthquake risk.
She said she prefers the city
develop the land currently in
the urban growth boundary.
Pincetich referenced a letter
from Mia Nelson, an urban spe-
cialist with 1000 Friends of Or-
egon, a nonpro¿t organization
dedicated to building livable
urban and rural communities
throughout the state. The or-
ganization received many calls
and emails from concerned cit-
izens regarding Seaside’s pro-
posed expansion and Nelson
wrote a reply to several ques-
tions that arose.
The organization said the
city should calculate its land
O cto b er 23
CON CEAL
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CARRY
PERM IT
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Oregon –
Pincetich said she is con-
cerned the city is using out-
dated and questionable data in
determining Seaside’s future
growth.
“It would be best to have
con¿dence in the numbers be-
fore we move forward, or as we
move forward,” she said. “The
math does not support it to me.
We have other options.”
Pincetich said the city should
wait at least until June 2017
when Portland State Universi-
ty’s Population Research Center
is scheduled to issue a new pop-
ulation forecast for Seaside.
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Patrick Wingard, the North
Coast regional representative
for the Oregon Department of
Land Conservation and De-
velopment, agreed the city is
not legally obligated to expand
its urban growth boundary,
since its population is less than
25,000.
However, he said state plan-
ning goals state that munici-
palities should establish and
change urban growth boundar-
ies based on long-range plan-
ning, population forecasts and
future housing needs.
While Seaside may not be
legally required to expand the
boundary, Wingard advised the
city to pursue expansion.
Failing to maintain a 20-
year land supply, important for
avoiding population intensi-
¿cation within city limits and
providing workforce housing,
“does not seem like an appro-
priate civic direction,” he said.
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Saturday, Oct. 17 • NOON
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MOSTLY MUSICALS
SUOMI HALL • 244 W. MARINE DR. • ASTORIA
Public cordially invited
Friday O k tober 16 TH
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M usic by:
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ASTORIA AMERICAN LEGION Post 12
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