9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016
Warrenton: Land is zoned for marine industrial use
Continued from Page 1A
Last week, Leucadia National Corp.,
the New York-based holding company
behind Oregon LNG, announced it will
cease funding the controversial project.
The move came less than a month
before the City Commission was
scheduled to hear Oregon LNG’s
DSSHDORIDKHDULQJVRI¿FHU¶VGHFLVLRQ
to deny the terminal portion of the proj-
Mark
Rick
HFW7KHKHDULQJVRI¿FHUKDGDSSURYHGD
Kujala
Newton
pipeline segment to serve the terminal.
Balensifer said he wants something
positive to come from this contentious
saga, and that it can start with the city
reviewing and overhauling Warren-
ton’s comprehensive plan and zoning
rules.
“There’s certain industry that our
community doesn’t want. We should
be planning for what is gonna work
— what’s gonna work within our cul-
Tom
Pam
ture, our way of life — but also ensure
Dyer
Ackley
safe and responsible economic devel-
opment,” he said. “Let’s plan this out
and have public input so that investors and that I have read and considered all
can know right up front: Is this going to the facts in the record.”
work out or not?”
He recognized, however, that, for
the Oregon LNG project, “there wasn’t
a lot of public support, and that’s always
Just the facts
Though Balensifer is proposing a factor to consider,” he said.
Commissioner Rick Newton said
that Warrenton consider crafting an
economic road map, he said he hadn’t the materials for the appeal contained
decided whether to uphold the denial of more than 130 letters against the project
and less than 40 in favor of it.
Oregon LNG’s terminal.
“We weren’t anxious to vote on it
“I know some people just want their
HOHFWHGRI¿FLDOVWRMXVWVD\µ\HV¶RUµQR¶ by any means,” Newton said, “because,
but that’s not equal treatment under the no matter what, you’re going to make a
law,” Balensifer said in an email. “I bunch of people mad.”
Asked which way he was leaning,
strive to give everyone, from the per-
son trying to start a home occupation to 1HZWRQ EURXJKW XS WKH KHDULQJV RI¿-
large-scale developments, a fair hear- cer’s decision.
“I don’t normally pay people to
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whenever I make a decision it is fair, give me an opinion and then go against
their opinion. I’ve learned that in busi-
ness,” said Newton, who owns War-
renton NAPA Auto Parts. “I go to them
because I don’t have the expertise in
that area, which we certainly did not.”
He said he also had concerns
about how the project would change
Warrenton.
“Many of the elderly people came to
me and said they didn’t like the thought
of living in a blast zone, and I can’t
blame them for that,” he said. At the
same time, he added, “a lot of people
came to me and said, ‘We’ll get a new
VFKRRO RXW RI WKLV D QHZ ¿UH GHSDUW-
ment, everything.’”
Comissioner Pam Ackley — with-
out saying whether she opposed Ore-
gon LNG or believed the facility met the
city’s land-use criteria — said, “I think
that our community has to look at things
that (have) everybody’s support, and it
was just too widely not supported.”
“We need to focus on trying to bring
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munity, that supports the environment,”
she added.
Commissioner Tom Dyer said he
thought the LNG project was “a good
opportunity for the city to have some
decent tax revenue coming in that
would have helped us do a lot of things
we need to do for the city.”
But, if the terminal didn’t pass mus-
ter regulation-wise, “I would’ve had no
problem voting it down,” he said. “You
don’t always have to agree with stuff to
have to do your job, you just have to be
professional about it.”
³,W¶V OLNH PH EHLQJ D SROLFH RI¿-
cer: I may not agree with all the laws
I have to enforce, but that’s what (the
job) is,” Dyer, a senior trooper for the
Oregon State Police, said. “You use
the facts to make your decision — at
least you should anyhow.”
As for Mayor Mark Kujala, “I was
just prepared to listen to both sides,” he
said. “The process was a fair one, and
we remained objective and ready to lis-
ten to the appeal next month.”
has to be consistent with the livability
concerns that we have here, too.”
A huge weight lifted
At the time Oregon LNG chose to
pull the plug, none of the commission-
ers had fully digested the 2-foot stack of
The land
appeal documents.
When Newton found out he didn’t
What of the land itself?
The Port of Astoria leases the prop- KDYHWR¿QLVKWKHUHDGLQJ³LWZDVOLNH
erty on the Skipanon Peninsula from a huge weight was lifted off my shoul-
the state, and Oregon LNG subleases ders,” he said. “It was a ridiculous
it from the Port. So, at the moment, amount of material.”
“that’s really an issue to be determined
Ackley commended the compa-
between the Port and the Oregon LNG ny’s decision to bow out before the
folks,” City Manager Kurt Fritsch said. now-canceled May appeal hearing.
Though the City Commission has
“For them to have pulled out after
QRWRI¿FLDOO\GLVFXVVHGDIXWXUHIRUWKH that would have been a very inappropri-
site, Dyer said it could work as recre- ate use of our time, I believe,” she said.
ational or industrial land. The land is
Last month, the Federal Energy
zoned for marine industrial use.
Regulatory Commission denied appli-
“But, I think, by and large, the peo- cations for the Jordan Cove LNG ter-
ple who are naysayers on this don’t minal and pipeline in Coos Bay, citing a
want any industry there. They want the ODFNRILGHQWL¿HGPDUNHWVDQGWKHSLSH-
wildlife and the more natural setting to line’s adverse effects on landowners.
remain there,” he said. “Personally, I
Ackley wonders if Oregon LNG,
don’t think we have the luxury of hav- which was awaiting approval from
ing all these green spaces without any the federal agency, saw the writing on
income coming in from businesses.”
the wall.
In the pre-LNG era, a golf course
“They probably understood that
was proposed for the site. Dyer would WKHEDWWOHWKH\ZHUH¿JKWLQJPD\QRW
like to see something like a motocross be won, and I think that they made
arena. “That brings a lot of money in a good decision in making that call
without a lot of cost,” he said.
before the hearing,” she said.
“This chapter — maybe this book
Balensifer — who was 15 years
— has been closed, and we’ll see,” old when the effort to build the facil-
Fritsch said. “The peninsula certainly ity began in 2004 — called the Oregon
has value, and it’s a question on what LNG process “one of the most stress-
someone might come up with to put it to ful times in my life, and by far the
WKHJUHDWHVWEHQH¿WWRWKHFRPPXQLW\´ most stressful time in recent memory.”
The commission’s wider focus,
“Someday I might have to write a
however, is on raising the level of eco- book about the last 12 years — what
nomic activity in Warrenton.
it was like to be on the outside, and
“Warrenton is open for business,” then later on the inside, of the deci-
Kujala said. “But, at the same time, it sion,” he said, laughing.
Pot shop: The word ‘Tillamook’ is trademarked
who operate a medical mari-
juana grow site under the busi-
ness name Astoria Trading Co.
“We had a strain called Tilla-
Oei and West had the city’s
mook Cheese, and they got their
That smell
panties in a bunch,” he said.
“Have you noticed there may ¿UVW JURZ VLWH DSSURYHG XQDQL-
Nelson said the creamery be some emissions coming from mously by the Astoria Planning
association has also taken issue that building?,” Commissioner Commission late last year.
West said Astoria Trading
with the chain’s newest location, Stephen Fulton said Tuesday
Sweet Relief Tillamook, which about the odor pervading the Co. grows for medical mari-
juana patients but is trying to get
opened earlier this year.
area around 401 Industry St.
The creamery association
)XOWRQVDLGLIWKH3RUW¿QGV a commercial growing license,
has an active trademark on the the use distasteful, it should con- which allows a producer to cul-
word “Tillamook” with the U.S. tact the owner about acquiring tivate plants for recreational use
in up to 5,000 square feet of
3DWHQW DQG 7UDGHPDUN 2I¿FH the building.
The building is owned by space. The Oregon Liquor Con-
Nelson said Sweet Relief pro-
posed adding the word “Ore- Richard Delphia. He leases it trol Commission started accept-
gon” onto the end of its Tilla- to Chris West and Jason Oei, ing applications for the licenses
Continued from Page 1A
mook location, to make clear it’s
not tied to the cheese factory.
this year, after recreational mar-
ijuana became legal in July and
started being sold at medical dis-
pensaries in October.
Port of Astoria Commis-
sioner James Campbell
takes exception to Port
Astordam, the nickname of
Sweet Relief Natural Med-
icine’s newer location on
Portway Street, just outside
the agency’s boundaries.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
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503.440.1234 office/cell
Rosalie Dimmick Larsen
Owner/Principal Broker
LÄRSEN COAST HOMES
rdlarsen@pacifier.com
www.oregoncoasthouses.com
©ĦĺĦƃĦŭėĦƋ ~¹ŒĀƩð ~ĀơǣĺãĀ ¹Ţñ ~¹ƺĺƩě¹ãƺĺŮŢę
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