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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2016)
9A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016 Balance: Astoria has ‘very little vacant land’ Continued from Page 1A However, he told commis- sioners that they could prohibit homestay lodging in accessory dwelling units in medium- and high-density residential zones. Most commissioners agreed this was the way to go. “I think, if our goal is to create additional housing, we should absolutely make (accessory dwelling units) not accessible for homestay lodg- ing,” Commissioner Daryl Moore said. Commissioner Kent Easom agreed: “What we’re trying to promote is long-term, not tran- sient, lodging.” Cronin said he doesn’t believe many accessory dwell- ing units will be built in any case. He has said previously that the city has received one application in the past ive years. “I just think the disin- centive of taking away the homestay lodgings … you’re just not going to get a lot of folks who are going to want to put the time and effort into doing that,” he said, “even though, from a policy stand- point, it sounds good.” Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian The fire Wednesday night left the walkout basement occupied by Higher Level Concentrates gutted. Blaze: Cause of ire under investigation Continued from Page 1A “There were people standing on the west side” of the building, Smith said. “One guy was burned pretty bad. “They were doing something with butane and it blew up.” A crowd of people gathered around the building to watch more than 10 ire- ighters battle the blaze. Police formed a perimeter and shut down the intersec- tion at Portway Street and Marine Drive. By 7:20 p.m., the ire had been contained, and Marine Drive had been reopened. The building is leased by Chris West and Jason Oei for the concentrates com- pany and a commercial-grow operation, Astoria Trading Co. The pair also sub- lease space in the building on Portway Street to Sweet Relief Natural Medicine, a marijuana dispensary. The dispensary was also damaged in the blaze. Astoria Deputy Police Chief Eric Halverson said the Clatsop County Fire Investigation Team, Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Ofice and Oregon State Police arson investigators will meet today to determine the cause of the ire. “At this point this matter remains under investiga- tion and we hope to have more answers as to exactly what happened following the ire investigation,” he said in a release. Parking and other provisions Moore and Easom said they would be inclined to limit the number of accessory dwelling units per lot to one. Currently, the number of units per lot is dictated by the lot coverage standards in each residential zone: One or more dwelling units may be built depending on how much square footage a property owner is allowed to cover. Though this is the de facto standard in many cities, Cro- nin said, “as more cities have looked at ADUs as a solution for their housing crises, I think more cities have elected to spe- ciically call out the permitted number of ADUs per lot, just to make it clear to the public.” Parking was another con- tentious matter at September’s Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Multiple agencies responded to a fire Wednesday night in a commercial building on the corner of Industry and Portway streets. The fire started after an explosion around 6:30 p.m. in marijuana-extraction company Higher Lev- el Concentrates. Crews had the fire contained by 7:20 p.m. meeting. Some residents wor- ried that building new acces- sory dwelling units would lead to parking overlow. Current regulations require property owners to have at least one off-street parking space for the units. But, Cro- nin said, part of the goal of the code changes is to create more lexibility for builders. “If you don’t require an additional space, you’re going to have more units built,” he said, adding that the city’s street parking should be adequate. Easom maintained that the off-street parking rule should be kept, but Commission Pres- ident Dave Pearson disagreed. “If the goal of this is to give more opportunities for hous- ing, for anyone living in the city — we’re not talking just low-income or anything such as that — I think we have to look at an on-street credit,” Pearson said. Cronin acknowledged an occasional parking crunch on some streets. “But, in gen- eral, outside of the downtown, we do have plentiful on-street parking.” Anticipating questions about greater density within Astoria, Commissioner Jan Mitchell said greater density may have to happen because “we are bounded on three sides by water, and forest in the back.” In addition, Cronin said the perception that Astoria has quite a bit of vacant land is false. “We have very little vacant land,” he said, “which is why ADUs is an attractive pro- posal to provide more housing options.” Cronin suggested the com- mission add a provision that the code changes be revisited a year or so after they become effective, to determine whether the results have been desirable. A public hearing on the accessory dwelling units will be held by the commission on Tuesday. Tiny Micro-Chip In The Ear: Now Available! Now You See It... Now You Don’t! 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