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.
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