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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017
Fee: Money collected will fund wildfire efforts in state
Continued from Page 1A
The current annual tax rate in the
Astoria district is $1.21 per acre, and
owners of forestlands are charged
a minimum assessment of $18.75
each year. A $47.50 surcharge can be
added if property owners build addi-
tional structures on their land.
Wildfire efforts
The money collected from these
fees fund wildfire efforts in the state.
Rates could vary each year based on
the number of wildfires the Depart-
ment of Forestry responds to in a
given year and the number of people
paying into the system, Astoria Dis-
trict Forester Dan Goody said. The
department does not receive any addi-
tional revenue from the assessments.
While many of these property
owners also pay taxes to local fire dis-
tricts that respond to structural fires,
the Department of Forestry’s assess-
ment is based on lands it would pro-
tect during a wildfire, Goody said.
Therefore, many property owners
who don’t have many trees or vege-
tation on their land may also be sub-
jected to these taxes.
But some property owners have
been confused about the distinction.
Tim Mancill, who has owned a 2.36
acre lot on North Wahanna Road
in Seaside for almost 13 years that
also includes his home, was assessed
$66.25 for his property. Much of his
‘It was very hard for the people presenting to make
their presentations. They had one outlook and the
audience had another outlook.’
Coral Rose Shipley
Seaside property owner
property includes wetlands, which
are submerged underwater for much
of the year, along with some willow
trees.
“I think they’re out for a money
grab,” Mancill said. “Don’t they have
better things to do with their time?”
Goody said people would be sur-
prised about the kinds of land that
allow wildfires to spread quickly. In
his experience, even lands such as
cranberry bogs have caught fire, he
said.
Astoria district
In October 2013, a fire assessment
committee began its review of the
Astoria district. The six-member com-
mittee included appointments made
by the Department of Forestry, the
Oregon State Fire Marshal, the Ore-
gon State University Extension Ser-
vice and three by the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners. Following
a review, the committee made recom-
mendations about what areas could be
reclassified as forestlands.
“I don’t mean any disrespect to
any of the folks living on the lands,
but there is over 100 years of experi-
ence studying fire risks on the com-
mittee,” Goody said.
Two public meetings and one
hearing in May in Astoria and Sea-
side produced no oral or written pub-
lic comments, Goody said. The final
classification was recorded by the
county in July.
Surprise
The problem: some property own-
ers whose lands were reclassified
were completely unaware that this
process took place.
“I was surprised and was like,
‘What the heck is this?’” Mancill said
about the moment he received the
notice in January.
Mancill was one of about 70 land-
owners who attended a town hall
meeting in Seaside on Saturday to
discuss the issue. The town hall, orga-
nized by state Sen. Betsy Johnson
and state Rep. Deborah Boone, fea-
tured local officials and members of
the Department of Forestry, as well as
concerned landowners. At times, the
town hall became disorganized with
attendees shouting out of turn, multi-
ple people who were there said.
“There were so many questions,”
said Coral Rose Shipley, a Seaside
property owner. “It was very hard
for the people presenting to make
their presentations. They had one out-
look and the audience had another
outlook.”
Goody said he was surprised to
hear that many property owners were
not aware of the classifications in
2016. The state had sent postcards 10
months prior to the letter sent in early
January, so residents may have disre-
garded them as junk mail, he said.
“They get a lot of mail, a lot of
junk mail, and a lot of that gets over-
looked,” Goody said. “It definitely
was not the intent to blindside people.”
Appeal process
The classification process is now
final, but the Department of Forestry
received 29 appeals of the assess-
ment prior to Monday’s deadline. The
appeal process will likely last until
sometime this spring, Goody said.
Once the process is completed, the
reclassified land will be added to the
Forest Patrol Assessment Roll in July.
While the state sent out postcards,
held public meetings and sent notices
to newspapers, it typically sees little
involvement from the public until late
in the process, Goody said.
“We typically don’t get much pub-
lic involvement until it starts hitting
the pocketbooks,” he said. “Our hon-
est intent is to make forestland assess-
ment honest and equitable to all.”
County Manager Cameron Moore
said at Wednesday’s Board of Com-
missioners meeting that the county
was not notified in advance about the
letter sent out in January. He also said
Department of Forestry officials apol-
ogized to the county for the confusion
during a meeting on Friday.
Sen. Johnson said she had prelim-
inary discussions with top officials at
forestry earlier this week about mak-
ing adjustments to the assessments in
Clatsop County. Adjustments would
be based on the apparent failure of
communication, she said.
“The number of people who
attended the town hall meeting gave
rise to the fact that there was some
kind of failure to communicate,”
Johnson said. “If we had this kind of
disconnect in communication, some-
thing is wrong.”
Tax: ‘The idea is, we’re trying to create more residential’
Continued from Page 1A
Last year, the state Leg-
islature legalized the use of a
construction excise tax, which
is based on building-permit
valuation.
Cronin said after the work
session that Astoria sees
enough construction in com-
mercial and industrial zones for
the excise tax to be worthwhile.
“Since we don’t generate as
much valuation as say a larger
city, the rate will need to be set
higher to capture an amount
that makes an impact,” he
explained in an email.
Astoria’s tax wouldn’t
touch residential construction,
he said.
“The idea is, we’re trying to
create more residential, so we
don’t want to put more burden
on the residential side,” Cronin
said.
Increase
housing supply
Among the City Council’s
goals for this fiscal year is to
increase housing supply, in
part, by creating incentives for
people to restore vacant and
derelict residential property for
long-term housing.
City Manager Brett Estes
said the construction excise tax
could be a funding mechanism
— perhaps in the form of loans
or grants — to persuade peo-
ple to rehabilitate these “zom-
bie” properties.
Cronin said he doesn’t
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria is looking to increase housing supply.
think the tax would reduce
growth in commercial and
industrial zones. “The cool-
est thing about this approach
is that we’re already doing it,”
he said.
The city taxes permits
in these zones and gives the
money to the Astoria School
District, which uses the funds
to improve facilities.
In addition, the City Coun-
cil asked Cronin to compile
a list of the most develop-
able city-owned parcels, with
a focus on areas where multi-
family or workforce housing
could be built.
Short-term
rental problem
One thing the city could do
to protect and increase Asto-
ria’s finite housing supply,
City Councilor Zetty Nem-
lowill said, is to restrict short-
term rentals — such as Airbnb
operations — in residential
neighborhoods.
“Short-term rentals may
have a better place in some cit-
ies than Astoria. But I believe,
given our limited housing
stock, and our lack of viable
options to solve our housing
crisis, they don’t belong here,”
she said.
Nemlowill said she under-
stand that some homeowners
want to offset living expenses
by renting out rooms or a por-
tion of their homes to tempo-
rary renters. This is more prof-
itable, she pointed out, than
renting to long-term renters.
However, “10, 20, 30, 40,
50 years from now, we won’t
have a year-round community.
We won’t have a place where
workers can live in Astoria,”
she said. “And so, while there
might be a slight benefit to a
few people right now who are
making some money on short-
term rentals — renting out to
tourists instead of the locals
who really need them — it’s
a plague, and it’s going to cor-
rupt our city.”
She said there’s no reason
why the City Council cannot
consider limiting all rentals
within residential neighbor-
hoods to 30 days or longer.
Councilor Cindy Price
said she is in “complete
agreement.”
A recent Planning Commis-
sion recommendation to allow
the development of accessory
dwelling units — for exam-
ple, attached and detached
structures, such as garages,
and converted spaces, such as
basements — prohibits using
the units for short-term rentals.
Data: Housing and Community Services scheduled to select contractor Friday
Continued from Page 1A
“I think it is really import-
ant for the housing agency to
have the information,” said
Alison McIntosh, a member
of the nonprofit Oregon Hous-
ing Alliance and former Hous-
ing and Community Services
spokesperson.
In the meantime, housing
advocates have worked to fill
the void. During the past two
years, the Oregon Housing
Alliance has compiled a list
of federal affordable housing
with 30-year contracts on the
verge of expiration.
When such contracts
expire, property owners have
the option of renewing the con-
tract, which maintains require-
ments to keep units affordable,
or going to the open market
for higher rents or selling the
property.
“Some of the people have
lived there for 20 or 30 years.
They build a community. They
rent at a subsidized rate so a lot
of people stay until they can’t
walk anymore,” said state Rep.
Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Port-
land, chairwoman of the
House Committee on Housing
and Human Services.
“If the property is sold on
the open market and became
a nice new condo those peo-
ple would be totally out (of
a home). That is why preser-
vation for me is a very high
priority.”
progress toward creating an
inventory. The agency now
has a list of federal and state-
backed affordable housing
units with locations but has not
yet added expiration dates. Pol-
icymakers and investors need
to know an expiration date for
affordable housing contracts in
order to target the right proper-
ties for preservation.
Rep. Keny-Guyer said
she would like the agency to
take its data collection a step
further.
“I want to make sure we are
collecting the inventory and to
see how far behind we are for
different income groups and
different parts of the popula-
tion, like the elderly and peo-
ple with disabilities,” Keny-
Guyer said. “The more we can
disaggregate and understand
who needs the housing, the
better the OHCS and (the Leg-
islature can respond).”
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, addresses
a recent housing forum in Portland. Kotek backs a $250
million plan to address affordable housing.
The housing alliance’s list
provided the basis for a pro-
posal that Keny-Guyer and
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, would like to
advance.
Legislators
previously
wanted “to see a clear need” if
they were going to put money
into affordable housing, Keny-
Guyer said.
If the Legislature can come
together to raise additional
revenue, Kotek would support
$250 million in additional state
support to help local commu-
nities deal with the housing
crisis, said Lindsey O’Brien,
Kotek’s spokeswoman. That
includes $100 million for
financing construction of
affordable housing, $100 mil-
lion for preserving exist-
ing state- and federal-funded
affordable housing and $50
million for emergency housing
and shelter assistance.
“That will be a major chal-
lenge because the state budget
has a $1.8 billion gap between
current services and forecasted
revenue,” Kotek said.
Completing the statewide
affordable housing inventory
and housing plan are an “over-
arching priority” for Hous-
ing and Community Services
Director Margaret Salazar,
said Ariel Nelson, an agency
spokeswoman. Gov. Kate
Brown hired Salazar in Sep-
tember — while the audit was
still underway — to direct
and steer improvements at the
agency.
The housing inventory is
being completed in-house at
the agency. Housing and Com-
munity Services is scheduled
to select a contractor Friday
to conduct a strategic plan and
statewide housing plan, Nel-
son said.
The agency has made some
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