144TH YEAR, NO. 229
ONE DOLLAR
ELECTION EDITION // WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
Campbell, Rohne, Spence win big in Port races
Battle for control of the Port
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Airport bond
measure fails
2015, when Port Commission-
ers Robert Mushen and Bill
Hunsinger ran unop-
posed and less than 23
percent of voters partic-
ipated. Voting was also
up slightly from 2013,
when Fulton and Camp-
bell were elected, and
more than 32 percent of
voters cast ballots.
Dirk
Clatsop County res-
idents gave a resound-
ing vote of approval
Tuesday to the Port of
Astoria’s political and
executive management,
handily electing James
Campbell, Dirk Rohne
and F rank Spence over
Rohne
Taking sides
Stephen Fulton, Dick
Two distinctive sides had
Hellberg and Pat O’Grady .
More than 34 percent of reg- cut across all three Port races.
istered voters cast ballots in the Fulton, Hellberg and O’Grady
special district election, a signif-
See PORT, Page 4A
icant increase in turnout from
SECOND LIFE
INSIDE
Money was
school board races;
for Life Flight, College,
Health Care District elections
• Page 5A
airport work
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
James Campbell, left in red jacket, and Frank Spence,
right, celebrate their leads in the Port of Astoria Commis-
sion races Tuesday night at Fort George Brewery after
early election results .
Voters on Tuesday nar-
rowly rejected a bond mea-
sure to fi nance improve-
CITY GETS FIRST LOOK AT POTENTIAL
AFFORDABLE HOUSING AT WALDORF HOTEL
ments at the Astoria
Regional Airport, a blow to
the Port of Astoria’s plans
for future development.
The bond measure,
which had broad support
See BOND, Page 4A
Emerald
Heights
rolls back
gas charge
Deed restrictions delay
new charges for tenants
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Astoria’s Waldorf Hotel may get a second life as affordable housing if developers get their way.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
D
evelopers hoping to turn Asto-
ria’s Waldorf Hotel into work-
force housing gave the city
its fi rst look at exactly how afford-
able the housing might be Tuesday
night.
Studio apartments could cost
between $425 and $525 a month
in the Waldorf’s second life as a
40-unit apartment building, Julie
Garver, the housing development
director for Portland-based non-
profi t Innovative Housing, told the
city’s Historic Landmarks Com-
mission during a presentation intro-
ducing the project. One-bedroom
apartments could cost between
$440 and $540. Renters must fall
within certain income requirements
— among other things — to qual-
ify for a unit. Four units would
rent at market rate at $825 to $875
a month, and not carry the same
income restrictions.
Lot of promise
Innovative Housing develops
multifamily, low-income apartment
buildings in Oregon and Wash-
ington state. The group has refur-
bished a number of old and his-
toric buildings to give them new
life as affordable housing, but the
Waldorf — built as the Merwyn
Hotel in the 1920s — sandwiched
between the Astoria Library and
City Hall on Duane Street and
vacant for decades, presents a
unique challenge.
Jeff Daly/For The Daily Astorian
See WALDORF, Page 4A
A Portland nonprofit hopes to gather the funding to
remodel the Waldorf Hotel into apartments.
Emerald Heights Apartments has
delayed a move to charge renters for natu-
ral gas because it would violate deed restric-
tions meant to keep the Astoria apartments
affordable.
Tenants were told they would have to pay
for gas starting in June or risk eviction. But
after The Daily Astorian asked Edita Smith,
the property owner, about deed restrictions
that extend until October, the new policy was
delayed.
Emerald Heights is one of the few remain-
ing sources of affordable housing for low-in-
come residents in Astoria. When Smith and
her husband acquired
the apartment com-
plex from the Clat-
sop County Hous-
ing Authority in 1992,
they agreed to main-
tain the apartments
as mixed-income for 25 years. The restric-
tions preserve 60 units in the sprawling
300-unit complex for very low-income
renters, and 180 units for low-income ten-
ants. The rent includes the cost of providing
utilities.
“Ms. Smith did not recall that the deed
restriction included a limitation on utilities,”
Lawrence Popkin, a Seaside-based attorney
for Smith, wrote in an email Tuesday. “She
will now delay the change in policy (gas
utilities) until the deed restrictions expire in
October. The tenants will receive a notice
informing them of the delay.”
When the deed restrictions lapse, it opens
the door for Smith to rent all of the apart-
ments at market rate. But Smith, according
to her attorney, plans to keep rent rates the
same.
“Other than the change in policy regard-
ing payment of gas utilities, no other changes
are planned,” Popkin wrote.
See GAS CHARGE, Page 11A
Housing, preparedness top county’s agenda
Forty area
leaders gather
in Gearhart
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Elected
offi cials and staff in Clat-
sop C ounty seem to agree on
two things: housing and emer-
gency preparedness are the
major issues , and political will
is the key to address them.
Roughly 40 offi cials
gathered Tuesday night at
McMenamin’s Gearhart Hotel
and Sand Trap Pub to dis-
cuss the challenges facing the
county, the second time in the
past year or so that city and
county leaders have met to talk
through policy concerns.
County Community Devel-
opment Director Heather Han-
sen said the county is aware
anecdotally of discrepancies
between wage levels and the
location, availability and cost
of housing and its impact on
business retention, expansion
and recruitment. The problem:
the county is unsure of any
solution because there isn’t
enough data to support the
anecdotal evidence.
Offi cials discussed a recent
six-month, $100,000 study
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Seaside pictured from the air. County and city leaders dis-
cussed the housing crunch Tuesday in Gearhart.
by Tillamook County, which
Hansen said is in a similar situ-
ation to Clatsop, that identifi ed
specifi c data about the area’s
housing markets and possible
solutions.
The report differentiated
between coastal and inland
markets and highlighted fac-
tors such as a low-wage econ-
omy, scarce land supply and
absentee landlords. Ten possi-
ble solutions included creating
a county wide housing coor-
dinator position in the county
and rezoning.
Attendees
appeared
enthused. “Let’s just steal
this,” Seaside Mayor Jay Bar-
ber quipped.
Barber used the Seaside
City Council’s vote next week
about rezoning a plot of land
on North Wahanna Road for a
See LEADERS, Page 11A