KNAPPA AND JEWELL WINTER SPORTS PREVIEWS PAGES 9A-10A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 108
Private investment preserves
affordable housing
ONE DOLLAR
Dialysis
center to
move near
Riverwalk
Planning Commission
votes 6-1 for approval
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Workers continue renovations on affordable housing at the Alder Court Apartments in Warrenton Monday.
Alder Court residents
in Warrenton are
seniors and people
with disabilities
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
W
ARRENTON — An invest-
ment of nearly $14 million will
help preserve more than 50
units of affordable housing at three com-
plexes around Warrenton.
The Northwest Oregon Housing
Authority, a regional supplier of low-in-
come housing, recently formed Alder
Court LLC to manage the Alder Court,
Canim and Wapiti apartment complexes.
Totaling 52 units, the three complexes
comprise nearly half of all federally des-
ignated affordable housing in Warrenton,
said Todd Johnston, executive director of
the housing authority. Such complexes
are increasingly important for people on
lower and fixed incomes as rents continue
a steady increase throughout the region.
“Just generally in Astoria and Warren-
ton, we’ve seen a huge increase over the
past two years,” Johnston said. “In Portland
the rents have gone up quite a bit, too, and
I think it’s just a ripple effect from that.”
The Alder Court project has been
two years in the making, starting with a
Meyer Memorial Trust grant that allowed
the housing authority to assess its port-
folio of housing throughout the county.
Alder Court, a 40-unit complex for the
elderly and disabled built in 1979 and not
substantially retrofitted since, became the
highest priority.
General contractor Bremik Construc-
tion started last week rehabbing the first
of several buildings at the Alder Court
Apartments near downtown.
The contractor will also make more
minor exterior repairs at Canim, a four-
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Wapiti Apartments, left, offer eight units of low-income housing east of the
North Coast Retail Center.
‘JUST GENERALLY IN ASTORIA
AND WARRENTON, WE’VE SEEN
A HUGE INCREASE OVER
THE PAST TWO YEARS.’
Todd Johnston | executive director of the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority
plex along the Skipanon River Trail, and
Wapiti, an eight-unit complex in a recent
development east of the North Coast
Retail Center. The two smaller proper-
ties are part of the portfolio of Clatsop
County Housing Authority. The regional
authority has been managing the prop-
erties for the county since 2013, when
the two authorities began to merge. The
inclusion made the project work finan-
cially, Johnston said.
Oregon Housing and Community Ser-
vices oversaw a competitive bidding pro-
A new dialysis center could be built along
the Astoria Riverwalk after the Astoria Plan-
ning Commission approved a conditional
use permit for the business Tuesday night.
Many of the planning commissioners
were initially reluctant to OK new construc-
tion in the aging parking lot between Sixth
and Seventh streets off Marine Drive since
that area is zoned for tourist-oriented devel-
opment. Other commissioners argued that
part of what makes Astoria attractive to vis-
itors is the fact that it is a “working town.”
“In terms of facilities for tourists, the
thing that makes Astoria what it is, is when
you make choices that benefit the people
who live here,” Commissioner Jan Mitchell
said. “It makes it more a place that people
want to come to.”
She believed the commissioners were try-
ing to juggle a code that was adopted “when
we didn’t realize exactly what was going to
balance out this community.”
Fresenius Kidney Care’s dialysis clinic
operates out of the Park Medical building
across from Columbia Memorial Hospital.
Representatives say the clinic has outgrown
the space. They looked at more than 20 other
buildings and sites around Astoria, but few
fit the clinic’s requirements. The single-story
building developer Chester Trabucco has
proposed for the Sixth Street site would
allow the clinic to expand from the 12 dial-
ysis stations for in-center treatment it has at
the Park Building to 17. An expansion would
answer a growing demand for dialysis ser-
vices in the area and existing patients would
have more treatment time slots to choose
from, representatives said.
Kendall Beatty, area director of opera-
tions for Fresenius Kidney Care, pointed out
that the clinic often serves visitors to Astoria
during the summer months.
Planning Commissioner Kent Easom said
“we don’t have people beating our doors
down” to develop the parking lot property.
“This is something that is definitely
needed in our community, and unfortunately
it’s a growing business,” he added.
The commissioners voted 6-1 to approve
the conditional use application. New com-
missioner Joan Herman was the sole “no”
vote. She said she was worried about plac-
ing a dialysis facility in the shoreline zone,
“especially since there are so few such sites
left in Astoria along the waterfront.”
See DIALYSIS, Page 4A
cessing involving the housing authority
and others seeking private investment in
affordable housing. The authority was
awarded $10.8 million in federal low-in-
come housing tax credit equity through
affordable housing investment firm
WNC Inc., along with $1.2 million in
state affordable housing tax credits and a
$505,000 grant from the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development’s
home investment partnerships program.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
See HOUSING, Page 4A
A new dialysis center is planned off
Sixth Street near the Astoria Riverwalk.
Code changes sought for Astoria homeless shelters
Planning commissioner
outlines new criteria
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
An Astoria planning commissioner is advo-
cating for changes to city code that would define
emergency homeless shelters and outline crite-
ria for approving or denying such facilities in the
future.
At a meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Daryl
Moore passed out a code amendment he had
drafted, saying he hoped the proposal would gen-
erate a discussion among planning commission-
ers and, ultimately, the City Council “to address
the absence of some social services in our devel-
opment code.”
When the Astoria Warming Center was
required to obtain a one-year conditional use per-
mit this year, one of the factors city staff and plan-
ning commissioners struggled with was the lack
of guidance in city code and zoning. The warm-
ing center operates on a temporary basis, opening
for the evening only when temperatures and rain-
fall hit certain thresholds and providing homeless
people with a place to sleep and a warm meal.
When the warming center’s conditional use
permit was under review, some planning com-
missioners, including Moore, said the shelter was
needed but its location in the middle of a neigh-
borhood above downtown was not the right place.
A code amendment with language that specif-
ically addresses emergency shelters would give
the city direction next year when planning com-
missioners will likely review the warming cen-
ter’s conditional use permit again.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
See SHELTERS, Page 4A
Dan Parkison walks by a rack of donated coats and other
clothes as he brings in supplies to the Astoria Warming Center.