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WEST WARRENTON’S BEST KEPT SECRET
146TH YEAR, NO. 20
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WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018
Developer
appeals
hotel
denials
Project proposed
for the waterfront
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Hollander Hospitality, which hopes to build
a four-story hotel on the Astoria waterfront, has
appealed two denials of the project to the City
Council.
A date for the hearing has not been set.
The city’s Design Review Committee and His-
toric Landmarks Commission in June shot down a
proposal for a four-story, 66-room hotel off Marine
Drive. The boards cited issues with the hotel’s size,
appearance and how developers planned to inte-
grate the former Ship Inn restaurant with the new
building.
But Hollander Hospitality contends the two
boards misapplied city criteria and that the Design
Review Committee, in particular, “turned otherwise
objective standards into subjective standards in vio-
lation of the express language” of the city’s devel-
opment code.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Seaside City Councilor Tom Horning stands under a bridge in Seaside that he says is in need of modification in
order to survive a major earthquake.
BRIDGING THE GAP
‘THE NATURE OF
THE PROCESS IS IF
WE WANT MORE
INFORMATION,
WE NEED TO GO
THROUGH AN
APPEAL.’
Horning wants
new tax to pay
for safer bridges
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
S
Sam Mullen | vice president for Hollander Hospitality
The developer also believes a city code that
requires new buildings to be compatible with
adjacent historic structures does not apply to its
proposal. In this case, the historic element that
triggered review by the Historic Landmarks Com-
mission was an old boiler from the former White
Star Cannery.
“Because there are no ‘adjacent historic struc-
tures, the (committee) erred in comparing the pro-
posed style with any building,” Hollander Hospital-
ity wrote in its appeal.
The company is seeking clarity, said Sam Mul-
len, vice president for Hollander Hospitality.
“The nature of the process is if we want more
information, we need to go through an appeal,” he
said.
After city boards denied the project in June, Mul-
len wasn’t certain if the company would appeal or
not. He said the project had received valuable feed-
back through the hearings process and at a commu-
nity meeting the company hosted earlier in the year.
He still believes there could be some room
during the appeals hearing with the City Council
to tweak the proposal, and the appeal to the City
Council itself will reveal a path forward.
Hollander Hospitality owns more property far-
ther west between the Astoria Bridge and the build-
ing that houses the Bridgewater Bistro restaurant.
As the company looks to develop both properties,
Mullen says they need to know what they are being
measured against.
EASIDE — The majority of
bridges in Seaside will need to
be fixed to withstand a Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake, and one
city councilor wants to use lodging tax
dollars to pay for it.
City Councilor Tom Horning,
a geologist, projects a 2 percent
increase in the lodging tax will generate
about $1 million a year to help pay for
seven bridges and build two pedestrian
bridges. He estimates the entire project
would cost about $35 million over 20
years.
The urgency in Horning’s timeline
is based on studies that show 9.0 mag-
nitude earthquakes happen about once
every 340 years. A Cascadia-like event
of this size was last recorded 318 years
ago, meaning the area is due to have
another devastating quake in the next
25 years.
This magnitude would likely pro-
duce a 25-foot to 50-foot wave,
destroying about 92 percent of Sea-
side’s buildings — emphasizing the
need to invest in bridges that will act
as evacuation routes out of the inunda-
tion zone.
“This is one thing we can do to save
the most lives,” he said.
The City Council will discuss the
idea Monday during a workshop cen-
tered around finding ways to reinforce
the town’s bridges.
Seaside City Councilor Tom Horning examines wood preserved for hun-
dreds of years in Seaside.
Smooth rocks left over from a tsunami that hit hundreds of years ago lay
in a creek bed in a marshy area near Seaside.
See BRIDGES, Page 7A
See HOTEL, Page 7A
In lip-sync battle, sheriff turns to ‘The Goonies’
Deputies sing
along to Lauper
By HANNAH SIEVERT
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff’s deputies channeled Cyndi Lauper’s song from
‘The Goonies’ in a lip-sync battle.
Stepping into the lip-sync
battles going viral across the
country, the Clatsop County
Sheriff’s Office has posted
a video of deputies and
staff doing Cyndi Lauper’s
“The Goonies ‘R’ Good
Enough.”
Sheriff Tom Bergin said
his staff — challenged by
the St. Helens Police Depart-
ment — volunteered to make
the video while off duty or
during their lunch hours. Jus-
MORE ONLINE
• Watch the video:
bit.ly/sherifflipsyncbattle
tin Grafton, a local videog-
rapher, shot the footage for
free.
By Thursday afternoon,
the video had racked up
more than 89,000 views on
Facebook.
Bergin said he was
impressed by the public’s
support and the many pos-
itive reactions. “Best one
I’ve seen so far!” one viewer
posted. “Thanks for the
entertainment,” another said.
“To have so many posi-
tive comments about an office
where we already get so many
good compliments on the
deputies just goes to show
you we’re part of the commu-
nity. We live here. We’re just
trying to keep this place safe,”
Bergin said. “If we can thread
a little humor throughout the
days and months and years, so
be it. Life’s tough enough as
it is. Why not put a smile on
people’s faces?”
Like with any perfor-
mance — Goonies-themed
or not — there are critics. A
few people complained that
it was a waste of time and not
very well-executed.
See DEPUTIES, Page 7A