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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2018 Army Corps permit delays impact new Seaside campus project Schools wanted permits by July By R.J. MARX and BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Jars of medicinal and recreational marijuana. Gearhart to send pot tax measure to voters City’s tax higher than others By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian GEARHART — One more measure will find its way to local voters this November. Gearhart will decide whether to adopt a 3 percent local sales tax on marijuana. The city’s first dispensary, Sweet Relief, opened in July on U.S. High- way 101. Gearhart was among a few cities to vote in a tax prior to the legalization of recreational can- nabis. In 2014, shortly before the state’s voters approved Mea- sure 91, the city passed an ordi- nance requiring a 10 percent tax on the sale of recreational mar- ijuana and a 5 percent tax for a medical marijuana registry cardholder. After legalization, the state established a 17 percent tax on marijuana and limited local taxes to 3 percent. Cities may not tax medical marijuana sales. With a 10 percent tax already in place, Gearhart city council- ors had the option of defending the tax in court or asking voters to approve a 3 percent tax. Sweet Relief co-owner Oscar Nelson asked the City Council to put the local tax in line with most other cities, including Astoria, Seaside and Cannon Beach. “The Legislature said we can’t have more than 3 per- cent,” City Attorney Peter Watts said. “We have 10 percent. If we impose our 10 percent tax and it was challenged, would we win? I can’t tell you.” Watts said a legal challenge would likely be decided by the Oregon Court of Appeals or Oregon Supreme Court. At a special meeting on Tuesday, City Councilors Dan Jesse, Reita Fackerell and Kerry Smith opted to refer the 3 per- cent tax to voters. Mayor Matt Brown was absent. If the November ballot mea- sure fails, the city would need to decide whether to collect the 10 percent tax. wetland and more than 2,000 linear feet of stream considered essential fish habitat. The school district had pro- posed a combination of stream enhancement, wetland and swale creation to meet regula- tory concerns. A project timeline presented to the school board in June anticipated permit approvals from the Army Corps and the state by July 18. The Department of State Lands signed off on the permit application July 26. The Army Corps’ prelimi- nary review, delivered in April, indicated the project would adversely affect essential fish habitat. WANTED Clatsop Post 12 Friday, August 10 th $ Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Taco Salads • 6.00 Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 With All The Trimmings a lderbrook Saturday, August 11 th Get y chom our p read ers y! 11am until Parade Ends BBQ Hamburgers $5.00 Hot Dogs $3.00 Pop and Chips $1.00 pm e signs Follow th the from t estauran Logger R nappa in K Seaside School District A topographical map illustrating waterways potentially impacted by development of the new campus. 4pm ‘til Gone “Karaoke Dave” at 6pm B rownsmead C orn F eed S unday S eptember 9 2 - 6 th SEASIDE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has found that the $99.7 mil- lion project to relocate Sea- side schools out of the tsunami inundation zone fails to offset impacts to neighboring streams with essential fish habitat. School district officials hope the Army Corps accepts a plan to provide an environ- mental easement on property behind the district bus barn on U.S. Highway 101 instead of mitigation at the new campus off Spruce Drive. “We don’t have enough room on our project site to do stream mitigation, so we had offered more wetlands to com- pensate for that,” Jim Henry, the project manager, said. “So we have had to look off-site for a solution.” According to the school dis- trict’s joint application to the Army Corps and the Depart- ment of State Lands, the proj- ect will result in the permanent placement of almost 4,800 cubic yards of soil, concrete and stone within 0.16 acre of Jeffrey Henon, a spokes- man for the Army Corps, said the agency is actively review- ing the permit application to determine the type and amount of “compensatory mitigation necessary” to offset environ- mental losses. Henry said the permit delay has the school district’s con- struction team “scrambling on a lot of fronts.” The delay has stalled con- struction of an access road from Heights Elementary School to the new campus site, Henry said. “Ideally, we’d be working from the bottom up,” he said. “We have to go through the back door another month than we wanted.” Henry said crews will con- tinue to access the site via Beerman Creek Road and Mainline logging road until the Army Corps signs off on the permit application. “Once we have convinced the Corps of Engineers we have appropriate mitigation, the next day we’ll be impact- ing the areas we plan to impact on the mitigation plan,” Henry said. “There have been opti- mistic trends the past week, but we haven’t received final approval. 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