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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2018
Hotel: New design complicated the appeals process, discussions
Continued from Page 1A
compatibility, the developer
appealed to the City Council.
In the appeal, Hollander
questioned the criteria the
Historic Landmarks Commis-
sion used to reach a denial,
saying the criteria didn’t
apply since there are no adja-
cent historic buildings to
evaluate new construction
against. The commission’s
review was triggered by the
presence of a historic boiler,
pilings and ballast in the
Columbia River.
The majority of the City
Council agreed, but it was one
of the rare moments Thurs-
day when Hollander’s repre-
sentatives directly addressed
their arguments for appeal-
ing the city boards’ decisions.
Instead, they focused most on
a new design for the hotel,
submitted to city staff that
morning.
The new design had not
been reviewed by the city.
The redesign shows a large
hotel, still four stories tall, but
minus The Ship Inn. In plans
the city boards rejected, Hol-
lander had planned to incor-
porate the restaurant.
The overall appearance of
the hotel has also changed to
reflect the cannery buildings
that once existed along the
waterfront, architects for Hol-
lander told city councilors.
The new design gained ten-
tative admiration from some
councilors and a few people
in the audience.
But the new design also
complicated the appeals pro-
cess and City Council dis-
cussions, with councilors try-
ing to determine what they
would be approving, deny-
ing or sending back for fur-
Carleton Hart Architecture
The new design for the hotel will go before the city’s Design Review Committee.
‘I’m just really hoping that we can figure this
out soon ... because I think it’s a legitimate
proposal, a legitimate plan, and I think the
town actually, in a sense, needs this.’
Mark Hollander
owner of Hollander Hospitality
ther review — the old plans
Hollander championed in the
appeal, the old plans with the
new plans attached, or the
new plans alone.
“Can we not do what we
came here to do?” City Coun-
cilor Cindy Price exclaimed
at one point.
Objections
People who came to testify
against Hollander’s old plans
questioned whether the City
Council should even hear the
company’s presentation. Sev-
eral people argued the new
plans should first go through
the city’s review process and
evaluation by the Design
Review Committee and the
Historic Landmarks Commis-
sion. Price and City Coun-
cilor Zetty Nemlowill agreed.
“This is an issue that a lot
of people care about and have
commented on and are here to
comment on tonight,” Nem-
lowill said. “And the coun-
cil is not prepared to make a
decision on this, the citizens
are not prepared to provide
input and staff has not done a
technical analysis.”
“We were supposed to
be looking at an appeal of a
design that’s much different
than what we’ve been pre-
sented with today,” she added.
“And what we’ve been pre-
sented with might be a better
design, but it’s brand new.”
After listening to the com-
pany’s presentation of the new
design, Jan Faber, a resident,
thanked Hollander for mak-
ing some accommodations to
issues and concerns raised at
past hearings and meetings
on the project. But, he main-
tained, the new design should
go back for review.
“As far as I can see, this
is a withdrawal of the appeal
that was originally presented
to you,” he told the council.
“It’s not an appeal anymore,
it’s a new proposal and if they
want to bring modifications
to the Design Review Com-
mittee, then that’s where it
should go.”
Under the rules of Thurs-
day’s appeal hearing, peo-
ple were able to submit new
information, City Manager
Brett Estes said.
‘Land the plane’
Steven Hultberg, an attor-
ney representing Hollander
Hospitality, said he didn’t
expect the City Council to
come to a decision on the
redesign Thursday night.
“We certainly want every-
one to have an opportunity to
take a look at these materi-
als,” he said.
But, he added, they were
looking for direction from
councilors about how city cri-
teria applied or didn’t apply
to the project. The company
has struggled to understand
the best way to interpret city
code.
“I want to try and land the
plane in this town and create
a hotel,” Mark Hollander, the
company’s owner, said. “I’m
just really hoping that we can
figure this out soon, right,
because I think it’s a legiti-
mate proposal, a legitimate
plan, and I think the town
actually, in a sense, needs
this.”
The City Council ulti-
mately separated the Historic
Landmarks Commission part
of the appeal from the Design
Review Committee portion.
They voted unanimously to
send the new design back to
the Design Review Commit-
tee. They voted 3-2 to ten-
tatively reverse the Historic
Landmarks
Commission’s
denial of the old design.
“The (commission) had
a difficult challenge in front
of them to try to apply their
criteria to this particular case
and they did the best the could
and within that they found
some reason for denial,” City
Councilor Tom Brownson
said. Mayor Arline LaMear
and City Councilor Bruce
Jones agreed.
Price and Nemlowill voted
“no,” arguing that the His-
toric Landmarks Commis-
sion should have a chance to
review the new design. There
was no chance for anyone at
the meeting Thursday to com-
ment on whether they thought
the new design was histori-
cally compatible, they said.
If the commission had
made a different case, Brown-
son said he might have been
convinced, but he agreed with
Hollander that the criteria was
not clear and did not seem to
apply to the hotel.
“We’re not done with this
type of situation,” Brownson
said of historic landmarks cri-
teria. “This is going to come
up again and again and again.
So I think this is going to help
inform everybody.”
Uniontown: Helping Hands plans to host open house on Sept. 29
Teresa Sims, the hous-
ing authority’s deputy direc-
tor, included Helping Hands
in a list of complaints against
housing authority director
Todd Johnston and the agency.
Sims has been on administra-
tive leave since May pending
the results of an investigation
after other employees lodged
complaints against her.
In a claim Sims filed with
the state Bureau of Labor and
Industries, she alleges Help-
ing Hands interfered with her
duties as supervisor of the
Section 8 housing program.
She was also concerned that
Helping Hands and the hous-
ing authority were misusing
federal funds, she said.
Scott Lee, the chairman of
the housing authority board
and the county commission,
calls Sims’ claims “baseless.”
Evans said her accusa-
tions have not hindered Help-
ing Hands, but the nonprofit is
steering clear of the drama.
“We don’t understand any
of the complaints,” Evans
said, adding that Helping
Hands has always been trans-
parent about what it does and
what it provides. He empha-
sized that the organization’s
relationship with the hous-
ing authority has always been
professional.
The Uniontown project
comes at a time when Asto-
ria and other cities in Clatsop
County struggle with how to
address a growing homeless
population, scant resources
to address mental health and
addiction issues for people
with little or no income, and a
shortage of affordable housing.
Helping Hands is not the
only group hoping to fill the
gaps. Bill Van Nostran, pas-
tor at Astoria’s First Presby-
terian Church, hopes to soon
provide workforce housing to
people like those graduating
from Helping Hands’ outreach
in Astoria.
Van Nostran thinks of the
city’s housing issues in terms
of levels. People living on the
streets are at level zero; people
who find occasional overnight
shelter at the Astoria Warm-
ing Center in bad weather
are at level one; people going
through re-entry programs at
Helping Hands would be at
level two. His church could
provide level three.
“And there seems to be a
gap in Astoria right now and
that’s a niche we hope to fill,”
Van Nostran said.
First Presbyterian is look-
ing for a vacant building
downtown to create afford-
able and low-income housing.
Van Nostran says it is a logi-
cal progression in the church’s
ministry. The church already
provides an emergency food
pantry. Van Nostran serves on
the warming center’s board
and the church supports the
emergency shelter with finan-
cial contributions and volun-
teer hours.
A housing project would
fall in line with “our quest to
continue doing ministry out-
side the walls of the church,”
he said.
Helping Hands’ leaders
pride themselves on the rela-
tionships they have developed
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Sailer Galusha-McRobbie, left, and Hunter Bedortha clean up a kitchen in one of the
units at the former boarding house.
with landlords and housing
programs to place graduates
from re-entry programs into
permanent housing. Evans and
Raven Brown, the nonprofit’s
development director, are con-
fident they will be able to con-
tinue placing people in Astoria
after the Uniontown building
comes online.
But, they said, they are glad
people like Van Nostran are
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trying to come up with creative
solutions to increase afford-
able housing options.
U.S.
Rep.
Suzanne
Bonamici visited the Union-
town project in July. The Ore-
gon Democrat asked Evans
how she could help and he
stressed the importance of
advocacy.
The nonprofit does not
receive federal funding.
Because its facilities do not
qualify as emergency shelters
or low-income housing, it does
not meet the data processing
criteria from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban
Development, Evans said.
“We don’t fit neatly in one
category,” Evans said. “The
criteria has to change a little
bit for us to be able to do this.
It’s so far out of the focus of
what we do.”
Nonetheless, the congress-
woman seemed impressed
with the project.
“This looks like it was
made for what you’re
doing,” Bonamici said. “This
place is huge.”
Helping Hands plans to
host a community open house
at the Uniontown building
on Sept. 29 so people can see
the work that’s been done and
learn more about the programs
offered.
Jack Heffernan contributed
to this report.
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