A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2018
Astoria City Council
fi nalizes approval of
waterfront hotel
ill said Thursday. “The
code has gotten beaten up
quite a lot. But if the code
were crystal clear, there
wouldn’t be land use attor-
neys and there wouldn’t be
a need for design review
committees or appeals to
the City Council.”
While she, like Price,
still does not believe the
hotel is compatible in terms
of scale and mass, Nem-
lowill said she was grateful
that Hollander changed the
look of the hotel following
the fi rst round of denials
of a design criticized for
being generic and boxy.
The new design, pre-
sented to the City Council
at Hollander’s fi rst appeal
in October, was intended
to evoke historic cannery
buildings and other historic
structures.
“This was a very com-
plex case,” Nemlow-
ill said. “And ultimately,
even though there are a lot
of disappointed people in
the community right now,
I think that the design is
much better than the fi rst
design we saw and I appre-
ciate the developer cre-
ating a design that is spe-
cifi c to Astoria and not just
Anywhere, USA.”
City Councilor Bruce
Jones and Councilor Tom
Brownson said they did
not want to see the water-
front clogged with hotels,
but repeated points they
made at the hearing ear-
lier this month before vot-
ing in favor of Hollander’s
appeal: That, in this case,
the code was not clear.
“I don’t want to see a
series of four-story build-
ings going in the Bridge
Vista overlay zone any
more than anyone else
does,” Jones said. “But the
City Council voted only
three years ago in 2015 to
allow a 45-foot height in
areas in the Bridge Vista
that are zoned for hotels.
“The way to control how
this city evolves is through
a tightly written develop-
ment code, amended either
where the community
needs change or we fi nd
gaps in the code or maybe
some areas that are too
subject to interpretation.”
If the majority of the
community wants to limit
building heights, he con-
cluded, they need to amend
the code.
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Astoria city council-
ors fi nalized their deci-
sion Thursday to uphold
an appeal and allow devel-
opers to build a four-story
hotel along the riverfront.
The
City
Council
adopted fi ndings of fact to
refl ect the approval.
City Councilor Cindy
Price and Councilor Zetty
Nemlowill
remained
against the project, main-
taining that the hotel does
not meet criteria intended
to preserve views and the
city’s historic character.
They were the sole “no”
votes at a hearing this
month when a majority
of the council gave tenta-
tive approval to Hollander
Hospitality to construct
the 60-plus room, Marri-
‘I THINK THAT
THE DESIGN IS
MUCH BETTER
THAN THE
FIRST DESIGN
WE SAW.’
Councilor Zetty Nemlowill
ott-brand Fairfi eld Inn and
Suites.
Hollander wants to
build the hotel at the base
of Second Street, home to
the former Ship Inn restau-
rant, and an area that falls
under the city’s Bridge
Vista overlay, part of the
Riverfront Vision Plan that
dictates how development
unfolds along the water-
front. Hotels are allowed
outright at the site and
only the building’s pro-
posed design and proxim-
ity to historic features were
reviewed by city boards.
The Design Review
Committee and the His-
toric Landmarks Commis-
sion rejected the project,
but developers appealed
to the City Council. The
Design Review Commit-
tee later rejected a second
design which was again
appealed to City Council.
“This is the fi rst real
big project that has ever
been tried in the Bridge
Vista overlay,” Nemlow-
Deal reached to protect scenic areas
By JEFF MAPES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
After months of wran-
gling, congressional nego-
tiators have reached agree-
ment on a bill that would
protect several popular sce-
nic areas in Oregon.
The package — which
the U.S. Senate is expected
to vote on next month —
contains long-sought pro-
tections for several rivers
and backcountry regions. It
covers parts of the Molalla
and Chetco rivers, as well
as several Rogue River trib-
utaries. And it covers the
Devil’s Staircase, a largely
untouched wildland area in
a southern Oregon coastal
rainforest.
The measure would also
allow forest thinning on a
wilderness area near cen-
tral Oregon’s Crooked River
Ranch to reduce the danger
from wildfi res.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Oregon, said the bill con-
tains “very substantial wins
for conservation” that he
said were long overdue.
Wyden and U.S. Rep.
Greg Walden, the sole
Republican in the Ore-
gon congressional delega-
tion, wrangled for weeks
over the provisions in the
measure.
Walden wanted the Sen-
ate to pass his House-ap-
proved bill dealing with
the Crooked River Ranch,
an upscale development
north of Redmond, and he
objected to some of the wil-
derness provisions in the
original Senate bill.
“The people in Crooked
River Ranch are quite
frankly terrifi ed they are
going to become the next
Paradise, California,” said
Walden spokesman Jus-
tin Discigil, referring to
the Sierra foothills town
recently wiped out by
wildfi re.
Wyden said he also
wanted to act to protect the
ranch. But he said the mat-
ter needed to be paired with
the wilderness protections
he had long sought.
The provisions were
included in a broader pub-
lic lands bill that would
provide wilderness protec-
tions for about 1.3 million
acres around the country.
The bipartisan bill appeared
Chandra LeGue/Oregon Wild
The Devil’s Staircase, a series of cataracts on Wassen Creek in southwest Oregon.
poised for Senate passage
on Wednesday, but U.S.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah,
took procedural steps to
block an immediate vote on
the measure.
That deep-sixed the bill
for now since time is run-
ning out on the congressio-
nal session. But Wyden said
he was promised a Senate
vote next month — and he’s
also expecting quick action
in the House, where Demo-
crats will then be in control.
“I’m feeling quite upbeat
about the prospects for Jan-
uary,” he said.
During the heated nego-
tiations, Wyden said he was
forced to drop provisions
providing wilderness pro-
tection for 100,000 acres
in the Rogue River area as
well as 30,000 acres in the
Molalla River watershed.
Wyden said Molalla
River watershed protections
had to be put off at least
temporarily because of bud-
get issues. But Wyden and
Walden clashed over the
Rogue provisions.
Discigil said Walden was
concerned about allowing
additional wilderness pro-
tections in southern Oregon
that could interfere with
management efforts aimed
at reducing wildfi re.
“Greg shares the con-
cerns of the community in
southern Oregon,” Discigil
said. “After the wildfi re
season we had in 2018 and
2017 … we should be think-
ing very carefully about
moving ahead with new
wilderness provisions.”
Steve Pedery, conser-
vation director of Oregon
Wild, said the Rogue River
areas earmarked for wilder-
ness protection don’t pose
a wildfi re threat since they
aren’t near any communi-
ties. He chastised Walden
for getting involved in a
wilderness fi ght outside his
district.
According to Wyden’s
offi ce, provisions in the new
package include:
• Protections for about
120 miles of Rogue River
tributaries, 21 miles of the
Molalla River south of Port-
land, 18 miles of Jenny Creek
through the Cascade-Siski-
you National Monument, 21
miles of Wasson and Frank-
lin creeks in the Siuslaw
National Forest, and several
tributaries of the Elk River.
• New protections for the
Chetco River to prevent min-
ing activities.
• Wilderness designation
for 30,000 acres for the Dev-
il’s Staircase.
Merry Christmas Courtney Ann
My Angel in Heaven
August 21, 1982-December 22, 2001
t?
For God has said, “I will never fail
you. I will never abandon you.”
Hebrews 13:5 NLT
Love always forever and ever and ever.
-Dadio
WE CURE WHAT ALES YOU
The Astoria City Council
wishes everyone a
JOYOUS
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