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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2019)
SEASIDE SEAGULLS SPRING SPORTS PREVIEWS WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 199 PAGES A8-A9 ONE DOLLAR Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian The Department of State Lands is contemplating selling 15 acres at the south end of North Tongue Point. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Sam Henderson talks about his work as an intern at KMUN. North Coast teen talks about growing up with Asperger’s syndrome ‘I want people to think of me as a skilled person because I’m a skilled person ... not because of (Asperger’s)’ By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian S EASIDE — Sam Henderson is spending his last two months of high school like many other seniors. He is swamped by schol- arship and final project deadlines. When he’s not at school, he’s finish- ing his Pacifica Project, which for him is editing podcasts as an intern at KMUN radio. And in the fall, he will be a com- puter science major at the Univer- sity of Utah. His dream is to make role-playing games so good that peo- ple stop calling video games “toys” and instead start calling them “art.” But before he leaves the North Coast, Henderson wants to share his story. The 18-year-old Seaside High School student has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder that can make everyday social situations and nonver- bal communication difficult. It’s not because he’s interested in becoming “the autism guy” of his school. Sam Henderson adjusts the controls on a sound board at KMUN while working on a podcast. “I’ve never wanted my life to be defined by it,” Henderson said. “I wanted to be the computer-science guy, or the fun, guitar-playing guy. Not the autism guy.” It’s because it’s the part of his life he feels is most misunderstood. He hopes by telling his story other stu- dents with autism spectrum disorder will feel less alone. “I want to give hope to those that may have trouble with the condition, and show them my story ... that there is a way for them to succeed in soci- ety,” Henderson said. “Just because they do have these conditions doesn’t mean they will fail.” Strength and weakness Elly Henderson was first tipped off that things were different with her son when he entered kindergar- ten at Fire Mountain School in Arch Cape. “You would get him around other kids and you’d see they’re not really jibber-jabbering with each other,” she said. See Teen, Page A6 State explores land sale at Tongue Point Bergerson Construction interested in property By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Department of State Lands is exploring the sale of 15 acres along the Columbia River at North Tongue Point after an application by Bergerson Con- struction to buy the land for storage. The 15 acre plot is on the southern end of North Tongue Point, the indus- ‘IT’S MAK- trial dock owned by Hyak Mari- ING SURE time. It sits along WE KEEP a deepwater side channel of the FLEXIBILI- Columbia River with access to a TY FOR OUR finger pier. OPERA- The southern half of the prop- TIONS.’ erty is occupied Greg Morrill, by a former Navy landfill, fenced president of Bergerson off, capped and kept in perpetual restoration. The deed restrictions essentially elimi- nate any chance of the property ever being developed, unless all the buried contami- nants are dug up and removed. The state could decide to partition the property off and sell only the northern, developable half. Bergerson Construction had long leased land on Pier 3 and the central water- front from the Port of Astoria until being squeezed out last year to make more room for Astoria Forest Products’ log exports. The company relocated to North Tongue Point, where it leases from Hyak and stores equipment just north of the landfill. But Hyak also has plans for expansion, creat- ing a boatbuilding and shipwright center. Greg Morrill, the president of Berger- son, said the company would like to have control over a piece of property. “It’s mak- ing sure we keep flexibility for our opera- tions,” he said. The State Land Board will decide Tuesday whether to begin due diligence on partitioning and selling the property. Bidding would be open to the public. Townhouse project a quandary for city Two units already built on the South Slope By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian The townhouse on the South Slope was already built and both units had buyers before the father- son team behind Harn Construction heard there was a problem. The townhouse is on a single lot with a single sewer lateral serving both units. If they intended to sell the units separately, it wasn’t going to work, wrote city planning consul- tant Rosemary Johnson in a March email to Bob and Corey Harn. According to the city, while you could build a duplex on the vacant 8,000-square-foot lot and use a sin- gle sewer line, you couldn’t build a townhouse with units sold to sepa- rate people. That would require a second sewer lateral and a split lot — and you can’t split lots that are under 10,000 square feet in Astoria. Not without a variance. From the Harns’ perspective, there was another problem: On per- mits the builders pulled last sum- mer that were approved by city staff, the project is described as “two new townhomes” or simply as “town- houses.” In a city file on the proj- ect, there’s no documentation of any issues with the project until Febru- ary and March. While the Harns and city staff try to sort through the misunderstand- ing, the confusion over the project could prompt a broader conversa- tion about the flexibility of Astoria’s development rules. The city has dis- cussed how to encourage different types of housing to help ease a hous- ing crunch. City Manager Brett Estes main- tains staff told the Harns from the very beginning, even before the land was purchased, about what needed to happen in order for the town- house project and individual sale of the units to work. One option dis- cussed, he said, was the creation of a condominium plat where the units were divided for individual sale but the land remained whole, property held in common by the owners. But the ball was in the Harns’ court to get that particular process going. The plans the Harns submit- ted looked like duplex plans, Estes said. The Public Works Department believed there was an understand- ing that the land itself might be kept in common ownership. The Harns were also told that if they wanted to divide the ownership of the units, they would need to install individual utility services. But the early discussions and the city’s assumptions about how the Harns planned to divide the units or possibly the property are not cap- tured in the city’s written records for See Townhouse, Page A6
