147TH YEAR, NO. 6
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019
$1.50
Church
group buys
building
for housing
Affordable options
for downtown
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Congregants at First Presbyterian
Church are purchasing a building down-
town with plans to create affordable and
workforce housing.
The building, on Marine Drive across
the street from Vintage Hardware and
Sears, houses Mallternative and River-
side Vapes on the bottom floor but con-
tains 50 studio apartments on the two
upper floors. The group will close on the
building by the end of the month.
Pastor Bill Van Nostran, who spear-
headed the effort and negotiated the sale
with owner Bernard Bjork, is not sure
how many apartments will end up on the
market or if some might be converted into
larger units.
No one has lived in the apartments for
years and the building will require a great
deal of work to bring it up to code before
any apartments can be rented, Van Nos-
tran said.
But, he added, “There’s all kinds of
potential.”
Van Nostran did not disclose the price,
or discuss who in the church contributed
money to purchase the building. The real
market value of the property has been
listed between $300,000 and just over
$500,000 in recent years, according to
county records.
An advisory committee, whose mem-
bers include a mix of congregants and
others in the community, such as Todd
Johnston of the Northwest Oregon Hous-
ing Authority, met for the first time only
recently. The committee will be applying
for nonprofit status and forming a board
to pursue funding.
“It won’t solve the housing issue in
and of itself, but it’s a start,” said Ron
Zilli, a state forester who is volunteering
on the advisory committee.
It is too early to say exactly how the
housing project will unfold, but Van
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Astoria resident Lacy Brown, a teacher, rents out a downstairs room in her home to tourists. The Airbnb functions as a summer
job, she said.
Astoria gets better grasp
on homestay lodging
New license meant to curb illegal rentals
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
F
See Building, Page A5
Apartment project
near Riverwalk
lands city
design approval
Blend of vacation,
workforce housing
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Plans to build a 66-unit apartment com-
plex that would blend workforce hous-
ing with vacation rentals passed muster
in front of the Astoria
Design Review Com-
mittee on Thursday.
MORE
The
committee
INSIDE
approved a proposal
Apartments
by developer Walt
sold to
Postlewait to build the
California
Northpost Apartments
couple
on property between
Page A2
31st and 32nd streets,
near Safeway and the
Astoria Riverwalk.
The project still needs to pass the His-
toric Landmarks Commission at a hear-
ing on Tuesday.
“This is a long-term investment into
this community,” Postlewait told the
committee. He designed the project with
the city’s housing needs in mind, with the
goal of providing housing for workers
who make $15 to $18 an hour.
“That was the seed for this,” he said.
“The seed was not, ‘Oh, let’s find some-
thing to make a lot of money on.’”
See Project, Page A5
Katrina Morrell Gasser
People from all over the world stayed in Katrina Morrell Gasser’s
Astoria home. She set aside one wall for them to draw pictures
and leave messages.
or some, it is an
annoyance. Others
complain it feels like
robbery. Fair to say opin-
ions are mixed over Asto-
ria’s new homestay lodg-
ing license.
The license, which
allows people to rent bed-
rooms in their homes to
tourists, went into effect
this year. City leaders
hoped it would do several
things: curb illegal rent-
als, streamline the process
for residents who want
to offer legal rentals and
make it easier for city staff
to track rentals.
Like many cities across
the country, Astoria has
struggled to stay on top
of what appears to be a
growing number of Airb-
nb-type vacation rent-
als and operators who are
not always following city
rules or paying hotel taxes.
In June, the city sent
out a series of mailers to
people with homestay
lodging operations, warn-
ing them that applications
for the city’s new license
were due by the end of the
month.
People who did not
have at least an appli-
cation in process by the
deadline and continue to
run their vacation rental
face a fine of $1,000 each
day they operate out of
compliance.
As of Tuesday, the city
reported 10 licenses in
hand and another 14 in
process.
“The ones we’ve been
getting more of the appli-
cations from are the ones
who had their stuff taken
care of in the first place,”
City Manager Brett Estes
said.
City planning staff
are using vacation rental
advertising sites like
Airbnb to contact people
they don’t have addresses
for and have been able to
reach some who didn’t
See License, Page A5
Holcom blames county for death of Salvage Chief bill
Funding died in Salem
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
An entrepreneur who wants
to revive the Salvage Chief for
disaster response blames Clat-
sop County staff for killing a bill
that would have provided $1.9
million in state money for the
project.
Floyd Holcom, speaking
during the public comment
period at the county commission
meeting Wednesday night, said
an email circulated by Tiffany
Brown, the county’s emergency
manager, “torpedoed and sabo-
taged” the effort in Salem.
Brown had informed county
commissioners she was skepti-
cal about the project and notified
them Senate Bill 678 was pend-
ing with a few days remaining in
the session. Just before the ses-
sion ended in June, Holcom
said state Sen. Betsy Johnson,
The Salvage Chief was a naval landing vessel converted to perform
marine salvage. It aided nearly 300 vessels.
D-Scappoose, one of the bill’s
sponsors, informed him the bill
would not advance.
On Wednesday, Holcom told
commissioners Brown’s email
“essentially killed SB 678.” He
said the email was “interwo-
ven with personal attacks, false
statements, misleading hear-
say and omissions of important
facts.”
Other supporters of the Sal-
vage Chief also spoke out. “I’ve
been very involved in Senate
Bill 678 and I was very sad-
dened that Clatsop County threw
us under the bus,” said Don
Floyd, the chairman of the Sal-
vage Chief Foundation.
Brown was not immediately
available to comment. County
commissioners and county staff
did not publicly respond to Hol-
com’s criticism.
The money from Salem
would have gone to repair and
upgrade the decommissioned
World War II-era ship that
helped nearly 300 vessels during
its service life.
Holcom, the owner of Pier
39, purchased the Salvage Chief
in 2015 and believes it could be
useful after a disaster. But others
have questioned whether restor-
ing the vessel makes sense and
have asked for a more detailed
plan for how it would be used in
an emergency.
“Although we have to start
all over, there is no plan or asset
available to perform the duties to
keep the Columbia River chan-
nel clear outside of the Salvage
Chief!” Holcom said in a Face-
book post.