The daily Astorian., October 19, 2019, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 8, Image 8

A8
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
Urban Core: Plan to restrict development Mitchell: Wanted to
donate since she learned
about it as a teenager
Continued from Page A1
between a public wanting
river views and private prop-
erty owners wanting fl exibil-
ity to develop.
The Urban Core runs
along the waterfront between
Second and 16th streets . The
plan anticipates a mix of
commercial, residential and
water-dependent uses with
denser development, while
still providing river views.
Rosemary Johnson, a
city planning consultant ,
recently refreshed the Asto-
ria Planning Commission on
the Urban Core in advance
of a public hearing on Tues-
day. Commissioners w ould
recommend code changes
to the City Council, which
could hold public hearings
starting in November, with
potential adoption as soon as
December.
The code changes would
largely restrict new develop-
ment over the water to the top
of the riverbank, with numer-
ous limitation zones over
undeveloped piling fi elds and
existing piers between build-
ings. The city met with prop-
erty owners and purposely
placed limitations on areas
unlikely for further develop-
ment, Johnson said.
“We discussed their plans,
what was going on, so that
we were trying to be con-
scious of the property own-
ers, who had some rights,
plus the citizens,” she said.
“We have competing inter-
ests there, and we have to
look at both.”
In between are non limita-
tion areas — mostly existing
buildings — where heights
would be limited to 28 feet, or
35 feet if the building’s width
is reduced. Buildings allowed
over water would be limited
to 4,000 square feet and the
lesser of 150 feet wide or
60% of lot coverage. The city
would require 40-foot view
corridors in between build-
ings and some form of public
access to the riverfront.
The height standards
would be similar on land
within 100 feet of the Astoria
Riverwalk. Buildings else-
where in Urban Core could
rise to 45 feet if they include
multifamily affordable hous-
ing and a plaza, courtyard or
other public gathering spot.
The codes would preserve
an 80-foot-wide swath of
land along the R iverwalk —
70 feet along street rights of
way — and require at least
a 10-foot stepback for each
Continued from Page A1
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
A new boutique hotel is being built on the Astoria Riverwalk between Eighth Street and Ninth
Street amid potential code changes.
‘I’M GOING TO TRY AND HELP
PEOPLE UNDERSTAND I WANT TO
PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE
TOWN. THOSE THAT HAVE THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF TAKING CARE
OF THE WATERFRONT NEED THE
INCOME TO TAKE CARE OF IT.’
Steve Fick | owner of Fishhawk Fisheries and
a historic building at the end of Fourth Street
additional building story.
“It lets sunlight down,”
Johnson said. “It gives an air-
ier feeling than that tunnel
effect.”
Last new hotel?
Some of the more con-
troversial language comes
in the limitation of uses for
buildings over water, where
new homes , bars, hotels,
offi ces and medical facilities
would be prohibited. Hotels
and motels would be a con-
ditional use over land else-
where in the Urban Core.
A notable exception is the
$5.5 million, 39-room bou-
tique hotel already approved
and being built within a for-
mer fi sh-processing plant
next to Buoy Beer. The proj-
ect, tentatively named the
Bowline Hotel, is a partner-
ship between the brewery,
Adrift Hotel and other inves-
tors. It could be the last new
hotel approved on the central
waterfront.
The political climate
has changed since the
upheaval over the Fairfi eld
Inn & Suites, a project that
prompted the city to revise
the Bridge Vista section of the
Riverfront Vision Plan and
further restrict development.
“I have mixed feelings,”
Tiffany Turner, a co-owner
of Adrift, said . “I respect and
understand the need to grow
wisely, and I think Astoria is
really grappling with that in
an authentic and good way.”
Other property owners,
like Steve Fick, who owns
a small seafood processing
operation on a pier at the foot
of Fourth Street, fi nd the pro-
posed restrictions in Urban
Core too limiting. The code
changes, he believes, could
narrow options and hurt
property values in a changing
business environment.
Fick also owns a historic
brick building at the foot of
Fourth Street where he is
building out a distillery.
“I want my fl exibility to be
maintained as it is,” he said.
“And really at this point, any-
thing else to me is unaccept-
able. I’ve paid my taxes for
over 30 years on the potential
to do different things at this
place.”
Fick was part of the Plan-
ning Commission when the
Riverfront Vision Plan fi rst
came up a decade ago and
said commissioners at the
time had a more balanced
approach. He sees hypocrisy
in the new hotel approved
three blocks to the east while
the city won’t allow him or
other waterfront property
owners the same right, or in
the city not allowing uses
like professional and med-
ical offi ces that would pro-
vide the income to maintain
waterfront buildings.
Fick plans to organize
property owners to share
their concerns during public
hearings.
“I’m going to try and help
people understand I want to
preserve the integrity of the
town,” he said. “Those that
have the responsibility of
taking care of the waterfront
need the income to take care
of it.”
‘Anywhere, USA’
Johnson understands the
diffi cult balance . But one of
the biggest assets of Asto-
ria — economically and aes-
thetically — is the ability to
see the Columbia R iver from
land, unlike in many other
cities, she said. It is an argu-
ment she said she has made
with hoteliers wanting to
build on the waterfront.
“Having
development
that respects our character,
and respects that need for
that view of the river, is what
we’re looking for,” John-
son said. “Because if we lose
who we are, we’re going to
be Anywhere, USA.”
Nurses: Thanked community for ‘overwhelming support’
Continued from Page A1
levels, inconsistent sched-
uling and low pay. The two
sides brought in a federal
mediator but hadn’t met
since August.
Amber Cooper, a union
representative, said nurses
were preparing for a strike
vote as a fi nal measure,
while the hospital’s admin-
istration was trying to fi nd
temporary nurses to fi ll in.
The mediator brought the
two sides together for a fi nal
negotiation Wednesday , she
said.
“We could not have
reached this deal without
the overwhelming support
of our community,” Kelsey
Betts, a nurse in the family
birthing center and chair-
woman of the negotiating
team, said in a news release.
“This contract is a big step
up. It helps ensure CMH will
continue to be staffed with
skilled nurses, especially as
the hospital looks to grow in
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Nurses marched in Astoria in September for a new contract.
the coming years.”
The tentative agreement,
which nurses will vote on in
the coming weeks, includes
a 5% pay increase upon rat-
ifi cation, along with 3% in
2020 and 2021, according
to a release from the union.
The hours docked from a
nurse’s schedule because of
a low patient count would
be capped at 20% of their
shifts per fi scal quarter. An
offi cial process would be
put in place to review cases
when the hours of part-time
nurses are cut by more than
30% because of internal
hospital decisions.
Nurses had pushed for
the hospital to include a
2016 state staffi ng law in
their contract. The Oregon
Health Authority has one
complaint against the hospi-
tal for multiple alleged vio-
lations of the law.
The agreement includes
additional steps to resolve
staffi ng issues in-house
before fi ling complaints
with the state . It gives
nurses the option of fi ling
union grievances if the hos-
pital does not agree to take a
staffi ng issue to a vote of the
hospital’s staffi ng commit-
tee, Cooper said.
“We are pleased to have
reached an agreement with
the” nurses union, Nicole
Williams, the hospital’s
chief operating offi cer, said
in a news release. “Our
nurses have consistently
provided excellent care to
our patients and are an inte-
gral part of the organiza-
tion’s success. We would
like to thank our caregiv-
ers and community for their
continued support in help-
ing CMH provide the high-
est quality health care in the
region.”
A couple of days before
surgery, Mitchell learned
one of the fi ve people
receiving a kidney out of
the exchange was particu-
larly diffi cult to match.
“I frankly am just very
happy to know I not only
helped give somebody their
life back, but I helped give
somebody’s child their dad
back or their mom back,
potentially for years and
years to come,” she said.
“And that means a whole
lot to me.”
Although she recom-
mends that people consider
organ donation , she does
not want to tell anybody it
is an easy decision.
“There is a lot that you
do have to go through psy-
chologically to really get
yourself to a point of where
you’re OK with voluntarily
going into surgery,” Mitch-
ell said.
“If it is important to you
to really leave something
on the planet so that you
know you made a differ-
ence, this is probably one
of the few things you get
that opportunity to do.”
Living organ dona-
tion is something Mitch-
ell has wanted to do since
she learned about it as a
teenager. When she was in
her late 20s, a close friend
needed a kidney, but she
was not a match.
When Mitchell was
elected to the state House
in 2018, she knew she
would have time after her
fi rst legislative session this
year to have the surgery
and recover.
She also used the oppor-
tunity to draw attention to
living donation.
Mitchell,
D-Astoria,
was a chief sponsor, with
state Sen. Sara Gelser,
D-Corvallis, of a new state
law that helps provide job
security for organ donors
by making it a procedure
protected by the state’s
Family Leave Act.
Although living organ
donation is now protected ,
organ donors do not qualify
for paid leave.
“They’re in the mid-
dle of the rule-making pro-
cess. A nd so I’ve made
that known to the people
involved in that process
that I would really love
to see paid family medi-
cal leave available for liv-
ing organ donation so that
more people will have the
ability to make this deci-
sion and not have to worry
about how it would poten-
tially impact their jobs or
their ability to make rent
just because they wanted to
donate,” Mitchell said.
She said the risk of the
surgery is low, especially
since extensive testing is
done on the front end to
ensure a donor is a good
candidate .
Mitchell said she is feel-
ing good, aside from the
expected pain that comes
after surgery. She hopes by
sharing her experience pub-
licly people will explore
the opportunity to make a
living organ donation.
“If one in 10,000 peo-
ple became altruistic kid-
ney donors you could actu-
ally eliminate the waiting
list in the United States for
people who are waiting for
kidneys,” she said. “That
to me is a pretty incredible
statistic.”
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Pat and Jim Radich, owners of Peter Pan Market on Seventh
Street and Niagara Avenue, have found a buyer for the
grocery store and deli.
Peter Pan Market: One of
few remaining independent
markets in Astoria
Continued from Page A1
Peter Pan opened in
1939, replacing Beezley’s
Store several years after it
moved downtown, accord-
ing to newspaper articles
at the time. It is one of
the few remaining inde-
pendent markets in Asto-
ria, along with Astor Court
Grocery owned by Flora
and Gustavo Velazquez
on Alameda Avenue, the
Astoria Downtown Market
owned by Sam McDan-
iel on Commercial Street
and the Short Stop owned
by Cheri Temple on Olney
Avenue.
Fire chief: Ames steps up
Continued from Page A1
Ted Ames, a former
Astoria fi re chief, is fi ll-
ing in as interim fi re chief
while Warrenton recruits
a permanent replacement.
Ames had served as the
Warrenton fi re chief before
leaving in 2013 for the
Astoria post.
The Warrenton Fire
Department
includes
more than 20 volunteer
fi refi ghters, one paid fi re-
fi ghter and a training offi -
cer in addition to the fi re
chief. The department
covers the city and pro-
vides services to Fort Ste-
vens State Park, Camp
Rilea Armed
Forces
Training Center and the
Astoria Regional Airport.
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