A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
Downtown: Public hearing open until Nov. 26
Continued from Page A1
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Astoria has approved changes to Bridge Vista, which guides development along the
Columbia River in Uniontown.
Bridge Vista: ‘The city is unilaterally
imposing its will on the Port with the
imposition of the view corridors’
Continued from Page A1
“We were elected to
oversee its management,”
Rohne said, reading an
email he wrote to City
Councilor Roger Rocka.
“The city is unilaterally
imposing its will on the
Port with the imposition of
the view corridors. It was
with complete disregard
to the elected Port board
that the City Council does
this.”
Jim
Knight,
who
resigned in June as the
Port’s executive direc-
tor, had pushed for the
plan districts. He said it
was preordained that the
City Council wanted more
restrictions to protect
views, and that the city has
yet to look at the economic
impact of not allowing
property to be developed to
its full potential.
While city councilors
were open to collaborating
with the Port Commission,
a majority did not sup-
port delaying Bridge Vista
amendments over the view
corridors . Councilor Joan
Herman and Councilor Jes-
samyn West noted that the
business owners appeal-
ing for view corridors were
not at Monday’s meeting to
plead their case.
Councilors accepted the
conclusion of Rosemary
Johnson, a city planning
consultant , that the view
corridors would not reduce
the square footage that can
be built on the affected
properties, but slightly shift
building placement to the
west. They also noted the
fl exibility the plan districts
give the Port to potentially
bypass some development
restrictions.
“We have tried to
accommodate as best
we can the need for Port
development and indus-
trial development,” Rocka
said. “People keep talking
about the value of a work-
ing waterfront, and I agree
with that. But what is a
working waterfront? It’s
not hotels.”
The proposed building
height restrictions include
28 feet over water, mean-
ing the 39-room Bowline
Hotel could be able to add
a second story. Buildings
could also rise to 35 feet
over water for water-depen-
dent uses, or with narrower
widths higher up.
P roperty owners like
Steve Fick, who owns a sea-
food-processing pier and a
historic brick building he’s
turning into a distillery at
the foot of Fourth Street,
had complained that the pro-
posed code changes were too
restrictive. Fick has pushed
for fl exibility and chafed at
the notion he would not be
able to use his buildings for
things like hotels, while Bow-
line is under construction
only a couple of blocks east.
Fick and Stephen Allen, a
local accountant who owns
fi ve properties along the
waterfront between 10th and
12th streets, asked Tuesday
whether the city had looked
at the economic impact of
proposed restrictions.
“I hope you have given
careful consideration to
what this will do to all of
us businesspeople who love
this community and over the
years have put a lot of time
and effort into our proper-
ties,” Allen said.
After receiving a letter
from the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association
calling for fl exibility, plan-
ning commissioners decided
medical practices and other
professional offi ces should
also be allowed over water,
whether in existing or new
buildings. Such offi ces
would bring higher-paying
jobs downtown than hotels,
Cameron-Lattek said.
The proposed develop-
ment codes would preserve
an 80-foot-wide swath of
land along the Astoria Riv-
erwalk and a 70-foot view
corridor along streets. Plan-
ning commissioners agreed
that buildings should be able
to rise to 35 feet on land
within 100 feet of the Riv-
erwalk corridor. They dis-
missed a recommendation
for stepbacks on higher sto-
ries, arguing the 35-foot
height limit achieved the
$
8
same desired outcome.
They agreed that farther
inland, buildings should be
allowed to 45 feet outright,
essentially nixing a recom-
mendation that affordable
housing should be required
in new buildings rising to
four stories.
“I don’t think we should
be talking about affordable
housing in the most expen-
sive property in Astoria
under these circumstances,”
Commissioner Cindy Price
said.
With the amount of
changes from what was orig-
inally recommended, the
Planning Commission left
the public hearing on the pro-
posed Urban Core develop-
ment rules open until Nov. 26.
Commissioners
could
then kick the recommenda-
tions up to the City Council,
which could hold hearings
in December and adopt the
codes by next year.
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