A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
County reports three new virus cases
The Astorian
Clatsop County on Wednesday
reported three new coronavirus cases.
The cases include a man and a
woman in their 60s living in the
northern part of the county and a
woman in her 20s living in the south-
ern part of the county.
All three were recovering at
home.
The county has recorded 783
cases since the start of the pandemic.
According to the county, 18 were
hospitalized and six have died.
Vacation rentals: Regulated by two county ordinances
Continued from Page A1
Gail Henrikson, the coun-
ty’s community develop-
ment director, said the meet-
ings were an opportunity to
explain how the code compli-
ance process works and how
they prioritize and address
complaints.
“It was also a chance for us
to hear all of the concerns that
we were getting on a piece-
meal basis, but just to (create)
a communitywide dialogue
so everybody was hearing the
same thing at the same time,”
she said. “And then by hear-
ing that, it also gave staff a
chance to begin to identify
areas in the ordinance where
we needed to make revisions
to help us better implement
and enforce it.”
During the community
meetings, residents explained
how short-term rentals have
impacted their quality of
life. Many of the complaints
deal with noise, parking and
overcrowding . Other com-
plaints are out of the county’s
control.
Vacation rental owners
have described their efforts
to be good neighbors and
encourage their guests to do
the same.
“And they also have con-
cerns about possible changes
to the ordinance that may
impact how they do business
or even possibly eliminate
the possibility of them doing
business,” Henrikson said.
There are two county ordi-
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Vacation rentals in Arch Cape are required to book minimum
seven-night stays.
nances that regulate vaca-
tion rentals. One is specifi c
to Arch Cape, while the other
covers the remaining unincor-
porated parts of the county.
Both are similar, but have
a couple of key differences
regarding parking and length-
of-stay requirements.
The Arch Cape ordinance
requires a minimum sev-
en-night stay, and only one
reservation is allowed during
a seven-day period. Street
parking is not allowed. There
is no limit or minimum stay
requirement for other unin-
corporated areas, and street
parking is allowed.
Commissioners directed
staff to set parameters and
a scope of work for an ad
hoc committee to help com-
bine and reconcile the two
ordinances.
“Those would be the two
big areas where we would
need to have a committee to
look at it and determine how
best to reconcile,” Henrikson
said. “Whether it’s taking one
of the ordinance provisions
and recommending that to be
adopted or just creating some
sort of compromise between
the two ordinances.”
The board’s guidance
on other questions could be
drafted as amendments . Some
of those questions include
whether there should be a
“three-strikes rule” — requir-
ing staff to revoke a vacation
rental permit after three com-
plaints — and penalties for
people who knowingly sub-
mit false complaints.
Some policy items were
provided as a starting point
for future discussions, includ-
ing questions about capping
short-term rentals, prohibit-
ing them in certain parts of
the county and how the lodg-
ing tax is utilized.
Henrikson said those
items will not be included
in the revisions to the ordi-
nances at this time.
“It was so clear to me
how much everybody who
wrote cared about this issue,”
said Commissioner Lianne
Thompson, who represents
South County . “Every sin-
gle person has this passion-
ate devotion to community
well-being. There is not a
consensus on what that com-
munity well-being looks like,
how it’s defi ned, none of it.
There’s no agreement.
“My concern about estab-
lishing a committee would be
it would have to have a pur-
view where it looked at what
was state law, what were
the sidebars. I’ve seen some
things with citizen advisory
committees that have caused
me great concern.
“There have been a num-
ber of proposals that have
been in clear violation of
state law and have been
termed ‘aspirational.’ Well,
I don’t have an aspiration
to break the state law, and I
think it doesn’t help the sit-
uation when anybody thinks
that their will or their whim
or their idea or their pas-
sion, however we want to
characterize it, can have the
force of state law or county
ordinance.”
Crisis repsonse: ‘We have urban problems ... rural funding’
Continued from Page A1
Clatsop
Behavioral
Healthcare, the county’s
mental health provider, has a
mobile crisis team available
to advise law enforcement,
help diffuse situations, con-
nect people to treatment and
avoid unnecessary hospital-
ization or arrest.
Baker said the mobile cri-
sis team is only one piece in
creating an effective system
of care .
“We’re very proud of it,
but we’re also aware of the
limitations that the state cur-
rently only funds us to the
level to have one person
working across the county at
any given time,” Baker told
county commissioners at a
work session.
“There’s a lot of discussion
statewide around is it better to
do co-response, which means
having behavioral health
experts or clinicians go out
with law enforcement, or the
CAHOOTS model, which is
a diversion from law enforce-
ment altogether, requiring 911
to carefully screen and send
the CAHOOTS van out. I
think there is a case that can
be made for either. In this par-
ticular county, given the fact
that we have multiple 911
centers, co-response might be
easier.
“But having mobile
response in and of itself is not
going to help address all the
behavioral health needs that
we’re seeing,” she said. “We
also have to have a place for
folks to go. And that looks a
lot like a crisis stabilization
center.
“I know there had been dis-
cussion about the North Coast
Crisis Respite Center being
that crisis stabilization center.
And what we have found over
the years operating it is that
it’s really hard to put people
who are in psychiatric crisis
into a treatment environment
where people are living there
full time at the same time. It’s
sort of like what would hap-
pen to your household if you
brought somebody in who
was really struggling and
you’re trying to maintain the
stability of everybody else.”
the chairman of the Board
of Commissioners, who rep-
resents Warrenton, where
the crisis respite center is
located . “And many of us, I
think naively so, thought that
the respite center was going
to address that and become
the bridge between the hos-
pital and jail . And I know
that it hasn’t done that — and
never probably was intended
to be that — but it certainly
is a glaring need within the
community.”
Baker said she would love
the r apid a ccess c enter to be
open 24/7, “but we don’t have
the funding or the staffi ng
capacity for that.”
‘IN THIS PARTICULAR COUNTY,
GIVEN THE FACT THAT WE HAVE
MULTIPLE 911 CENTERS, CO-
RESPONSE MIGHT BE EASIER.’
Amy Baker | executive director of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare
Baker thinks the rapid
access center planned for the
agency’s Bond Street site in
Astoria can serve more of that
function and be a place for
police to drop people off when
they are in crisis. The open-
ing of the center is dependent
on when the agency can hire
staff, which Baker said has
been a challenge, in part due
to housing.
“That crisis stabilization
center, I think certainly is
a need,” said Mark Kujala,
She said some of the big-
gest barriers to providing care
continue to be a lack of fund-
ing and affordable and transi-
tional housing.
“I think one of Clatsop’s
unique challenges is that we’re
like a rural county, except that
we have urban problems —
in part due to our proxim-
ity to Portland — except that
we have rural funding,” she
said. “So it’s kind of a double
whammy there.”
Baker and Phillips also
addressed the state’s high
threshold for civil commit-
ment, which, in many cases,
ties the hands of law enforce-
ment, mental health provid-
ers and hospitals from being
able to properly assist people
in crisis because they cannot
force people to accept help .
“The Oregon Court of
Appeals certainly values lib-
erty much above an individ-
ual’s well-being, unless the
threat to well-being is immi-
nent and very serious,” Phil-
lips said. “And the primary
concern has always been pre-
serving someone’s liberty and
avoiding stigma. But I think
most people would agree that
someone who is suffering a
serious mental illness is prob-
ably not wholly at liberty or
free from stigma. The con-
sequence, certainly, of hav-
ing a very limited civil com-
mitment process is that it then
diverts people to the crimi-
nal justice system, which cer-
tainly has greater stigma and
potentially greater loss of
liberty.”
The sheriff said he would
like to see the mobile crisis
team expanded but acknowl-
edged the limits of outreach.
“We can reach out, and cer-
tainly repetition is sometimes
helpful — being consistent in
reaching out to people. But
sometimes we can’t legally
compel someone to engage in
services or to get treatment,”
Phillips said. “And the hos-
pitals have the same thresh-
olds to work within, so it’s
diffi cult.”
Port: ‘We’re trying to
run a lean facility here’
Continued from Page A1
more than $4,700 a month
by 2026. The original term
lasts 20 years, with four
fi ve-year renewal options .
“There’s a lot of com-
ponents moving along with
this,” McGrath said. “Helligso
Construction is working on
getting the site prepped and
should be able to start work
once the city of Warrenton
gives the approval.”
Scoular hopes to open
the plant in the spring. By
then, the Port will install a
pressurized sewer system
to cut down on tidal infi ltra-
tion at the airport swamp-
ing Warrenton’s wastewater
treatment plant.
“I think it’s very excit-
ing to see the Port move
forward on this,” said Dirk
Rohne, the president of the
Port Commission.
The lease comes as
Scoular is moving through
the approval process to
join the Clatsop Enter-
prise Zone, which offers
fi ve years of property tax
breaks on new investments.
Consult a
PROFESSIONAL
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LEO FINZI
Astoria’s Best
one-year extension of permits
in June. He argued the coro-
navirus pandemic had made
fi nancing for new hotels
almost impossible, making
his project eligible for more
time because of an economic
hardship.
The city maintained that
Hollander had 18 months
before the pandemic to start
construction. City s taff noted
that two other projects — the
Bowline Hotel under con-
struction near Buoy Beer
Co. and a Hilton Home2
Suites being planned near
the New Youngs Bay Bridge
— proved a viable market
for new hotel construction
during the pandemic. Staff
also cited its discretion to
consider new, more restric-
tive building rules inspired
by a public backlash to the
height and size of Holland-
er’s project.
The City Council upheld
staff’s fi ndings. Hollander,
who argued that his proj-
ect was not the same as the
other hotels, appealed to
the state Land Use Board of
Appeals, which sided with
the developer.
“At a minimum, the City
Council was required to
explain why it chose not to
rely on petitioner’s evidence
of poor market conditions
and instead chose to rely on
evidence of other hotels that
petitioner explained are not
similarly situated and may or
may not have received fi nanc-
ing,” the appeals board said.
The appeals board also
ruled that the city could use
new, more restrictive building
rules as an argument against
a hotel approved prior to their
adoption. If he can’t win the
appeal, Hollander faces sig-
nifi cantly shrinking the hotel
to preserve views of the river.
City Attorney Blair Hen-
ningsgaard said Monday the
reopened record would allow
city staff to submit more evi-
dence regarding the progress
of the Bowline and Hilton
projects from when Holland-
er’s hotel was approved and
when he sought an extension
of permits.
City Manager Brett Estes
said the earliest the City
Council could hold a new
hearing on Hollander’s proj-
ect would be the second
meeting in April. The city has
until the end of May to issue a
new decision on Hollander’s
permits.
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Hotel: City has until end of May to issue new decision on permits
Continued from Page A1
The company’s application,
along with another from the
owners of Buoy Beer Co.,
has been approved by the
Astoria City Council but
still needs the sign off from
the Port, Warrenton and
Clatsop County.
As part of the enterprise
zone, Scoular would save
an estimated $641,000 on
property taxes over fi ve
years in exchange for build-
ing the plant and creating
new, higher-paying jobs.
Tom Wortmann, director
of corporate development
and strategy at Scoular, said
the new positions would
include a plant manager,
quality manager, fi nance
manager and other skilled
operators.
“We’re trying to run
a lean facility here, so a
skilled operator is someone
that knows how to run the
equipment, and if it breaks,
knows how to fi x the equip-
ment,” he said at a recent
primer on enterprise zones.
“I think you’ll see a very
skilled workforce we’re
looking to employ here.”
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