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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, SEpTEmbER 14, 2021
Seaside: Deliberation will continue at meeting in early October
Continued from page A1
have to look so far as Asto-
ria to see what can happen
when land is cleared and
left to sit with Band-Aid
measures taken.
“Considering the amount
of water in the drought that
we’re in, it only takes a big
rainstorm to wash all that
dirt away.”
Judy Madsen, a resident,
said there has been a huge
water problem ever since
she and her husband moved
to the Sunset Hills area in
1983.
In a wet winter, Mad-
sen said, she and her hus-
band pumped 2,000 gallons
of water in a 24-hour period
off their lot. “It’s just loaded
with springs everywhere up
there,” she said.
The whole area is “com-
pletely full of water when
it’s in the wintertime,” Mer-
ilee Laurens, a resident,
said. “The water just rushes
down the street.”
Natural springs pour
down the street in the mid-
dle of springtime due to
other construction projects,
Greg Boat, a homeowner,
said. “Basically, we live on
a rock that has clay on top
of it,” he said. “I don’t see
how taking all of this foli-
Su Coddington, who serves on the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board, was among the residents who spoke at
the Planning Commission with concerns about the Vista Ridge project.
age off of the side of the
hill and then putting houses
on there with an area that
already has drainage issues
is a smart or safe idea.”
Neighbors Lief and
Sani Morin say portions of
the site may be considered
wetlands.
“The parcel flows into
the wetlands below, which
then flow into the Neawa-
nna estuary, the Necanicum
River, where both chum and
coho salmon thrive,” the
Morins wrote in a letter to
the Planning Commission.
The impact of construc-
tion traffic, the need for
additional signage, side-
walks and the lack of access
routes for emergency vehi-
cles to the site also con-
cerned residents.
Su Coddington, who
lives in the Sunset Hills
neighborhood, shared con-
cerns that the area also
serves as a gathering place
in the event of a Casca-
dia Subduction Zone earth-
quake and tsunami.
“I am concerned that
when this earthquake comes
— we’re not talking about
a size seven, we’re talking
about an eight or a nine —
that land in this proposed
development will slide and
it will take the rest of us with
it,” said Coddington, who
leads the city’s Community
Emergency Response Team
and serves on the Sunset
Empire Park and Recre-
ation District Board. “And
our assembly area will no
longer be of value to the
residents that can get to our
assembly area safely.”
In his geotechnical and
geohazard report, Mead
acknowledged a large earth-
quake in the magnitude of
6.0 or more could trigger
old deep-seated slides in
this area.
As mitigation, exposed
soil areas would be cov-
ered with straw and seeded,
and steep slopes along the
eastern boundary of the
site that go down to the
creek bed would not be
built upon, Mead said in the
report. Rain drains would
be constructed away from
foundations.
The Planning Commis-
sion will continue deliber-
ation at a meeting in early
October.
Warrenton: City has raised monthly water and sewer rates in recent years
Continued from page A1
Warrenton’s
popula-
tion jump — from 4,989 to
6,277 — has taken place as
the city’s infrastructure has
come under increasing strain
because of development.
The city’s water capacity is
nearly maxed out, Mayor
Henry Balensifer said.
“It is going to become
more expensive to do devel-
opment in the city until infra-
structure can keep up with
the pace of the demand to use
it in development,” he said.
Part of the reason War-
renton was such an attrac-
tive place to build, the
mayor said, was that the city
had a lot of flat, undevel-
oped land. But it is becom-
ing more difficult for devel-
opers to find sites that aren’t
on or near wetlands, so navi-
gating the environmental red
tape makes the process more
expensive.
“All the easy property has
been built on,” Collin Stelzig,
the city’s public works direc-
tor, said.
Warrenton has had trouble
accommodating the high rate
of growth. Some projects
have been waylaid as devel-
opers waited for the city to
upgrade pumping stations to
bring sewer and stormwater
service.
In the coming years, the
state is expected to curtail
Warrenton’s water rights,
scaling down the amount of
water the city can pull from
the Youngs Bay watershed.
That puts Warrenton in a
position where “the growth
capacity you thought you had
doesn’t exist as much any-
more,” Balensifer said.
That reality drove War-
renton’s decision to restrict
water hookups for large
developments
in
areas
outside the city — Clat-
sop Plains, for example —
because of the water sys-
tem’s limitations. “That’s to
protect capacity for exist-
ing residents within the city
of Warrenton and business
within the city of Warren-
ton,” he said.
The city has raised
monthly water and sewer
rates in recent years to help
pay for operational costs,
though the city has frozen
the increases amid the pan-
demic-stressed economy.
Warrenton has discussed
various methods, includ-
ing enlarging its water res-
ervoirs, to increase water
capacity and otherwise pre-
pare for another two decades
of growth.Astoria’s popu-
lation grew 7.4%, hitting
10,181 in 2020.
Seaside’s population gain
topped 10%, arriving at
7,115. Neighboring Gearhart
added 22.6% more residents,
climbing to 1,793.
Cannon Beach lost full-
time residents during the
decade, declining almost
12% to 1,489.
The
Knappa-Browns-
mead area grew to 2,144 res-
idents, or by 7.6%. Svensen
had 853 residents in 2020 but
wasn’t counted as a separate
place in 2010.
The Jewell area had 1,068
residents in 2020, a 10-year
increase of 2.5%.
The portion of the county
that experienced the largest
overall growth rate — nearly
33% between 2010 and 2020
— was census tract 9506, a
northwest rural area inland
from the ocean. The pop-
ulation in the census tract
expanded to 3,393.
NOW HIRING!
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Family Health Center has several great opportunities.
•
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Where: Our administrative offices located at:
3990 Abbey Ln. Bldg. B, Ste. 103 in Astoria
Drop in anytime during this event. Bring your resume and be prepared to interview!
In accordance with the state mandate, to be considered for employment you must be or become
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