A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022
Campers: Private homeowners, nonprofi ts and churches
may also receive permits to allow tents or RVs overnight
Continued from Page A1
“I’m concerned about
making sure we protect the
rights of the people that are
camping there,” the mayor
said. “But I’m also con-
cerned that we protect the
rights of the citizens that live
in the houses that are housed
around them. And I worry a
bit about the liability for the
city. I sense a kind of a boil-
ing pot there. And I’m con-
cerned about it.”
Cities are trying to balance
legal concerns with the prac-
tical challenges of respond-
ing to homelessness. Court
rulings and state law make it
diffi cult to restrict homeless
camping in public places if
there are not adequate shelter
beds available.
The ordinance in Sea-
side would require people to
obtain permits to camp and
limit the hours from 8 p.m.
to 8 a.m. , Police Chief Dave
Ham, a member of the Sea-
side Houseless Task Force,
said.
A makeshift camp has been set up off Necanicum Drive.
“They’re there for 12
hours, and then it’s going to
be time to move along and
go somewhere else during
the day, ” he said.
Vehicles, including vans
or motor homes, would need
to be registered and in com-
pliance with vehicle insur-
ance responsibilities .
“We’re all playing on the
same playing fi eld,” Ham
said. “And so in this partic-
ular case, we’re regulating
place, manner, where you’re
asleep and where you park.
In doing so, we’ve still got
to be part of society and play
by the rules.”
Noncompliant vehicles
will be towed, stored or
disposed .
This will not be a “free
service,” Ham said. “There’s
going to be a cost associated
with this . I can’t tell you
what that’s going to be but
it’s going to add up.”
The task force hopes to
recommend several camp-
ing areas in the city so no
one place is overburdened.
While the locations have
not been chosen, poten-
tial overnight parking spots
could include Broadway
Park across from the Amer-
ican Legion, U Street by
the beach, 12th and Prom,
the parking lot at Cart-
wright Park or on N. Holla-
day Drive near the old high
school.
Private
homeowners,
nonprofi ts and churches may
also receive permits to allow
tents or RVs overnight.
Meanwhile, with an
ordinance on the horizon,
authorities are looking to
clear the makeshift RV camp
off Necanicum. The camp
has grown from a handful of
vehicles to more than 20.
Ham said the city will
begin notifying people
parked there that they need
to start preparing to leave.
“That’s the letter basically
saying, ‘Hey, you need to
be preparing that in the next
couple of months, you are
going to need to have other
arrangements made, ’” he
said. “I will draft that.”
The city will be present-
ing the new ordinance at the
fi rst meeting in April, Bar-
ber said.
“And the result of that
ordinance is that people
will be required to vacate
that camping area in an
orderly fashion with appro-
priate notice, and then they
will be able to camp or park
overnight in other areas in
the community, ” the mayor
said.
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The city will likely amend the development code to allow duplexes on single-family lots.
Housing: ‘A very emotional topic’
Continued from Page A1
Some provisions need to
be in place by the end of the
year, so Murphy suggested
an approach and timeline
for public engagement and
adoption, and asked the
commission for feedback
about how best to proceed.
“T his is going to be a
very emotional topic,” he
said. “And I don’t think it
will go smoothly. And so
I want to provide opportu-
nity as much as possible for
everyone that’s interested
to participate and have the
opportunity to be heard.
“At the end of the day,
we have to have a code that
incorporates all of these
pieces. ”
Recent
legislation
requires cities to allow what
is known as “middle hous-
ing” — which includes
duplexes, triplexes, quad-
plexes, cottage clusters and
townhouses — based on
population. Cities with a
population over 10,000 are
required to allow a duplex
on “each lot or parcel zoned
for residential use that
allows for the development
of detached single-family
dwellings.”
If the city does not adopt
the changes by the end of
the year, the state code will
automatically take eff ect.
The city is also expected to
expand middle housing land
division opportunities.
Murphy emphasized that
the change will not ban sin-
gle-family homes, just allow
duplexes. While the city
anticipates public concern ,
Murphy said the change will
not necessarily lead to many
new duplexes. He pointed to
other cities and states that
have made similar changes
but have seen few new
developments.
Recent state legislation
also required state agencies
to analyze regional housing
needs for the next 20 years.
The analysis, which
was completed last year,
expects that Astoria will
need about 1,400 additional
housing units over the next
two decades , an increase of
about 28%.
The state also requires the
city to analyze the housing
needs for current and future
residents every six or eight
years , which must be com-
pleted by the end of 2024.
The city’s forecast for hous-
ing needs may diff er from
the regional analysis. After
the analysis, the city must
adopt a housing production
strategy to ensure the needs
are addressed.
“And I don’t know
about you guys, but I’m not
entirely sure where we do
that,” Murphy said of the
additional housing. “That’s
going to be one of these
challenges that we need to
fi gure out.”
Some of the other
changes the city is consid-
ering involve reducing min-
imum lot sizes and remov-
ing lot coverage limits in
residential zones, establish-
ing a minimum density stan-
dard in residential zones
and reevaluating parking
requirements.
Planning commissioners
called for a thorough public
process.
“I have no idea where the
state believes that we can
add another 1,400 units in
the next 18 years given that
we are surrounded by water
on three sides and a forest
on the fourth side,” Planning
Commissioner Sean Fitzpat-
rick said. “At some point, we
have to communicate to the
state: this can’t be done. And
given our absolute physical
constraints, we have to rec-
ognize that we can’t do it.
They don’t want us to fi ll in
the river, and we don’t want
to do that anyhow. Where
are we supposed to go?”
Fitzpatrick, who is run-
ning for mayor in the
November election, echoed
other commissioners sug-
gestions for soliciting com-
munity feedback. He said
people in the community
already feel like they are not
being heard by elected offi -
cials over other projects .
“It’s vital that we make
sure that the public feels
that they are being heard,
because we see what hap-
pens when they don’t,” he
said.
Commissioner
Cindy
Price asked for the city to
take its time and expressed
concerns that the state-man-
dated changes could alter
the character of many parts
of Astoria.
“I mean, this town is in a
rage over what is going on
at Heritage Square ,” said
Price, who has been among
the most vocal critics of the
proposed workforce housing
project at Heritage Square.
“It’s very divisive, and it’s
engaged a large segment of
the population, people who
are interested in develop-
ment, density, and all that
sort of thing.”
Q: Will insurance
ASTORIA
CHIROPRACTIC
The hospitals discussed
a virtual ICU in 2019 as
a way to keep patients in
their communities. They
launched the consultation
service as a fi rst step.
“It’s certainly been used
more since the pandemic
started,” Geiger said. “The
hospitals have been very
full in Portland and so
we’ve kept patients a lit-
tle bit longer and a little bit
sicker than we would have
otherwise. And we felt like
we could do it very safely
with the OHSU support.”
The hospital uses the
consultation service twice a
day on average.
Patients
typically
respond well to the remote
services, Geiger said. Pro-
viders have scripts to
explain what the service
will be like before turning
the camera on.
The hospital said that
patients can expect the same
level of care with a virtual
provider.
“We kind of have the
best of both worlds, because
the complicated part of car-
ing for these patients isn’t
the physical exam. It’s not
hooking them up to the
monitor or measuring their
blood pressure. The com-
plicated part is: W hat do
you do with all of this data?
How do you analyze it and
turn it into a care plan? And
you don’t need to be in the
same room to talk about
what the tests show, or what
the X-rays show or how the
patient is responding to the
treatment,” Strear said.
Patients needing spe-
cialists and surgeries that
are not available locally
will still be transferred to
Portland.
Columbia
Memo-
rial expects the virtual
ICU to still be in demand
even if hospitalizations
from COVID continue to
decrease.
“We’ve always had
patients that tradition-
ally transferred to Portland
that now, hopefully, with
COVID forcing us to up
our game and with the aug-
mented help from the virtual
ICU, we’ll now be keeping
these patients here,” Strear
said.
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