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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022
Heritage Square: Hundreds signed petitions against project
Continued from Page A1
City Councilor Roger Rocka recognized
John Southgate, the city’s consultant, and
Edlen & Co. for their eff ort in trying to help
the city fi ll the empty pit at Heritage Square,
a site that has proven diffi cult and expensive
to redevelop.
“I think you brought us exactly what we
asked for, and more. To me, this project is
one that solved a number of the city’s prob-
lems at once,” Rocka said. “There are people
who have very legitimate concerns about this
project at Heritage Square. But there’s also
a lot of opposition based on the kind of stuff
that feeds on itself on social media.
“It’s as if people are imagining some kind
of zombie movie where there would be all
these ... mentally deranged people wander-
ing the streets of downtown, which is exactly
the opposite of what this project would
accomplish.”
Rocka expressed particular concern over
the potential for negative political campaign-
ing and people running for City Council in
the November election solely based on stop-
ping the project. “And that’s fi ne, except if
that’s the only thing they care about, I don’t
think we have a very good City Council
going forward because there are lots of other
things that council has to do besides this proj-
ect,” he said. “And it kind of tears the city
apart.”
Jones, Rocka and City Councilor Joan
Herman, who had voted to negotiate with
Edlen & Co. on the details of the project, are
not running for reelection in November.
Aside from having “sticker shock,” Her-
man said she could no longer support the
project in light of community opposition.
She said she also did not want the city to
deplete urban renewal funds downtown for
one project.
“It’s too much for our small community to
bear,” Herman said. “Even if there were not
a signifi cant opposition to the site among a
segment of the population.
“The Heritage Square site, I still believe,
is an appropriate site for that. But in light of
the community opposition, I can no longer
support putting our proposal there, and I’m
saddened about that. I truly believe it would
have been an attractive development. It would
have been vibrant. It would not have been out
of scale for our downtown community.”
City Councilor Tom Brownson had voted
against moving forward with the project in
February after citing concerns about the
mental health component involving Clatsop
Behavioral Healthcare. He said he is looking
forward to seeing how the county proceeds
with aff ordable housing. “I think we need the
time to really let the dust settle here,” he said.
City Councilor Tom Hilton, who had voted
against the proposal in January and February,
urged the public to continue to rally together
to create opportunity at Heritage Square.
“I said this at the beginning, is that it
will bring our community out,” Hilton said.
“And it brought our community out in a way
which showed the passion of the people that
live here, and the passion of the people they
elected to represent them.
“There is no question we experience and
we are facing housing shortages and crises.
And there’s no question that our citizens that
have mental health concerns need a place to
feel safe and exist. I think, again, what this
has done is brought our community together.”
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
The empty pit at Heritage Square is shown from above.
‘THE HERITAGE SQUARE SITE, I STILL BELIEVE,
IS AN APPROPRIATE SITE FOR THAT. BUT IN
LIGHT OF THE COMMUNITY OPPOSITION, I CAN
NO LONGER SUPPORT PUTTING OUR PROPOSAL
THERE, AND I’M SADDENED ABOUT THAT. I TRULY
BELIEVE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN ATTRACTIVE
DEVELOPMENT. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VIBRANT.
IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OUT OF SCALE
FOR OUR DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY.’
Joan Herman | Astoria city councilor
Vocal opposition
While the ending was abrupt, the discus-
sion played out at City Hall for nearly six
months.
Last October, the City Council called for
workforce housing at Heritage Square and
invited developers to submit proposals.
Edlen & Co. was one of two develop-
ers to show interest. A panel of city leaders
appointed by Jones privately reviewed the
proposals and recommended Edlen & Co.
In January, the City Council — acting as
the Astoria Development Commission —
voted to 4 to 1 to recommend the city enter
into an exclusive negotiating agreement with
the developer.
But criticism of the project, fueled on
social media, quickly grew.
Dozens of opponents waving #Save Our
Astoria signs gathered outside of City Hall
in late February to demand a pause. The City
Council voted 3 to 2 to enter into an exclu-
sive negotiating agreement with Edlen &
Co. after both sides agreed they could back
out at any time.
Critics sought to undermine every aspect
of the proposal. Several prominent business
leaders urged the city to tailor the housing to
higher-income workers at places such as Fort
George Brewery and Buoy Beer Co., which
are part of the Clatsop Enterprise Zone. The
Astoria Senior Center, across the street from
Heritage Square, raised the potential loss of
parking and possible safety risks for seniors.
Some of the people involved in supporting
the Garden of Surging Waves a decade ago
appealed to the city to hold out for a plaza
or park.
The loudest criticism, however, was
directed at Edlen & Co.’s collaboration with
Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare on the men-
tal health component.
Residents and several business owners
claimed the project would draw more home-
less people and increase the behavioral prob-
lems and criminal activity that many believe
is deteriorating downtown.
Hundreds of people signed petitions
against the project.
Two open houses at the Astoria Armory
in March gave the public more opportunity
to provide feedback to Edlen & Co., Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare and the city, but
opposition had hardened.
In response to some of the feedback over
the past few months, Edlen & Co.’s lat-
est concept would have preserved a smaller
city parking lot at 11th and Exchange streets
across from the senior center and created a
large plaza along Duane Street next to the
Garden of Surging Waves. The changes
would have removed retail space and offi ce
space for Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare’s
Open Door program from the ground fl oor.
The four-story building would have had
up to 97 apartments on the eastern edge of
the block. Sixty-four of the units would have
served people earning 60% to 80% of area
median income. That means, to be eligible,
most workers would have needed to earn
around $14.74 to $19.65 an hour, or $30,660
to $40,880 annually, using 2021 fi gures.
The other 33 units would have been
reserved for supportive housing in collabo-
ration with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare,
Clatsop County’s mental health and sub-
stance abuse treatment provider. The units
would have been priced for people at 30% of
area median income.
Jill Sherman, who leads public-private
partnerships at Edlen & Co., indicated at the
work session on Friday that there was the
potential for additional funding sources for
the mental health component. She also said
the developer could have removed the men-
tal health component from the project and
worked with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare
on another location for supportive housing.
“It’s very disappointing for the time that
the folks on our team, the eff ort that we’ve
invested — obviously, so have you on the
council as well as other citizens,” Sherman
said. “I guess I would just ask that as we
move forward, perhaps we work together to
fi nd a diff erent place for this project.”
A string of false starts
The collapse of the workforce housing
project will likely restart the conversation
about what to do with Heritage Square.
The city acquired the property two
decades ago when Safeway moved to
Uppertown. The defi ning feature of the
block is a pit that formed when the foun-
dation of the market crumbled after heavy
rains in 2010.
The Garden of Surging Waves, a park
honoring the history of the Chinese in Asto-
ria, opened in 2014 with the hopes of a plaza
or amphitheater to follow.
In 2015, the City Council considered Her-
itage Square as a potential site for a new pub-
lic library. One mixed-use option involved a
library with a housing component and was
priced at about $24 million.
After an 18-month debate, the City Coun-
cil voted 3 to 2 in 2016 against a library proj-
ect at Heritage Square, citing the high cost
and lack of public support.
In 2017, the City Council agreed to make
housing at Heritage Square a policy goal, but
no progress was made until last fall, when
city councilors identifi ed workforce housing
as the priority.
“Personally, I worry that if we do noth-
ing, if we don’t have any aff ordable hous-
ing projects move forward in the very near
future, if we don’t implement the recom-
mendations in the county housing study, that
the character of our town is going to change
through inaction,” Jones said. “And the
change will be that in fi ve years, the work-
ing-class town that we love will be moving
rapidly towards a gentrifying town.
“I think that especially amongst the very
passionate debate we’ve had, it’s good to
remember that we all have the best interest
of our community at heart,” the mayor said.
“We’re coming from a place that we want
what’s best for Astoria, for our economy and
for the people that live here into the future.”
Outbreak: Care home continues to off er vaccines to unvaccinated residents
Continued from Page A1
At the facility, 49 of 54 staff — 91% —
have received their initial doses; of those
vaccinated, 36 — 73% — are boosted.
Several staff members received medical or
religious exemptions to vaccination, Bar-
rick said.
The facility does not know the source of
the outbreak, which occurred as the state
lifted pandemic restrictions amid declin-
ing virus case counts and hospitalizations.
Gov. Kate Brown’s emergency decla-
ration over COVID-19 ended Friday after
more than two years.
Early in the pandemic, the federal Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention
cautioned that care homes posed a special
risk of virus outbreaks. The communal liv-
ing situations, coupled with age-related
health conditions, make the environments
vulnerable to sudden case spikes that can
lead to severe illness and death.
Over two years of the pandemic, res-
idents at other care homes in the county
have died after outbreaks . Until last
month’s outbreak, Clatsop Care had expe-
rienced little more than a dozen virus
cases, overwhelmingly among staff .
Friday marked the fi rst COVID-related
death at the facility.
Barrick said the care home off ered
COVID-positive residents Paxlovid, a
Pfi zer-brand oral antiviral medication to
treat their virus symptoms. “It looks like
it’s been very helpful in lessening symp-
toms,” she said in an email.
The Clatsop County Public Health
Department has asked the state to inves-
tigate whether the outbreak was caused by
the o micron variant, the new o micron sub-
variant, or both, Margo Lalich, the depart-
ment’s interim director, said.
Two years ago, during pandemic shut-
downs, residents were isolated to their
rooms.
“We can’t do that anymore. That’s just
not appropriate,” Barrick said. “So while
we’ve got people on isolation, we also
have people that are going out into the
community and having dinner with their
families, which is great.
“I think everybody wants to move for-
ward and move away from COVID, and
what that looks like is very diff erent for
the people inside this building,” she
continued.
Attitudes toward treatment of the
elderly through the pandemic have been
fi ercely polarizing. Some people worry
that care home residents will suff er from
loneliness and isolation, while others are
more afraid for residents’ safety as the
virus circulates .
Earlier this year, the federal Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued
guidance to care homes saying, “the bot-
tom line is visitation must be permit-
ted at all times with very limited and rare
exceptions, in accordance with residents’
rights.”
“So we’ve had lots of visitors in the
building, which is wonderful,” Barrick
said, “but with it comes some give and
take.”
The care home continues to off er vac-
cines to unvaccinated residents.
Barrick said she hopes the community is
understanding toward the care home’s pre-
dicament. “We are doing everything within
our power while trying to respect the rights
of the residents to see their families, to
engage in the community, to visit their pri-
mary care physicians, and with that comes
a certain amount of trade-off s,” she said.
She added: “We have to acknowledge
that these residents have emotional and
social needs, as well.”
Lalich said the county is closely mon-
itoring the outbreak. The care home is
“doing absolutely everything they’re sup-
posed to,” she said.
The question, she said, is whether
more outbreaks can be expected in the
community.
The Oregon Health Authority reported
two new virus cases for the county
on Thursday and seven new cases on
Wednesday.
Since the pandemic began, the county
had recorded 4,592 virus cases as of Thurs-
day. The county has recorded more than 45
deaths related to the virus.
Lalich emphasized, as she has before,
“The health and well-being of the commu-
nity is a shared responsibility, and that still
remains the case.”
She said, “The pandemic isn’t over, and
if people navigate day-to-day life as if it’s
over, the mitigation eff orts that have been
adopted over time” — vaccines, masks and
quarantining — “that we know work, will
become less important or even forgotten.”
Residents of care homes are at particular risk
from coronavirus outbreaks.
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