A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2022
Vacation rentals: County has held more than 20
meetings where short-term rentals were addressed
Continued from Page A1
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Strategies listed from the county housing study.
Surplus: County and
city leaders have faced
criticism for the pace
of their response
Continued from Page A1
Patty Jo Angelini, the
county’s public aff airs offi -
cer, said the county started
working with the Associa-
tion of Oregon Counties and
Angelo Planning Group, a
Portland-based company,
early last year to identify
tools to help alleviate the
aff ordable housing shortage.
“Over the last year, local
cities have been forming
committees, looking into
solutions and listening to
concerns of residents and
local businesses,” Angelini
said in an email. “Although
the county is limited in what
we can do, we want to do all
that we can do.”
The expressions of inter-
est will be reviewed by the
county and cities . County
s taff will make recommen-
dations to the county Board
of Commissioners .
Eight of the proper-
ties are located in Asto-
ria. One is the site of the
former Darigold B uilding
on the corner of Ninth and
Duane streets. The others
are vacant neighboring par-
cels located between Olney
Avenue and Astoria Middle
School.
The county has three
properties in Warrenton,
including more than 14
acres off of Ridge Road, 11
acres to the north of S.W.
Ninth Street and east of
Juniper Avenue, and about 3
acres of off S.W. 11th Street.
The smaller property is
almost fully covered in sig-
nifi cant wetlands, and the
others have portions cov-
ered by wetlands.
In Seaside, the county
has two neighboring parcels
zoned industrial. One has
access from N. Holladay
Drive near 24th Avenue, the
other has access from U.S.
Highway 101.
Two other properties in
Seaside sit along Neawanna
Creek. One is off of 12th
Street and the other is near
Fifth Avenue. The property
near Fifth does not have
direct access and has devel-
opment constraints, so it has
been identifi ed as a poor
candidate for aff ordable
housing.
Astoria c ity c ouncilors
plan to review possible sites
with county leaders during
a city work session next
Friday.
The county plans on con-
vening county and city lead-
ers at the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds on May 18 to
discuss aff ordable housing,
micro-housing and home-
less services.
Housing has been a sig-
nifi cant public policy issue
for the past several years. A
countywide housing study
released in 2019 found that
while there was suffi cient
supply, much of the hous-
ing stock serves the second
home and vacation rental
markets, leaving a lack of
housing for residents to buy
or rent.
County and city leaders
have faced criticism for the
pace of their response to the
housing crunch.
The county’s announce-
ment on surplus property
came a week after the Asto-
ria City Council backed
away from a workforce
housing project at Heritage
Square over concerns about
the cost and vocal commu-
nity opposition.
Nuisance
complaints,
many clustered in the Cove
Beach area, soon began to
crop up. A handful of short-
term rental owners claim
that some complaints have
been baseless or exagger-
ated. These opposing views
have been aired in a slew of
town halls and county com-
mission meetings. Since
late 2019, the county has
held more than 20 meetings
where short-term rentals
were addressed.
Last summer, county
commissioners
approved
a moratorium on issuing
new short-term rental per-
mits. The freeze went into
eff ect in September and was
extended in December. The
moratorium is set to expire
on April 28, the day after the
board is scheduled to hold a
second hearing on the issue.
Based
on
direction
from county c ommission-
ers, county staff has recom-
mended that the board allow
short-term rentals in four
commercial and 12 residen-
tial areas, from rural lands
around Astoria to Clatsop
Plains to coastal communi-
ties like Cove Beach, just
north of the county line.
Last month, a divided
Planning Commission voted
to recommend that the board
permit short-term rentals
in only six of those areas,
zoned either commercial or
multifamily residential, and
remove rentals from other
residential zones, including
Cove Beach’s Coastal Resi-
dential zone.
“The properties in ques-
tion here — 16 diff erent
zones — were zoned the
way they were for a rea-
son,” Christopher Farrar,
the Planning Commission’s
vice chairman, said. “And in
most cases — not all — but
in most of the cases, it’s rural
residential kind of living. It’s
not business.”
Planning Commissioner
John Orr found persuasive
an opinion written by Dan-
iel Kearns, a Portland land
use attorney retained by
Cove Beach residents, that
reads: “Because STRs are
not listed as a permitted use
in the Coastal Residential
z one, they are presumptively
not allowed. ”
Pointing out that the coun-
ty’s Land and Water Devel-
opment and Use Code spe-
cifi cally allows short-term
rentals in Arch Cape, Kearns
writes: “A long-standing
(tenet) of zoning code inter-
pretation is that, where a
use is specifi cally listed as
allowed in one zone, but
omitted from the list of uses
in another zone, it is pre-
sumed to not be allowed in
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Houses overlook the ocean in Cove Beach.
the other zone.”
Asked about the claim
that the county has been issu-
ing permits in violation of its
own code, Patty Jo Angelini,
the county’s public aff airs
offi cer, said in an email that,
if the board adopts the zon-
ing changes, “these amend-
ments will address (Kearns’)
allegation that the county is
illegally permitting STRs
in zones other than Arch
Cape.”
Kearns writes that, in
Cove Beach, “approxi-
mately 30% of the homes are
operated as STRs, which is
far beyond a healthy or nor-
mal proportion.”
The Planning Commis-
sion also recommended
making short-term rentals,
currently allowed with no
public notice or public hear-
ing, into a conditional use.
That process would require a
public notice, a public hear-
ing and other steps. This
change would apply to Arch
Cape, as well.
Another option for the
board to consider, though
the Planning Commission
rejected it, is to approve the
county staff ’s direction —
16 zones, plus Arch Cape —
but cap the number of short-
term rentals permitted in the
future.
Disallowing
short-
term rentals in the residen-
tial zones that the Planning
Commission objected to
would lead to a phasing out
of the rentals that already
operate in them as owners’
licenses expire.
Gail Henrikson, the
county’s community devel-
opment director, said the
Planning Commission’s rec-
ommendation would elimi-
nate more than half of short-
term rentals — 109 of the
186, using September’s fi g-
ures — operating in unincor-
porated areas , including in
places where neighbors have
not raised complaints.
The county staff report
said the Planning Com-
mission’s recommendation
would have a fi scal impact of
up to $561,994. This fi gure
includes at least a $499,181
loss in lodging taxes .
‘Illogical, unethical,
immoral’
Charles Dice, a Cove
Beach resident and leader
in the push to remove short-
term rentals from residen-
tial neighborhoods, wrote in
a letter to the Planning Com-
mission that allowing rentals
in residential zones “benefi ts
only one group — the prop-
erty owners of STRs.”
For the county commis-
sioners to allow them, he
wrote, “seems to be illogical,
unethical, immoral, and (a)
great example of bad gover-
nance and of dismissing the
‘will of the people’ in favor
of the fi nancial interests of a
special interest group.”
Nancy Chase has been
renting her Cove Beach bun-
galow since the early 1990s,
long before internet plat-
forms simplifi ed the oper-
ation. “At that time, no one
seemed to have a prob-
lem with you renting your
house,” she said.
She said short-term rent-
als provide an option for
families who want to have
an aff ordable vacation at the
coast for a few days.
If the county bans vaca-
tion rentals in her area, one
possible outcome, she said,
is that she sells the property
once her license expires.
Another, she said, is
that she fi nds a longer-term
renter.
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DEL’S O.K. TIRE
Salon: ‘I am just really excited’
Continued from Page A1
she knows to take care of
this business, and this busi-
ness will take care of her.”
Matson approached Carl-
son at the beginning of the
year with her off er. While it
caught Carlson by surprise
at the time, she has had long-
time dreams of running her
own business, and it was an
easy decision.
“I am just really excited.
It’s overwhelming,” she
said. “I just want to jump in
to try to fi nd my groove and
get everything down in the
system.”
As for Matson, the pan-
demic left her feeling like
it was time to put down the
clippers and see the world.
She plans to tour around the
‘WE DON’T
CARE WHETHER
YOU ARE A NEW
CLIENT, AN
OLD CLIENT,
WHETHER YOU
ARE 2 YEARS
OLD OR 82.’
Cheryl Matson
country in her van.
Refl ecting back on her
years at the salon, Matson
recalls the pleasant inter-
actions with clients and an
emphasis on putting her
employees fi rst.
“I was always a people
person, so I will miss those
interactions daily,” she said.
In a region with stiff com-
petition and many other
salons, Matson credits a large
part of Third Dimension’s
success to their policy of
accepting both walk-ins and
appointments.
The result is several hun-
dred paying clients each
week.
“We don’t care whether
you are a new client, an old
client, whether you are 2
years old or 82,” Matson said.
Matson does not expect
that mantra to change under
Carlson, who wants to keep
the same structure, with an
eye for a more modern look.
“Don’t change it if it ain’t
broken,” Matson said.
Spring Tire Sale
VALID NOW through APRIL 23 RD , 2022
Burgener: Unanimously supported
Continued from Page A1
“It has been a pleasure
meeting and getting to know
the staff and community of
Warrenton, and I look for-
ward to serving as the next
city manager,“ Burgener said.
Over the past week, the
city held several staff and
community receptions with
Burgener, as well as panel
interviews by commu-
nity leaders, public admin-
istrators, city department
heads and the C ity C ommis-
sion. Burgener was the only
fi nalist .
The feedback was posi-
tive and unanimously sup-
ported the potential hiring of
Burgener, the city said.
Prior to holding the top
post in Stanfi eld, Burgener
was the city administrator
in Ada, Minnesota, and the
fi nance manager and admin-
istrative services manager
for the Utah Department of
Transportation.
Burgener will take over
for Linda Engbretson, who
announced her retirement
last year but agreed work
on an interim basis until her
replacement was hired.
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