150TH YEAR, NO. 23
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2022
$1.50
City to
consider
system
development
charges
Fees could help
finance infrastructure
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Alexis Weisend/The Astorian
Copeland Commons, a nonprofit, wants to develop affordable housing at a former hotel building on Marine Drive.
Nonprofit looks to close funding gap for
affordable housing project downtown
“There’s some urgency on our part to get help with that,”
Davis said, noting that the group has been sitting on the prop-
erty for some time and wants to apply for state funding in the
spring.
By NICOLE BALES
He said Bill Van Nostran, the pastor of First Presbyterian
The Astorian
who spearheaded the effort to buy the property, has announced
plans to retire at the end of the year.
n Astoria nonprofit hoping to create affordable housing
“I’d like to see us move ahead in definitive ways before that
downtown is looking to the city to help close a fund-
happens,” Davis said.
ing gap.
Davis said the building, which used
Congregants at First Presbyterian
to serve as a boarding house, is blighted
TOGETHER, THE TWO
Church purchased a former hotel build-
and would essentially need to be gut-
ted and rebuilt. He said Copeland Com-
ing on Marine Drive in 2019 with a plan
BUILDINGS COULD
mons also owns the empty lot to the
to renovate and provide housing.
The church group, now a nonprofit
PROVIDE MORE THAN east, where they plan to build a second,
attached building.
called Copeland Commons, has been
60 UNITS TARGETED
Together, the two buildings could
discussing a partnership with Innova-
tive Housing Inc., the Portland non-
provide
more than 60 units targeted for
FOR PEOPLE WHO
profit that renovated the former Waldorf
people who earn between 30% and 80%
Hotel next to City Hall into the Merwyn
of the area median income, Davis said.
EARN BETWEEN 30%
Apartments.
Most would likely be studio apartments
AND 80% OF THE AREA and the others would be a mix of one
Andy Davis, a board member of
Copeland Commons, told the City
and two-bedroom units.
MEDIAN INCOME,
Council during a work session Friday
“One of the reasons (Innovative
that he expects a development agree-
Housing) is interested in the project is
DAVIS SAID. MOST
ment with the nonprofit will be signed
because the Merwyn is a small enough
WOULD LIKELY BE
in the coming weeks.
footprint and housing development that
He said the group intends to apply
STUDIO APARTMENTS it’s hard for them to support manage-
ment and maintenance staff on a full-
for low-income housing tax credits to
AND THE OTHERS
time basis,” Davis said. “And they’re
help complete the project.
expecting that if they are controlling
WOULD BE A MIX
Funding gap
two buildings in the downtown, the
Davis said that while the details
Copeland and the Merwyn, that they
OF ONE AND TWO-
and costs are still estimates, the group
would be able to have full-time staff for
BEDROOM UNITS.
appears to have a funding gap of about
those positions and it would make man-
aging both of them much easier.”
$1.5 million. He said partners like the
Interim City Manager Paul Benoit
Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care
said the property is located within the city’s Astor East Urban
Organization are willing to help, but that the group needs to
secure investments from additional sources before breaking
See Housing, Page A6
ground.
Copeland Commons could
seek urban renewal money
A
The Astoria City Council is expected
to approve a contract with a consultant in
the coming weeks to craft and implement
a system development charge program.
A system development charge is a
one-time fee assessed on new develop-
ment and some types of redevelopment
that is typically collected when applying
for a building permit.
The fee is intended to get develop-
ers to pay their fair share for costs asso-
ciated with expanding public infrastruc-
ture needed to accommodate growth. It is
also intended to prevent the burden from
falling on existing development and util-
ity ratepayers.
Nathan Crater, a city engineer, told the
City Council during a work session Fri-
day that fees could be used to support
capital improvement projects related to
infrastructure.
See Charges, Page A6
Black
History
Bus Tour
to explore
North Coast
The popular program
resumes after pause
By ALEXIS WEISEND
The Astorian
The Oregon Black Pioneers’ Black His-
tory Bus Tour will explore the North Coast
in September, stopping at sites of African
American historical significance.
The tour, which will leave from the
Charles Jordan Community Center in Port-
land on the morning of Sept. 18 and return
that evening, winds from Portland to Sea-
side and includes a series of guest speak-
ers and films on African American history
in Oregon.
Zachary Stocks, the executive director of
the Oregon Black Pioneers and an education
technician at Lewis and Clark National His-
torical Park, said he is proud the tour will
resume for the first time in six years. New
See Tour, Page A6
Finding health — and joy — through time with dogs
Holen has trained
border collies
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
hen Pam Holen was in her
50s and still living in Alaska,
she developed rheumatoid arthritis,
an autoimmune disorder that dam-
ages joints, bones, tissue, even eyes
and organs.
Holen’s specialist told her she’d
likely be in a wheelchair in her
60s. “And that made me mad,” she
recalled.
Holen sought a form of exercise
W
that would keep her condition from
worsening.
At a state fair, she watched two
older ladies running their puffy
miniature poodles through an agil-
ity event, a course where dogs leap
over obstacles, weave around poles,
climb A-frames and perform other
feats of speed and grace. “And I
went, ‘I can do that,’” she said.
Holen went on to train border
collies.
Now in her 70s, the Astoria res-
ident has competed in almost every
sport — including agility, flyball,
sheepherding and scent work — that
border collies excel in. Some of her
dogs earned top scores in Alaska,
she said.
Everything involved in owning
dogs, from multiple daily walks to
throwing a ball, served as physical
therapy. “You don’t permit yourself
to give up to the pain in your body,”
she said.
Her rheumatoid arthritis went
into remission.
In Alaska, Holen ran medi-
cal offices, worked as a parale-
gal and served as a volunteer coor-
dinator with the court-appointed
special advocacy program in
Wasilla. After she retired, she ran a
bed-and-breakfast.
A master gardener, Holen
founded the Flavel House Garden
Erick Bengel/The Astorian
See Holen, Page A6
Pam Holen, of Astoria, with her 13-year-old border collie, Maisie.