A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Coastal town’s program assists with property cleanup
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
WARRENTON — After
the death of his neighbor in
2017, Felix Tapales learned he
would be inheriting the man’s
home and land.
But the property — packed
front to back with hoarded
objects and chemicals — was
not a welcomed gift. Tapales
has spent countless hours and
dollars working to clean it up.
He is grateful for the
assistance he has received,
particularly from Spruce Up
Warrenton, a nonprofit with
a mission to beautify the
city, but Tapales is looking
for more support to address
the undertaking along South
Main Avenue.
Help might be on the way.
Under the urban renewal
district, the city has provided
funds to commercial prop-
erties for building facade
improvements, including
new windows, doors, signs
and lighting. Now, the city is
looking to encompass resi-
dential properties within the
grant program.
Unlike the commer-
cial program, the residen-
tial outreach would seek to
tackle nuisance properties,
much like the one that landed
in Tapales’ lap. The funds
could go toward fixing broken
windows, cleaning up trash or
dumping hazardous materi-
als.
The goal is not only to
reduce blight, but to improve
the look and feel of down-
town.
“The main thing is we
want to make it a lively and
attractive downtown because
you can put all the infra-
structure you want to make
the downtown nicer, but if
there are still junk properties
… you want to get that out,
so to speak,” Mayor Henry
Balensifer said. “You want
your downtown to be vibrant
and look nice, and want to be
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Felix Tapales in this undated photo stands on the porch of
the property he’s hoping to demolish with assistance from
the city’s residential grant program.
there, and this is a part of that
effort.”
While details of the resi-
dential grant program still
have to be finalized by the city
commission, City Manager
Linda Engbretson said the
city could put up to $10,000
toward a property that an
owner invested $5,000 into
repairing. Properties must
be located within the bound-
aries of the Urban Renewal
District, which includes 875
acres that covers downtown
and along South Main Avenue
to just south of Warrenton
High School.
City staff is accept-
ing applications on a first-
come, first-served basis for
the remainder of the fiscal
year that ends in June with
funds from the commercial
program, Engbretson said.
Come July, the residential
program should be in full
swing.
The topic, which was
discussed at a city commis-
sion meeting in early Janu-
ary, drew several interested
residents.
Improving nuisance prop-
erties has been a priority for
the city in the past, Balensifer
said, but significant ground
was lost during the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
City staffing challenges
have made the issue even
more difficult. The nuisance
abatement process typically
goes through the community
development director, a posi-
tion that is vacant. City lead-
ers felt it was time to take a
new approach.
“The idea is, ‘Hey, here’s
a carrot. I’ll come alongside
you and help you get there and
if that’s not the case, then we
can go the nuisance route,’”
Balensifer said.
The mayor said he sees
much of the early funds going
to properties the city views as
priorities. Tapales’ property
would likely be addressed
first, he said, but there are
several other structures along
South Main Avenue that need
significant work.
“Some of these proper-
ties are beyond the scope
of what we have budgeted
to fix,” Balensifer said. “So
it’d be better to work with
people to leverage dollars to
accomplish the goal of urban
renewal to clean it up.”
Tapales has lost track of
how many dumpsters have
been filled and emptied from
the trash and junk within his
property. He estimates he
has put over $10,000 into the
effort, if not more.
Short-term rentals must pass Oregon’s ‘farm impacts’ test, ruling says
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
ASTORIA — Short-term
rentals of lodging on farms
and forest land in Oregon’s
Clackamas County must be
analyzed for their impacts
on agriculture, according to
a land use ruling.
The state’s Land Use
Board of Appeals has over-
turned the county’s regula-
tions for short-term rentals in
farm and forest zones, ruling
that the activities are subject
to conditional use permits.
In effect, the ruling will
impose some constraints
on short-term rentals in
agricultural zones, rather
than prohibiting them alto-
gether, said Andrew Mulkey,
rural lands attorney with
1,000 Friends of Oregon, a
nonprofit that opposed the
county’s regulations.
“The way it was writ-
ten and implemented, it
would allow hotels to oper-
ate on farm and forest land,”
Mulkey said.
Rural landowners still
will be able to participate in
short-term rental services
such as Airbnb, though
they’ll likely be subject to
rules for home businesses,
he said.
“That fits better with how
resource land should be used,
not an investment for an
absentee landlord,” he said.
Short-term rentals oper-
ated by landowners who
live on-site are less likely
to interfere with surround-
ing farms, Mulkey said. “I
doubt farmers would put up
with frat parties every week-
end, and that’s the benefit of
that model.”
Capital Press was unable
to reach attorneys for Clack-
amas County for comment as
of press time.
Farmers who rely on over-
night tourist lodging could
use some direction from state
lawmakers or the Depart-
ment of Land Conservation
and Development, said Scot-
tie Jones, founder of the U.S.
Farm Stay Association and a
farmer in Alsea.
“The problem is the
counties are all interpreting
it differently,” she said. “It
makes it really complicated
for us as farmers if we’re
trying to add a farm stay to
our property.”
According to LUBA,
short-term rentals must
undergo a “farm impacts
test” to determine that they
don’t impair agricultural and
forestry practices or signifi-
cantly increase their cost.
In contrast, the regula-
tions adopted by Clackamas
County in 2020 allow short-
term rental use “without
any requirement to obtain
specific authorization at
all, let alone a requirement
to satisfy the farm impacts
test,” the ruling said.
The county’s regula-
tions allow “overnight, tran-
sient lodging as an outright
permitted use” in farm and
forest zones even though it’s
not allowed under statewide
land use rules, according to
LUBA.
According to the county,
short-term rentals are a resi-
dential and not a commercial
land use, so who occupies the
dwelling isn’t relevant once
it’s been built in a farm or
forest zone.
LUBA rejected the argu-
ment, ruling that short-term
rentals must be expressly
allowed in farm and forest
zones, so it’s not relevant
that they haven’t been specif-
ically prohibited by law.
The conditional use
process for short-term rent-
als will ensure that neigh-
boring farmers can weigh in
on the activity, Mulkey said.
“The county was trying to
subvert that, and it would
have created a lot more head-
aches.”
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