A18
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
PLAN
FOREST
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bate based on the assessed
value of each new home, to be
provided after the home was
placed on the tax rolls. The
city also would waive all sys-
tem development fees.
The city plans to recoup
those stimulus payments
through increased property
tax revenue over seven years,
but the city will need sufficient
investment capital to provide
these incentives. With an av-
erage financial incentive of
$20,000 per home and a goal
of building 100 homes, the ur-
ban renewal program would
need a maximum indebtedness
of $2 million over the expect-
ed 20-year duration of the pro-
gram, Green said in his council
report.
Green said the city wanted
to be proactive rather than wait
for incremental tax increases
to accrue following private
sector development. He not-
ed that property tax values in
John Day have increased by an
average of 2.4 percent over the
past 10 years.
“This represents a ‘no
growth’ environment,” he said.
“Urban renewal agencies in a
no growth environment can-
not function because there is
not a sufficient increase in the
underlying tax base to support
the urban renewal programs.”
The Project Advisory
Committee discussed the need
to address urban blight — in-
sites is estimated at $3.3 mil-
lion, and funding needed to
maintain them is $103,086.
But forest funding available
for maintaining FAO and rec-
reation buildings meets only
15 percent and 18 percent of
the need, respectively. And
this available funding does not
address the $3.8 million in de-
ferred maintenance for FAO
and $325,148 for recreation
buildings on the forest.
These deferred maintenance
estimates “appear to be very
low and not representative of
actual” deferred maintenance,
Dixon said. For one thing, the
forest’s facilities are surveyed
once every five years and must
be updated, she noted.
Nationwide, the Forest Ser-
vice estimates it needs $390
million for annual maintenance
but has only $65 million avail-
able. The Malheur National
Forest has a funding gap of
$960,000 for FAO buildings
and $303,648 for recreation
buildings.
One way to deal with this
funding gap could be to raise
revenue — such as increasing
existing fees or implementing
new fees at developed camp-
grounds. Recreation sites on
the Malheur National Forest
generated $111,865 in fees,
while maintenance costs were
$117,470. But occupancy at the
forest’s campgrounds ranges
from 80 percent in summer and
hunting season to zero for other
parts of the year. Remoteness is
also a factor in driving up main-
tenance costs.
Some popular sites are sub-
sidizing others, Dixon noted.
The forest’s five main sites
— Big Creek, Delintment,
Idlewild, Magone and Middle
Fork — posted a total positive
return of $29,264, while 16 oth-
er fee campgrounds had a total
negative return of $21,031.
Meanwhile, the cost of main-
taining the forest’s 18 non-fee
campgrounds was $36,853.
While the forest considers
options such as decommission-
ing or changing fees, Dixon
noted that two “premier historic
sites” must be maintained: the
John Day Compound and the
Allison Guard Station.
PROJECT
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wanted to help address the
housing shortage in John Day
by providing eight new rent-
al units. The project will be
non-intrusive and well land-
scaped, she noted.
Joe Hitz with Sisul En-
gineering, who worked with
Knowles on the project, said
the four duplexes would max
out infill for the vacant lot but
shouldn’t impact traffic on
Canton Street.
The planning commission
approved Knowles’ site de-
sign review application with
two conditions — that the
building site is removed from
the Special Flood Hazard
Area by the Federal Emergen-
cy Management Agency, and
that the John Day City Coun-
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Site preparation is underway in the Valley View/
Ironwood Estates neighborhood in John Day.
cluding older homes with de-
ferred maintenance that need
significant repair. According
to Grant County Assessor
David Thunell, the minimum
investment in a home that will
trigger a new assessed value is
$10,000. Increased assessed
value would mean more tax
revenue to the city.
“Incentives for devel-
opment proposals less than
$10,000 would not result in a
return on investment for the
city and should be excluded
from the program,” Green
said.
The majority of the com-
mittee recommended limiting
the proposed home-building
incentives to site-built homes
and excluding manufac-
tured homes. Property own-
ers could continue to place
manufactured homes in John
Day where allowed, but they
wouldn’t be eligible for the in-
centive program.
The preliminary boundar-
ies for the urban renewal area
include two categories:
• Tier 1, about 45 percent
of the urban renewal area,
is defined as buildable land
zoned residential and adjacent
to city services. This includes
the neighborhoods of Valley
View/Ironwood Estates, Cha-
rolais Heights/Bridge Street,
North Canton Street, South-
west Fourth Avenue/Airport
Road and Strawberry View
Estates, along with 4.85 miles
of “cherry stems” connecting
the neighborhoods.
• Tier 2, about 20 percent
of the urban renewal area, in-
cludes higher-density areas
with older properties zoned
residential limited. This in-
cludes about 27 acres west of
the fairgrounds, 31 acres east
of downtown and 12 acres
south of downtown.
The Project Advisory
Committee will meet again
at the John Day Fire Hall at
4 p.m. March 14. According
to an anticipated timeline,
a draft version of the urban
renewal plan and report will
be completed in April, and
review and adoption hearings
will be held in June.
cil commits to providing pub-
lic access to the property by
extending Canton Street and
city utilities to the project site.
The city will pay for ex-
tending the road and the util-
ities as part of its contribution
to promoting housing devel-
opment in the city, but it can’t
do this for every future proj-
ect, Green told the planning
commission.
The city council took up
the matter of extending Can-
ton Street that same evening.
Green said extending Canton
Street by 195 feet could cost
from $80,000 to $90,000, but
with some assistance from
Grant County the cost could
drop to $60,000.
Some of the needed build-
ing materials could come
from stock on hand, but the
city would need to purchase
a fire hydrant, Green said.
Funding for the work could
come from the city’s street
fund and its system develop-
ment fund, he said.
The project also falls with-
in the preliminary boundaries
of the city’s proposed Hous-
ing Development District
and could benefit from the 7
percent rebate offered by the
city to encourage new home
development. The city also
has offered to front the cost of
water and sewer hook-ups for
new homes in the district. Ad-
ditional property tax revenue
collected from each new unit
is expected to cover these sub-
sidies in about seven years.
The council unanimous-
ly directed Green to proceed
with preliminary engineering
for extending Canton Street.
Knowles told the city council
she planned to break ground
on the project this summer.
The master plan
The Malheur National For-
est is the first in the United
States to complete a facili-
Hello Grant County,
Can you believe the beautiful
weather we have been having?
Great winter for working outdoors.
Contributed photo/Rex Kamstra
The Flagtail Lookout on the Malheur National Forest.
ties master plan for recreation
buildings. The recently com-
pleted draft plan for FAO and
recreation buildings was re-
quired by the Forest Service,
but it’s a guidance document,
not a regulatory one, Dixon
noted.
“We don’t want to spend
limited funds unwisely,” she
said.
In 2014, the National Engi-
neering Leadership Team com-
pleted a two-year study that
looked at the Forest Service’s
aging, oversized infrastructure
amidst flat or declining bud-
gets. The team came up with
50 strategies in five categories,
including increasing revenue
through appropriations, fees or
rent; improving efficiencies;
and reducing inventory.
Local forest offices were
told to update facility master
plans with financial data, step
up the pace of decommission-
ing and continue to look for
ways to obtain additional rev-
enues.
“The goal is a sustainable
infrastructure,” Deputy Forest
Supervisor Ryan Nehl told the
county court. “Every year the
maintenance gap grows. We
need to be proactive. We need
to identify buildings we can do
without.”
A recent report for the Mal-
heur National Forest by two
retired Forest Service engineers
raised a number of issues:
• The forest “has more rec-
reation sites than they can oper-
ate and maintain with the funds
they receive.”
• Insufficient maintenance
funding will continue to drive
up the deferred maintenance
backlog to where “the buildings
will suffer.”
• There is no money to elim-
inate or reduce the $600,000 in
deferred maintenance for recre-
ation buildings.
• The gap in available versus
needed maintenance funding
“continues to expand into the
future.”
• “Fully decommissioning
or increasing fees on selective
sites is far from a complete
solution.”
Alternatives considered by
the forest include taking down
buildings, letting them “melt
in place” or selling them. Pri-
vate parties who buy forest
buildings must remove them
from the site — acquiring the
underlying land would create
an inholding, which requires
approval from a reluctant Con-
gress, Dixon said.
Some buildings could be
converted into recreation rent-
als, some sites could be used
for dispersed camping after
decommissioning and some
campgrounds could be hosted
by concessionaires as a fee site.
“We don’t want to level any
buildings without checking our
options,” Nehl said.
Buildings over 50 years old
with historic significance must
be reviewed by the State His-
toric Preservation Office for
possible listing on the National
Register of Historic Places.
In any case, some sites have
special value to locals and there
will be strong feelings about the
plan, Dixon noted. Forest staff
have been collaborating with
stakeholders and meeting with
specialists, and they want to
take public input.
The draft plan and comment
form are available at the Mal-
heur National Forest website.
Comments on the plan will be
accepted through March 23.
For information, Teresa Dixon
can be contacted at teresaldix-
on@fs.fed.us.
AIRPORT
on personal business.”
Walker told the Eagle that
communities typically draft a
business plan for their airports
and present it to an air service
company to attract their busi-
ness. She said the county was
considering scheduled service
with six- to nine-seat aircraft,
but the Grant County airport
could not meet the “load fac-
tor” requirements.
According to ECONor-
thwest’s study, load factor is
the most common tool used
to describe a marketplace for
scheduled air passenger ser-
vice. Load factor combines the
supply of seats available in a
region to the demand by pas-
sengers choosing to fly from
that location.
“High load factors mean
that airlines are able to ‘right
size’ the supply of seats with
the demand,” the study said.
“In other words, passengers
are filling every seat on the
plane, thereby maximizing
revenue for that flight.”
Grant County Commis-
sioner Boyd Britton noted that
ECONorthwest’s report never
mentioned The Retreat and
Links at Silvies Valley Ranch,
a new major tourism attraction
in Grant County.
Walker said she believes
the report is an accurate de-
scription of current conditions,
however. Tourism is not a
good indicator of consistent
demand, she said. If it costs
too much to fly, people in this
region are willing to drive, she
said. Seats on a plane need to
be filled to make it work for
private business, she said.
Grant County Judge Scott
Myers agreed that based on the
study it didn’t make sense to
approach an air service com-
pany about establishing flights
to John Day. Air taxi and char-
ter flights could continue as an
alternative, he noted.
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Our February Chamber Board
meeting and no-host luncheon will
be held Thursday, February 22nd.
The board will meet at the chamber
office at 10:30 am, and the
luncheon will be held at the Outpost
at 12:00 pm. Our guest speaker this
month will be Hannah Hinman with
CASA, and co-presenter Leah Mack
with DHS.
Everyone is welcome to attend the
luncheon. We welcome new ideas
and would like to share what is
happening at the Chamber with you!
I am very excited about all the new
projects that are happening in our
community that will benefit the
whole county.
The Chamber would like to
congratulate all the outstanding
athletes in Grant County who excel
in a wide variety of sports. We are
proud of their accomplishments.
The Chamber has been working on
a project to unite the surrounding
counties to promote all the activities
and tourism in surrounding areas.
We have been reaching out to other
Chambers of Commerce to join
forces in promoting Eastern Oregon.
If you would like to join the
Chamber, please call or stop by our
office! We want to help promote
your business and do everything we
can to bring businesses and tourists
to Grant County.
Sincerely,
Bruce Ward, Chamber President
41607
Most Grant County air trav-
elers drive to Boise, Idaho,
a six-hour round-trip that re-
quires an overnight stay for
outbound or return flights, or
both, the report said.
A slightly shorter drive
would take local travelers to
the Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport in Pendleton, which
has regularly scheduled flights
to Portland that are subsidized
by the federal government. But
passenger trips to and from
Pendleton have declined by 82
percent since 2000 despite the
subsidies, paralleling a general
trend toward fewer enplane-
ments at smaller airports across
Oregon, the report said.
Among the largest employ-
ers in the Grant County area
are the city of John Day, several
federal and state agencies and
Malheur Lumber Co., the report
said. The lumber company cur-
rently operates its own planes in
and out of the airport, and access
to scheduled service or charter
arrangements likely wouldn’t
impact this business investment
decision, the report said.
“It’s possible that demand
exists for business travel on air
taxi or charter flights, but it is
unlikely that sufficient demand
exists to support scheduled air
services to GCRA for the fore-
seeable future,” the report said.
ECONorthwest noted that
“for many people who choose
to live in Eastern Oregon,
driving long distances is rou-
tine and does not represent the
same perceived cost as it may
to someone from a more urban
area of the state. Thus, the most
stable primary source of de-
mand for small rural airports
would be business travelers,
with less predictable demand
from tourists or travelers