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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2017)
January 27, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 9A Affordable housing wanted, but who will pay? By Lyra Fontaine For Cannon Beach Gazette Affordable housing and how to pay for it was the topic of a Tuesday, Jan. 10, City Council work session. With a report offering rec- ommendations, council mem- bers discussed ways to imple- ment recommendations from the affordable housing task force, including a tax on new development to provide money for workforce housing. Changes in short-term rental rules and placing three to eight Park Model homes in the city’s RV Resort are also among con- siderations. With the goal of encourag- ing and facilitating the creation of long-term affordable rental housing, the city plans to place from three to eight park homes in the Cannon Beach RV Re- sort. The homes would cost from $30,000 to $60,000. In- stallation costs are estimated at $10,000. City Planner Mark Barnes said a management company would collect rents, advertise vacancies, screen tenants and enforce lease requirements for the city. Potential management SUBMITTED PHOTO The city will place park model homes at the city-owned Cannon Beach RV Resort. could be the current RV Resort manager Escape Lodging or the Northwest Oregon Housing Au- thority. The park homes would take up RV spaces, but Barnes said the city would not lose much revenue. “If you do a handful of spac- es in a 100-space RV Park, this only has an effect on revenue when the park is full,” Barnes said. Councilor Brandon Ogilvie said he would like to see more information about city revenue from the RV Resort in a future meeting. Councilor George Vetter said some citizens have expressed concern about how bringing in these park model homes could alter the RV Resort’s character. “I think it’s a real issue, but I think we can at least to some ex- tent address that,” Barnes said. Staff recommends that a car- port and storage shed, approved by the design review board, be provided with each unit to re- duce storage and clutter. The units would also be next to each other for utility ease and to min- imize the impact on the rest of the RV Resort, Barnes said. Taxes, fee waivers considered To provide incentives for developers to provide afford- able housing options, the city is reviewing fees and systems de- velopment charges for sanitary sewer, water and storm drainage. The charges amount to about $5,000 for a typical single-fami- ly residence. To limit the growth of short- term rentals and make more homes available for long-term leases, the council could con- sider caps on permits, neighbor- hood-specific regulations and more aggressive enforcement. Staff could draft ordinance amendments to reduce or ex- empt fees on qualifying rental housing development, such as affordable long-term rentals. The council could also con- sider a construction excise tax. The tax, authorized by the Or- egon Legislature last year, is a one-time fee that can be imposed on new residential and commer- cial building permits to help fund affordable housing initia- tives. The tax is capped at 1 per- cent for residential construction. “The construction excise tax is something that might gen- erate a significant amount of money to pay for one of these things,” Barnes said. “The one thing it clearly can pay for is the systems development charges waivers or partial waivers.” Imposing the tax would re- quire an ordinance amendment and budgetary changes. If the ordinance is ready for adoption after public hearings, the ordi- nance could take effect July 1. City Councilor George Vet- ter expressed concerns about “unfairly targeting” people who want to build homes in the community. The tax could apply to resi- dential developments that start at certain amounts so it does not affect potential affordable housing development. For a $700,000 home, a 1-percent tax of $7,000 would likely not be an issue, Kucera said. “If you put a minimum in there, it’s arguable that you ar- en’t affecting the affordable housing that’s being built at all with this tax,” Kucera said. “You’re really affecting what are essentially vacation homes.” “In the big scheme of how much it costs to build a house, it’s small,” Barnes said after the meeting. Barnes said the Astoria school district imposes a con- struction excise tax but it is less than one percent and therefore does not have a major impact. Widow lays blame for foreclosure Cannon Beach residents join the of house on Trump nominee Cannon Beach woman lost her home after her husband died inee “made millions of dollars by foreclosing on people’s homes.” Unflattering depiction By Erick Bengel EO Media Group A Cannon Beach widow, who lost her home to foreclo- sure shortly after her husband died, is the subject of a TV ad opposing President-elect Don- ald Trump’s choice for Trea- sury secretary. Lisa Fraser’s husband, John, died last winter after a long battle with cancer. She said OneWest — the bank Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee, led as chairman and CEO from 2009 to 2015 — foreclosed on the home where the couple lived for almost 25 years. As Lisa Fraser explains in the somber 30-second spot: “We did everything the bank asked. They lied to us and took our home anyway. John spent his last days terrified I’d be homeless. And then they kicked me out right after the funeral.” The commercial — funded and produced by progressive organizations — premiered Wednesday and targeted Re- publican senators in Arizona, Iowa and Nevada who may be persuaded not to support Mnuchin. Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing begins today before the Senate Finance Committee. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Ore- gon, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said in a state- ment that “our staff is continu- ing to carefully and thoroughly vet Mr. Mnuchin to ensure that he will put the interests of working families before his PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN AND LISA FRASER John Fraser enjoys one of his plastic, squeaking pickles in this photo from the early 1990s. His widow says a bank foreclosure caused undue stress near the end of his life. own. I look forward to asking tough questions about his histo- ry of predatory lending and his plans to create prosperity for all Americans, not just the ones at the very top.” Democrats have brand- ed Mnuchin the “Foreclosure King” because, during his ten- ure at OneWest, the California bank forced thousands of peo- ple out of their homes. Pros- ecutors suspected the bank of ethically and legally dubious practices. Mnuchin, a former Gold- man Sachs executive, hedge- fund manager and movie fi- nancier, had sold OneWest to CIT Group by the time Fraser lost her home but served on the CIT Group board until stepping down after his nomination. “Lisa Fraser’s story is just one of 36,000 across the coun- try,” said Kaitlin Sweeney, press secretary at the Progres- sive Change Campaign Com- mittee, one of the organizations behind the ad. Calling Mnuchin “the post- er child for how Trump is be- traying America’s working families, including his own voters,” Sweeney said the nom- Mnuchin has disputed this unflattering depiction, say- ing his business also modified loans and helped many people stay in their homes. “In the press it has been said that I ran a ‘foreclosure machine,’” according to a Politico report on his prepared statement for the Senate Finance Commit- tee. “This is not true. On the contrary, I was committed to loan modifications intended to stop foreclosures. I ran a ‘Loan Modification Machine.’” Unfortunately, Lisa Fraser was not one of these home- owners. EO Media Group was unable to independently verify the circumstances surrounding the foreclosure, but Fraser’s friends did set up a GoFundMe account soon after John’s death that described her financial struggle and her need to move. “They tortured us with end- less phone calls, endless re- quests for documents,” she said in an interview. As John’s condition wors- ened, she said she tried to mislead her husband about the seriousness of their situation so he would not worry. It didn’t work. “He did know I was going to lose the house, and he was extremely upset about it,” she said. The final years of John’s life, she said, should have been spent going on picnics and taking drives along the beach — activities he could still phys- ically do. “But I couldn’t do that, be- cause I was so stressed out and trying to save the house, so I frequently would be short with him,” she said. “And this is the part that kills me the most: Those last couple years, it should have been all about me and John and nothing else. “And, as it turned out, we had a third interloper in the form of Steve Mnuchin.” ‘A very emotional story’ Fraser reached out to Sen- ate Democrats who had solic- ited stories from homeowners who had dealt with OneWest. The move brought her and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee together. “What really struck us the most about Lisa was just how much she spoke from the heart,” Sweeney said. “I mean, what she went through, the fact that she had to fight to allow her husband to die in his own home, the fact that they fore- closed on her very soon after the funeral — it’s a very emo- tional story. It’s a very powerful story, and we’re really hoping lots of people see it.” “It’s embarrassing to lose your frickin’ house,” Fraser said, “so I didn’t talk about it at all until the very end, when it was imminent.” Nearly one year removed from her husband’s death, Fras- er, 61, now rents a cabin in mid- town Cannon Beach. She said she will, in the end, be OK. She still has Once Upon a Breeze, the kite shop she and John co- owned. “I just am clinging to the shop,” she said. “I lost John — the biggest thing — and the house. I mean, it’s really rather stunning when you think back on it.” • Watch the ad: https:// w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t ch?v=1R-E0Cxhj2Q Women’s March March from Page 1A the half-mile route through downtown, organizers with neon vests guided march- ers on the designated course and made sure they followed traffic laws like staying on sidewalks and obeying streets lights. Demonstrators occasion- ally broke out in chants. A few even brought whistles and bongos to energize the crowd. Anne and Garrett Thiel- king, a married couple from the Portland area, had planned a weekend getaway to Astoria for months. But after Trump was elected, they said they had to take time out of their vacation. They said they had participated in demonstra- tions in large cities before and were surprised by Saturday’s turnout. “This is a lot more or- derly,” Anne Thielking said. “I’ve been at protests where people throw stuff at you or start heckling and record you.” Issues including abortion, civil rights and race relations were among those inspiring the protest. “Birth control was often illegal and abortion was a back alley or coat hanger procedure,” Amos said. “ In the 1950s women were second-class citizens who had little impact on politics. Women of any racial minori- ty were worse off than white women until Rosa Parks stayed stuck in her seat on the bus that got us to where we are today. No, Donald Trump, we will not go back to the 1950s where, in your words, ‘we were doing pretty much what we wanted to do,” because that statement only applied to white men.” The march did not attract many counterdemonstra- tors, but a number of drivers honked in support as they drove by. Jessi Anderson, a manager at the Astoria Cof- feehouse & Bistro, was wait- ing for a friend to grab a cup of coffee as he looked out at the marchers. “I’ve just been giving people hugs,” Anderson said. “There’s not a lot of hate, which I think is fantastic.” “To see the power of the feminine half of the popu- lation reveal itself with the support of some good men gives me hope,” added Diane Amos. Color printmaking workshop Feb. 3-4 with Angela Purviance Creative Coast, a pro- gram of Cannon Beach Arts Association, hosts a print- making workshop by Ange- la Purviance. This two-day workshop takes place Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day with an hour lunch break in Suite 25, second floor, Sandpiper Square. Registration required at cannonbeacharts.org or by calling 503-436-4426. OF PLACES YOU CAN PICK UP A COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THE N e w Full color, scenic montage postcards of Astoria now available at the Daily Astorian office! Tourists, visitors, family & friends will love sending these! 949 Exchange Street, Astoria • 503-325-3211 LOTS G CANNON BEACH AZETTE CANNON BEACH Cannon Beach Bakery Cannon Beach Book Company Cannon Beach Beach Store Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce Cannon Beach City Hall Cannon Beach Conference Center Cannon Beach Family Market Cannon Beach Historical Center Cannon Beach Hotel Cannon Beach Liquor Store Cannon Beach Property Management Cannon Beach RV Resort Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals Cascade Sotheby’s Realty Duane Johnson Real Estate Ecola Creek Lodge EVOO Hallmark Inns & Resorts Inn at Cannon Beach Inn at Haystack Rock Mariner Market Martin Hospitality Mo’s Restaurant Picnic Basket Pig ‘N Pancake Purple Moon/Morris’ Fireside Restaurant RE/MAX Coastal Advantage Sea Ranch RV Park Sea Sprite at Haystack RockSea Sprite on the Estuary Surfcrest Market Sweet Basil’s Cafe & The Wine Bar The Land’s End Motel The Ocean Lodge The Stephanie Inn The Waves Motel Tolovana Inn US Bank/La Luna Loca Windermere Stellar Real Estate SEASIDE Providence Seaside Hospital Rite Aid Safeway Seaside Outlet Center Seaside Signal/Cannon Beach Gazette Office GEARHART Windermere Stellar Real Estate 4,000 COPIES DISTRIBUTED EACH MONTH