6A • June 30, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Traffic, tsunami
inundation
zone considered
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The Cannon Beach Acade-
my is one step closer to open-
ing this fall in the former Pre-
school and Children’s Center
building.
The Planning Commission
voted unanimously and with
little discussion Thursday, June
22, to grant a conditional use
permit to the kindergarten-
through- second- grade charter
school. Any exterior changes
or modifications still need to
be reviewed by the Design Re-
view Board before the school
can acquire a building permit to
move forward with the project,
City Planner Mark Barnes said.
Although establishing the
academy in Cannon Beach has
been in the works for more than
four years, the last-minute need
to find a new location came
when the board received an
estimate of $150,000 over the
$90,000 they budgeted for con-
struction costs at the original
location on Sunset Boulevard.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Cannon Beach Academy hopes to open a charter school
at the former Preschool and Children’s Center.
An almost identical request
was approved by the Planning
Commission in May 2015 and
again in January at 171 Sunset
Blvd.
David Vonada, of Tolovana
Architects, said at the meeting
most of the work will be small
safety improvements, like im-
proving exit signs and making
door handles Americans with
Disabilities Act accessible,
and expects few to no external
changes.
“This building was just
meant to be,” Vonada said.
While the city, which owns
the property, did assess the
building to be structurally
sound and found that a charter
school would not impact traffic
significantly, the former Chil-
dren’s Center is not without
flaws.
The site is technically with-
in the tsunami inundation area,
according to a map done in
2013 by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Geology and Mineral
Industries. However, this map
has no regulatory power, mean-
ing the school can choose to do
with that information what it
may, Barnes said.
It is the 1995 tsunami inun-
dation map, also prepared by
the state, that rules schools can-
not be built in the tsunami zone
without a formal consultation
with the state. The Children’s
Center site is outside of the
1995 version of the zone, and
therefore not bound by these
restrictions.
One of the reasons the origi-
nal elementary school closed in
2013 was due to tsunami safety
concerns. But neither Vonada,
Planning Commission chair
Bob Lundy or Barnes found
this to be a high priority issue
for the charter school because
of the site’s proximity to evacu-
ation routes and access to high-
er ground.
“With the old elementary
school, it’s a 20 minute walk to
higher ground, and you would
have to cross a bridge,” Barnes
said.
Because the school has
opted to use a parent rideshare
system instead of a school
bus, Commissioner Joe Bernt
raised concerns about possible
congestion in what is already
a narrow parking lot with only
one exit.
“We will have a half-hour
drop-off window to give stu-
dents extra time,” Cannon
Beach Academy Executive
Director Amy Moore told the
Planning Commission.
Other aspects, such as ad-
ditional ADA requirements or
fire code improvements, are to
be determined later by the city’s
building official.
Community input wanted on new city manager
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The process to recruit to
replace Cannon Beach City
Manager Brant Kucera is now
in full swing, starting with
feedback from the community.
Kucera announced his de-
parture earlier this month to
take another city manager job
in Sisters, citing a need for a
“change of pace.” The role of
the city manager is to carry out
policy, programs and proce-
dures decided by the city coun-
cil and supervising city staff.
Police Chief Jason Scher-
merhorn will act as interim
city manager starting in July.
Jensen Strategies, the re-
cruitment firm hired by the
city to conduct the nationwide
search, has four months to de-
velop a job profile with input
from the community, staff and
city councilors, advertise and
conduct interviews. Schermer-
horn can only act as interim
for fourth months, otherwise
the city will violate its charter.
Interviews with city coun-
cilors and staff will be closed
meetings, but a community
forum will be held 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 6 at city hall
for anyone who would like
to offer suggestions of what
qualities the recruiters should
look for in the next city man-
ager.
“We want to find someone
who fits the community,” Eric
Jensen from Jensen Strategies
said.
The job posting from when
Kucera was hired in 2014 list-
ed experience with disaster
preparedness, finance, news
media, an appreciation for the
arts and five years experience
in public administration as
preferable qualities in a can-
didate.
After collecting input from
the community, the city coun-
cil will vote whether or not to
adopt the job description at the
August 1 city council meet-
ing. Final candidates will hold
meet-and-greet forums later in
the fall.
When Kucera was hired,
he was chosen from a pool of
47 applicants. Jensen said he
anticipated the city will get
a similar applicant pool this
year, as well.
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Council paves way for continuing parking discussion
Parking from Page 1A
Parking petition
Cannon Beach Police
Chief Jason Schermerhorn
said the city decided to post-
pone installing signs and
enforcing the rule until it is
discussed again at the July 10
City Council meeting.
“There’s been a lot of citi-
zens upset by it,” said Scher-
merhorn, who will soon be the
interim city manager. “(City
councilors) are going to give
citizens an opportunity to
write to them or come to offer
any different ideas.”
A petition outlining griev-
ances with the plan started cir-
culating about a week ago. As
of Monday, the petition had
114 signatures, though many
who signed live outside of
Cannon Beach.
The petition, started by
Voyages Toy Co. owner Jer-
emy Clifford, argued that
timed parking would “neg-
atively impact the relaxing
atmosphere” of the town, “in-
crease traffic congestion when
cars need to be moved,” and
“not allow visitors enough
time to enjoy the restaurants
and browse through the local
shops.”
Clifford said there hasn’t
been any evidence to show
that higher turnover would
lead to higher sales in a town
like Cannon Beach.
“We want people to come
out to the beach and then
come into town to shop and
eat in our restaurants. Three
hours isn’t enough time to
do that,” Clifford said. “Be-
lieve me: I want to make more
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Cannon Beach has postponed a pilot program on timed
parking downtown.
money. And if I thought for
one minute I thought the time
limit would bring more cus-
tomers in my store I’d support
it, but I don’t believe it.”
In a year where sales
across all businesses have
been down due to an unusual-
ly harsh winter, Clifford said
business owners object to ex-
perimenting during the city’s
busiest season.
“The summer here is our
Christmastime for other re-
tailers,” Clifford said. “Best
practices tells us you don’t
do tests like this during your
busiest season. If there are
going to be negative impacts,
you don’t want them to be
huge.”
Clifford and others who
signed the petition are
pleased the city is postponing
the plan to get feedback from
the community. Ultimately,
Clifford said he fears timed
parking signage and an in-
crease in parking tickets from
violations would negatively
impact the quaint, small-town
visitor experience — as well
as their desire to ever return.
“If (employees parking on
Hemlock) is the problem you
are trying to solve, then that’s
a different problem to solve.
Let’s all agree on that because
I want the customers to have
easy access to my stores,”
Clifford said. “But the parking
problem in Cannon Beach is
larger than that. It’s connected
to housing, commuting, city
infrastructure — it will take
many years.”
Clearing up confusion
In an effort to clear up con-
fusion about the city’s inten-
tion with timed parking, City
Councilor George Vetter spent
last week walking, measuring
and counting all the parking
within a five-minute walk of
the corner of Morris’ Fireside
at Hemlock and Second.
In total, Vetter counted
spaces for 835 cars the size
of a Dodge Grand Caravan.
Of those spaces, about 100
are affected by timed parking,
he said. Since his experiment,
he said he has been speaking
with some concerned business
owners about what he found.
“My goal was to present
the facts,” Vetter said. “The
negative reactions from peo-
ple seemed like they were
fearing something they didn’t
know all the facts about. So I
wanted to inform them and let
them decide.”
Vetter said that having a
higher turnover rate would
give more people a chance to
park downtown, which in turn
would increase the number of
possible customers for busi-
nesses. The City Council vot-
ed unanimously for the pilot
program in May.
“Everybody likes conve-
nience. And the most con-
venient place is Hemlock,”
Vetter said. “This is a way to
have more people use down-
town for parking to shop and
eat downtown. And employ-
ees and beachgoers who use
parking for eight to nine hours
a day have 735 other options.
“It’s not easy to make
money in this town,” he add-
ed. “You’ve got to maximize
whatever you can.”
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