6A • April 6, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Residents grumble about flood-control demands
County changes
a result of
federal insurance
requirements
By Jack Heffernan
Cannon Beach Gazette
Clatsop County may make
alterations to land use rules
this year that would affect
several hundred property
owners in flood-prone areas,
citing new federal insurance
requirements.
The county has participat-
ed in the National Flood Insur-
ance Program since the 1970s.
For residents to remain eligi-
ble for the 50-year-old pro-
gram that guards against flood
losses, the Federal Emergen-
cy Management Agency has
required that the county adopt
updated flood-hazard maps
and make revisions to its land
use rules.
As a result, roughly 700
property owners in unincor-
porated areas of the county
may be required to, among
other things, pay for a permit
when developing their land or
seek approval before altering
structures.
FEMA has required the
county to make the revisions
by June 20. The agency first
released the updated maps
and flood-insurance require-
ments in 2016.
The county Planning Com-
EDWARD STRATTON/EO MEDIA GROUP
Some residents are unhappy about potential county land use changes to comply with fed-
eral flood insurance demands.
mission voted 4-1 on March
20 — with Commissioner
Thomas Merrell the sole op-
posing vote — to recommend
the changes to county commis-
sioners, who will have the final
say. Prior to the vote, several
people spoke in opposition to
the changes during a packed
public hearing at the Judge
Guy Boyington Building. In
addition, county staff have
fielded more than 200 com-
plaints from residents since
notices of the changes were
mailed out in February.
Seeking safety for
city’s visitors
Prep from Page 1A
preparedness, Althea Riz-
zo of the Oregon Office of
Emergency
Management
took a hard look at the hotels
she stayed at after her pre-
sentations.
Some hotels had evac-
uation information for a
tsunami in the room. Oth-
ers didn’t. Some had signs
showing an escape route.
Many didn’t. When she
would chat with front desk
clerks about what to do in a
disaster, some thought there
was nothing to do to prepare.
“It’s very hit and miss
along the coast,” Rizzo said.
“And we have a long way to
go.”
Rizzo, a state geohazards
program coordinator, urges
hotels to train staff on the
basics of tsunamis and to
take specific steps to pre-
pare, such as food storage
and evacuation drills. She
also suggests hotels share
evacuation information with
guests through emails that
confirm room reservations.
But engaging with the
hospitality industry has not
always been easy. Out of 20
sessions she conducted, only
one member of the industry
showed.
Some of the reluctance
stems from a lagging fear
that talking about tsunamis
could deter tourism, she
said. But often what keeps
hotels from being prepared
is a lack of time and resourc-
es.
“We can tell hotels they
should have resources, but
then those supplies need
to be maintained and pur-
chased — another cost in an
already difficult industry,”
she said.
Tiffany Brown, the emer-
gency coordinator in Clat-
sop County, said she thinks
attitudes are slowly chang-
ing locally.
“We’re seeing a shift. As
the community gets their
head around this threat, the
mindset is shifting. It’s shift-
ing from, ‘We don’t want
to deter them from coming
to the coast,’ to, ‘because
awareness is growing, we
have an obligation to edu-
cate them,’” she said. “This
is important because they
come in contact with our
most vulnerable population,
which in this instance means
people not familiar with the
area.”
Local efforts
Greg Swedenborg, the
general manager of The
Waves Ocean Front Lodging
in Cannon Beach, always
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
An employee at The Waves
hotel in Cannon Beach
holds up an example of the
tsunami evacuation infor-
mation in guest rooms.
knew tsunami danger was
present on the coast.
But his journey to start
preparing got kicked into
high gear after The New
Yorker published a piece
in 2015 about the threat
of a Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake. Between
community discussion and
seeing increased tsunami
safety signs around town,
preparedness was brought to
the forefront.
“There was definitely a
spike in community inter-
est after that article. I think
that’s when (hospitality)
started really getting proac-
tive,” he said.
Swedenborg reworked
the emergency protocol with
his employees and started
putting evacuation maps
and information in guest
books — a practice that has
become standard in most ho-
tels in the city.
Some, like Beck-Swee-
ney, have gone further by
providing go-bags for her
employees, as well as en-
couraging homeowners to
purchase go-bags to put in
vacation homes for guests.
Communication
and
more
consistent
em-
ployee training are areas
Beck-Sweeney and Sweden-
borg cited for improvement.
“We’re so spread out,
there is no way to immedi-
ately reach everyone in an
emergency,” Beck-Swee-
ney said. “But we knock
on doors. We know how to
track people down.”
Preparing has a cost,
whether it be in the time it
takes to evaluate procedures
or in emergency supplies for
guests.
“Being a small busi-
ness, we just have to make
the time to get this done.
There’s always a million
things to do, and it has to
be a priority,” Swedenborg
said. “We are doing better
than we were, but we still
have a long way to go.”
Throughout the hearing,
Bruce Francis, the Planning
Commission’s chairman, re-
iterated that he sympathized
with the residents but felt it
was necessary to maintain
access to the flood-insurance
program.
“We’re confronted with a
problem that has been placed
upon us to make a decision
for the overall good of the
majority, hopefully, to obtain
flood insurance,” Francis said
while addressing the crowd’s
disapproval. “Maybe it is that
we need to be attacking the
political angles of this, rather
than making that request here
at this hearing.”
A few of the residents sug-
gested the county break away
from the national insurance
program altogether.
“They’ve got you by the
throat on the insurance as-
pect, but I would suggest that
you think about altering an
approach on insurance,” said
Henry Willener, who owns
property south of Seaside.
“Maybe get Washington and
Idaho — forget California —
and form a consortium to have
your own insurance group.”
Along with the recommen-
dation for county commis-
sioners to approve the rule
changes, the Planning Com-
mission advised that coun-
ty legal experts explain the
changes and work with the
federal agency to roll back
some of the regulations.
The most unpopular
change discussed at the meet-
ing would be an expansion of
the definition of developments
that would require property
owners to pay an $85 permit
fee. Previously exempt activ-
ities — including minor re-
pairs to a structure that don’t
alter its size, new driveways
that don’t change the topogra-
phy of the land or signs placed
by local public agencies —
would require the permit once
the rules go into effect.
“They come up with these
ideas. They force it on the lit-
tle guy,” said Edwin Owen, a
farm owner. “I’m just afraid
that you start changing the
rules, not only do I have to go
beg for a permit, but then you
start talking about, ‘Oh, you
can and can’t do this,’ you
know, on a farm. It just both-
ers me.”
But it’s unlikely FEMA
will buckle on the expanded
permit requirements, Com-
munity Development Direc-
tor Gail Henrikson said. She
called the permit requirements
“non-negotiable,” along with
mandates to seek permission
for structure updates in cer-
tain areas.
“Frankly, staff isn’t any
more enthused about having
to go through this process and
working language changes
into the code any more than
you want to see them there,”
Henrikson said.
She said staff has worked
with FEMA to determine how
much latitude the county has
in reworking the changes,
citing an email the agency
sent to the county earlier this
month.
“FEMA’s stand is that the
exclusions that Clatsop Coun-
ty has offered in their defini-
tion of development makes
their definition of development
noncompliant with the Nation-
al Flood Insurance Program,”
wrote Roxanne Pilkenton, a
flood plain management spe-
cialist for the agency. “FEMA
takes the definition of develop-
ment seriously and, currently,
push back from the state of
Idaho has them facing suspen-
sion if they continue to allow
exemptions that are expressly
included in the definition of
development.”
County commissioners are
tentatively scheduled to hold
a public hearing on the subject
in April. If that hearing is con-
tinued, commissioners would
hold another hearing in May,
when they would potentially
adopt the changes.
How tiny homes could help beat crunch
Tiny from Page 1A
“It makes sense if it can
pay for itself at a rate that
makes sense for someone who
works here,” St. Denis said.
“But if the rent is going to be
$1,700 to make it break even?
That’s not any help.”
There could also be new
costs on the horizon.
A state law that went into
effect in January required
the development of building
codes for tiny homes. One
of the changes reclassified
tiny homes on wheels so they
would no longer be consid-
ered RV’s, creating additional
challenges for how they could
be transported into the city.
Keeping tiny homes mobile
was never part of the city’s
original vision. But acquiring
special permits and trailers
could influence the overall
cost of the project. Questions
about whether tiny homes no
longer classified as RVs can be
placed in the RV Resort will
also need to be answered.
“Tiny houses were able to
be moved at one point easily.
Now it’s less easy to move,”
St. Denis said. “Is that viable?
If so, what are the costs asso-
ciated?”
Regulatory
challenges
have raised similar obstacles
in communities across Ore-
gon looking at tiny homes as a
housing option.
Before moving forward, St.
Denis is recommending that
Cannon Beach have a formal
financial analysis done by a
housing specialist.
“I think folks are trying to
make something happen,” he
said. “As we’re getting closer
to it, we’re just asking, ‘Did
you think of this?’”
With interest in tiny homes
growing, John Morgan, the ex-
ecutive director of the Chinook
Institute for Civic Leadership,
organized a symposium to ad-
dress some of the issues.
“Over the course of this
last year, I kept getting pep-
pered with questions about
tiny houses,” Morgan said.
“One of the things that became
evident to me was there wasn’t
a lot of good knowledge about
what tiny houses even are.”
While the symposium’s
purpose was to help cities
and other interested agen-
cies understand land use and
the affordable housing crisis,
Morgan said confusion about
building code changes quick-
ly became the theme of the
event.
Sarah Stebbins, state chap-
ter leader of the American
Tiny House Association, said
no longer classifying tiny
homes as RVs has had “huge”
effects.
“Well over half of the tiny
homes being constructed are
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Cannon Beach is looking at tiny homes at the RV Resort off of Elk Land Road.
‘Let’s say you are
in the process of
building a tiny
house on wheels.
Because your
house is no longer
considered an
RV, you will not
be able to get the
same RV financing
or insurance.’
Sarah Stebbins,
State chapter leader of the
American Tiny House Association
on wheels. Builders are threat-
ening to leave the state. Some
have done so,” Stebbins said.
“Let’s say you are in the pro-
cess of building a tiny house
on wheels. Because your
house is no longer considered
an RV, you will not be able to
get the same RV financing or
insurance.”
Dan Bryant, project direc-
tor for SquareOne Villages in
Eugene, is one tiny home ac-
tivist and manager feeling the
impact of other changes.
His project came out of
a need to address a growing
homelessness issue in Eugene
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
The tiny home project is on hold.
in 2012. His organization,
which now manages three tiny
home communities, was large-
ly supportive of the new state
law because it helped create
safety and building standards
conducive for homes less than
400 square feet.
But recent changes from
state building and fire offi-
cials don’t allow sleeping
lofts in tiny homes due to fire
safety concerns. Bryant ar-
gues such changes are too re-
strictive and affect overall af-
fordability. He and other tiny
home advocates are pushing
for the codes concerning lofts
to be amended next legisla-
tive session.
Eliminating lofts as an op-
tion reduces the number of
people who can be housed, af-
fecting the homes affordabili-
ty, he said.
“When you look at it in
those terms, there is a true hu-
man cost,” Bryant said.
While several aspects about
tiny homes remain in flux, city
councilors in Cannon Beach
still believe the small units could
help with the housing crunch.
“It’s not a solution,” Mayor
Sam Steidel said. “It’s a tool in
the toolbox.”
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