6A • May 4, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Council rejects affordable housing code amendments
Councilors claim
amendments
did little
to ‘ensure
affordability’
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
In a 3-2 vote, the City
Council on April 10 decided to
reject proposed code amend-
ments intended to encourage
affordable housing.
Mike Clark of Coaster
Properties and former City
Planner Rainmar Bartl want-
ed the city to reduce parking
and landscaping requirements,
as well as increase height re-
strictions in the residential
zone designated for multifam-
ily housing. The amendment
would have also allowed mul-
tifamily housing in a commer-
cial zone as an outright use.
The changes would have
only applied to developers
willing to put a deed restriction
on a project that would forbid
the apartments from turning
into vacation rentals or condo-
miniums.
The idea came as Clark was
looking into ways to rebuild
the Sea Lark apartments that
burned down last winter. Clark
was granted a parking variance
so he could expand the com-
plex from four to eight units
without increasing the number
of parking spots. But he want-
ed the City Council to look at
long-term solutions for devel-
opers, Bartl said.
While the council affirmed
affordable housing as a prior-
ity, some councilors decided
the proposed changes did little
to provide any kind of guaran-
tee units would be affordable.
“If the purpose is to have
some affordable housing, then
we need to have more in the
ordinance than just relaxing
building restrictions,” said City
Councilor George Vetter, who
voted against the amendments.
The council followed the
footsteps of the Planning Com-
mission, which in February re-
jected the proposal due to con-
cerns about how the changes
would ensure affordability, as
well as the impact to the town’s
aesthetic with higher roof
heights. Commissioners were
also concerned parking chang-
es could make spaces harder to
find in a town where parking is
already at a premium.
“To me there’s nothing
in this that would assure this
would be affordable housing,”
Commissioner Lisa Kerr said
in February. “The proponents
are all people involved in de-
velopment and commercial en-
deavors. That’s fine — but the
way it’s written here is a disas-
ter waiting to happen. I don’t
think how any of this could
lead to affordable housing.”
Bartl argued reducing the
city’s parking requirements
would be a way to entice more
developers to build by allow-
ing them to maximize the num-
ber of units on the property. A
study by the Victoria Transport
Policy Institute in British Co-
lumbia found that one parking
space per affordable housing
unit increases costs by 12.5
percent, which eventually
translates into higher rent.
Councilors Nancy McCa-
rthy and Mike Benefield also
voted against the amendments
Tuesday, fearing that with-
out any form of rent restric-
tion requirement the chang-
es would lead to developers
tearing down and rebuilding
single-family homes to rent
at market prices. Benefield
also had concerns about how
the changes would affect the
“character of Cannon Beach.”
By raising the roof-line
limit from 28 feet to 32 feet,
properties would be following
the same guidelines the city
already approves for motels.
Developers could build three
stories to include more units,
which ultimately drives down
the rent charged at the end of
the project, according to Bartl.
Bartl argued the deed re-
striction banning short-term
rentals and condos acts as a
control by taking away two
major incentives that drive the
high-end home market.
Mayor Sam Steidel and City
Councilor Brandon Ogilvie,
who both voted for the chang-
es, argued having more multi-
family housing would help ad-
dress affordable housing issues
by increasing density.
“We just need more hous-
ing. Housing in general is also a
need, and regulatory changes are
our best option to try to get more
development,” Steidel said.
“Maybe it will help (affordable
housing), maybe it won’t, but
it’ll never happen unless we try.”
While Bartl recognized
there was no way to guarantee
rents would be affordable, the
point of the amendments was
to find a way to increase the
chances of a developer being
interested in building housing
in Cannon Beach at a time
when land and construction
costs are soaring.
“I’m rather disheartened
by this conversation. You’ve
spent five years telling the
community you want to do
something about affordable
housing,” Bartl said. “Noth-
ing has happened. This is the
easiest thing that anybody can
do, and evidently most of you
can’t do it … You have to take
some risks.”
Internal disagreements stall remodel efforts
City Hall from Page 1A
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Georgia Gerber’s “Tufted Puffins,” a sculpture outside
Cannon Beach City Hall. The sculpture is included in
the Oregon Coast Art Trail.
Public art trail
coming to Oregon
Oregon Coast
Visitor Center
launches
project
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
As a modern homage to
the Oregon Trail, the Oregon
Coast Visitors Association is
developing a public art trail
that will stretch from Astoria
to the California border.
The idea of the program
is to connect and promote
existing public statues, mu-
rals and more in each of the
Oregon Coast’s 27 commu-
nities. The visitors associa-
tion is working to catalogue
these pieces to create a com-
prehensive map of all the
art in the public sphere for
a self-guided tour by next
year.
Some of what would be
featured in Clatsop County
includes the Astoria Col-
umn, the Lewis and Clark
statue at the Seaside Turn-
around, and the tufted puffin
sculpture by Cannon Beach
City Hall.
“The goal of this project
is to help residents and vis-
itors connect with artists,
gain a deeper sense of place,
and improve artists’ liveli-
hoods,” said Marcus Hinz,
the visitors association’s ex-
ecutive director.
Part of the inspiration
came from a desire to con-
nect and elevate the work
artists have long been doing
on the coast into one cohe-
sive guide. Kevan Ridgway,
the chairman of the market-
ing committee at the Cannon
Beach Chamber of Com-
merce, is using this year to
gather any documentation
he can find about coastal
artists and taking commu-
nity suggestions about what
should be featured on the
trail.
There are only 10 cit-
ies along the coast without
any form of public art. An
objective for this project
is to work on ways to find
funding to introduce art into
these communities. One of
the ways Ridgway plans to
do this is by partnering with
the environmental clean-
up group SOLVE, which
would contribute materials
for marine debris-related art
to make the endeavor more
cost-effective for the artists
and the towns.
“Public art is a form of
community
expression,”
Ridgway said. “So for visi-
tors, public art is a great way
to learn about a place. Hope-
fully the Oregon Coast Art
Trail will entice patrons of
the arts to wander into local
galleries, inquire about lo-
cal theater performances, or
plan a future visit to explore
more of the art trail.”
While the ultimate goal
is to encourage visitors to
visit the area in the fall,
spring and winter months,
Ridgway believes it will
contribute just as much for
the residents of the coast, he
said.
“This will connect visi-
tors and residents with art-
ists,” Ridgway said. “We
don’t want to do something
that doesn’t add value for
the residents.”
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Environment
Mayor Sam Steidel wor-
ried the bond would not pass
with so many others expected
on the ballot this year. A bond
campaign, he said, could also
influence the odds of pass-
ing bonds for larger capital
projects that have long been
promised to voters, like de-
veloping South Wind, afford-
able housing and purchasing
the old Cannon Beach Ele-
mentary School.
“I’m worried we say we
are going to promise all these
other things on the citizen
survey, and now all of a sud-
den we’re saying, ‘Let’s get
another City Hall,’” Steidel
said.
St. Denis argued for act-
ing this year because bond
pricing and construction costs
will only go up, eventually
making the bond more ex-
pensive. He also feared vot-
ers will have tax fatigue after
weighing the other bonds in
November.
Part of what has stalled
remodels and reconstruction
efforts has been an internal
disagreement about where a
new City Hall should be built.
Many, like City Councilor
George Vetter, believe City
Hall should be relocated to the
city’s 55-acre South Wind site
above the tsunami inundation
zone. Vetter wants to sell the
land where City Hall now sits
to help offset the costs of re-
building at the other site.
“This is an opportunity
to take a step (toward South
Wind),” Vetter said. “It will
South Wind from Page 1A
Steidel, who four years
ago built his mayoral cam-
paign on working to relo-
cate essential city services
like police, schools and City
Hall to South Wind, hopes a
recently reinstalled steering
committee will help decide
what steps need to be taken
to move forward.
“South Wind’s a problem
of our own building, but it’s
a valuable piece of proper-
ty and we should be doing
something to get it going,”
the mayor said.
Origins
During the fall of 2013,
the city purchased the site
from The Campbell Group
as Cannon Beach Elementa-
ry School was closed due to
funding and tsunami safety
concerns. The seller, who
has an interest in education,
saw selling the property as
a way of keeping a school
in Cannon Beach, said Mark
Morgans, the Lewis & Clark
Timberlands area manager,
who facilitated the $359,000
sale.
Modeling after commu-
nities affected by the 2011
tsunami in Japan, the City
Council started to explore
ways the property could
serve a dual purpose as a
school and emergency shel-
ter. But momentum came to
a halt after the cost estimate
of creating a required inter-
section at U.S. Highway 101
added more than $2 million
to a project already saddled
with around $3 million in
other utility costs.
Part of the reason city
councilors were blindsided
by the price was due to the
fact little traffic research had
been conducted before they
decided to buy it, Steidel
said. The goal was to acquire
the land while it was at its
discounted price, leading the
city to buy the property more
quickly than is standard.
“There was not good re-
search on our part about
the road and access issues,”
Steidel said.
Another roadblock ap-
peared after the Seaside
School District denied the
Cannon Beach Academy its
charter twice in 2014, setting
back the timeline. Initially,
there was agreement that the
school district would staff
the school if the city built the
structure, Steidel said, but
those plans were eventually
taken off the table, leaving
questions about where the
school will get funding to
build.
“Had the school district
accepted the charter, I think
the timing would have shift-
ed,” Steidel said. “In the last
four years they could have
focused on fundraising for a
new building instead of get-
ting started up.”
Different perspectives
With the school in flux,
discussions about South
Wind began to focus more
on emergency management,
such as putting a mass care
site at the property. As afford-
powered by
able housing concerns gained
a higher profile, talk of hous-
ing entered the dialogue.
Some, like City Coun-
cilors Mike Benefield and
George Vetter, see putting
housing at the site as a way
to generate revenue for fund-
ing other projects. Others,
like Steidel, believe the land
should be reserved strictly for
essential services. The coun-
cil was split earlier this month
about whether or not City
Hall should be on the site.
City Councilor Nancy
McCarthy has raised con-
cerns over how much the city
should be involved with any
construction related to a site
that could turn into a school,
and recommends that the City
Council wait until an possible
emergency manager is hired
before making large deci-
sions.
Morgans, who helped
design the master plan four
years ago and volunteered
to come back to the steering
committee, said whatever is
decided needs to be centered
around why the property was
sold: to build a school.
“I get that staff changes,
and visions change. But I
think it’s going to take going
back to ground zero, asking
ourselves who needs to be
here versus who wants to be,”
Morgans said. “Put the foot-
print down for those other
uses and make sure the kids
aren’t out of luck.”
Moving forward
For now, City Manag-
er Bruce St. Denis said
$400,000 has been budgeted
to put into a reserve for South
Wind. There is also money
budgeted to do a site analysis
for a possible new City Hall
in response to discussions
councilors had earlier this
month about replacing the
aging building. Plans for any
work related to a school are
still on hold.
“The original intent was
for a school, and the school
district has gone in a different
direction at this time, trying
to consolidate everything in
Seaside,” St. Denis said.
While some of the prob-
lems seem insurmountable,
City Planner Mark Barnes,
who was on staff when South
Wind was purchased, said de-
veloping land of this size is
always going to be a slow and
complicated process.
“Honestly I wouldn’t char-
acterize these as roadblocks.
Developing land like this is
expensive. Nothing peculiar
about it — it’s just hard and
expensive,” Barnes said. “It’s
not without solution. There
are just decisions that have
to be made, and that takes a
slow, deliberative process —
the way it should be.”
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St. Denis argues there
are ways of designing and
rebuilding City Hall east of
where it sits now that would
“buy down risk” by making
it cost-effective. At 60 feet
above sea level, with two sto-
ries and a reinforced founda-
tion, a new City Hall to the
east could be seismically up
to code and survive most tsu-
namis.
But educating the public
about the realities of either
option will take some work,
St. Denis said.
“We need to stop thinking
about the worst-case scenario.
For three years, we have been
saying we have to go to South
Wind,” he said. “And we did
a good job. But it’s only one
option. It’s time to challenge
that paradigm.”
Councilors divided on options for South Wind
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cost more money. But I don’t
think it will be much more
of a challenge at South Wind
than here.”
But St. Denis said building
at South Wind would make
the price tag for the bond
skyrocket once factors like
installing utilities and state
transportation requirements
for an intersection are calcu-
lated. High costs are partially
why it has taken so long de-
velop South Wind, he argued.
Steidel and City Councilor
Mike Benefield took a dif-
ferent position, arguing it is
culturally significant to have
city services visible and in the
center of town.
“You have to weigh public
access versus preparing for a
one-time wipeout,” Benefield
said.
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