SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 109th YEAR • July 24, 2015
New school may come with
growth boundary expansion
City Council ‘very interested’ in South East Hills
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
At a July 7 Planning Commission
meeting, city staff and the commission
considered four sites for expansion of
the city’s urban growth boundary by
about 200 acres.
Along with three other potential
sites, commission members focused
on the South East Hills area, south and
east of Seaside near Wahanna Road.
The land is considered suitable for
development because of easy access,
potential for diverse land use and lo-
cation near about 30 acres suitable for
a school site.
“We’re not ready to do that today,
but I certainly want to acknowledge the
planning goals, guidelines for land use
planning.
idea of having school facilities and en-
Through consultation with Otak, the
abling them to grow up into that area,” city forecast the rate of growth in Sea-
planner Don Hanson said.
side over the next two decades and es-
Hanson is a principal and director timated how much land needs to come
for HLB Otak, Inc., a Seaside-based into the Urban Growth Boundary to ac-
HQJLQHHULQJ DQG FRQVXOWLQJ ¿UP KLUHG commodate the city’s growth, Hanson
by Weyerhaeuser, which owns much of said.
the land under consideration.
Otak and the city collaborated to
“Our City Council is very interest- create a land-need analysis that showed
ed in having that land,” City Planner the city will require 154.6 acres of resi-
Kevin Cupples said. “If you wait until dential land, 10.6 acres of park land and
you run out and then you’re trying to 35.6 acres of industrial and institutional
scramble in order to do that, then that’s land, for a total of about 200.8 acres.
not good planning.”
With that “land budget” in mind,
they considered where in Seaside it
Managing growth
could be found, in pieces or as a whole,
The process to expand Seaside’s according to Cupples.
boundary started about two years ago
See UGB, Page 9A
in order to comply with statewide
SUBMITTED DRAWING/COURTESY OTAK
Four study sites considered for expansion of Seaside’s Urban
Growth Boundary.
CITY COUNCIL
Panhandling rules
stir citizen ire
since it was adopted in 1984.
In general, it regulates the
buying and selling or mer-
chandise by individuals who
GRQRWKDYHD¿[HGORFDWLRQ
Currently the code en-
By Katherine Lacaze
tirely bans begging or so-
Seaside Signal
liciting on the streets or in
any public place under a
Seaside City Council different ordinance. The
members tabled an amend- amendment to the itinerant
ment to the itinerant merchant merchant regulation would
ordinance after testimony allow that activity — as
from numerous citizens, as long as the individual has
well as the audible support the obtained a permit. The fees
speakers received from the remain unchanged.
7KHGH¿QLWLRQRIWHPSR-
audience during Monday’s
UDU\ ¿[HG ORFDWLRQ ZRXOG
meeting.
During the public hearing, change to “any business
words such as “wrong,” “bru- location, public or private”
tal,” “discriminatory” and “a and the amendment also
street-sweeping technique” would prohibit activities
were used to describe the associated with the per-
amendment, which expands mit from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
WKH GH¿QLWLRQ RI ³LWLQHUDQW Additionally, the amend-
merchant” to include anyone ment adds a new exception
who “provides a service (en- to limit licensing during
tertainment, etc.) or solicits KLJKWUDI¿FWLPHV
The penalty for violating
for any form of compensa-
tion or remuneration.” Those the ordinance is $500; the
people would have to pay $50 amendment would increase
per day or as much as $1,000 that to to $700.
Most of the nearly dozen
per year for a permit. This
GH¿QLWLRQ ZRXOG HQFRPSDVV speakers took issue with the
panhandlers, which were the idea of requiring panhan-
main source of concern for dlers and street performers,
many of whom don’t make
many.
“Draconian
policies $50 per day, to pay for a per-
against the homeless are not mit. For some who spoke,
the answer,” Mary Eng said the change carries implica-
during the public hearing, tions about how individuals
“We need humanitarian solu- and society should approach
poverty and homelessness.
tions.”
Many aspects of the or-
See Rules, Page 6A
dinance have been in effect
Proposed rule changes
for panhandlers come
under fire in Seaside
KATHERINE LACAZE/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Celeste Bodner (back row, third from left), the founder and executive director of FosterClub. This summer’s All-Star in-
terns include: (front row, from left) Tristan Torres, Ridmi Coe, Angelica Cox, Karen Banks, Ariana Guerra, (back row, from
left) Malcolm Leal, Ricky Ballesteros, Isaac Brito, Rosalina Burton, Ashyna Davis, Alexis Baska and Teal Martell.
Local woman featured in national
magazine for work with foster youth
Founder of FosterClub shares
personal story
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
local woman is making
far-reaching, dynamic waves
from within a small, un-
assuming facility on First Avenue in
Seaside.
Celeste Bodner is the founder and
executive director of FosterClub, a
national network well known in Wash-
ington, D.C., and elsewhere across the
country for connecting and represent-
ing foster youth and reforming policies
and practices related to the system.
If you asked native Oregonian
Bodner about her life-changing ef-
forts, though, she immediately would
reference the young people with
whom she works, because to her, they
are the game-changers — strong, ca-
pable and resilient. She is the coach,
guiding and cheering them on from
the sidelines through her organization.
Bodner recently brought more rec-
ognition to her young people and Fos-
terClub when she shared her story in
MORE magazine’s July/August 2015
edition, guest edited by First Lady Mi-
chelle Obama. Bodner was featured
along with four other individuals in a
section titled “Women Working Won-
ders,” which highlighted their work
with youth across the country. She was
included in the article upon nomination
from a White House staff member who
remains anonymous, even to Bodner.
Although being featured in a maga-
]LQHDUWLFOHLQYROYHGDQDLUSODQHÀLJKW
and a photo shoot in New York City,
both activities that Bodner dislikes,
she was happy to promote FosterClub.
From a simple website run from
Bodner’s home with the help of her
sister, the organization has grown to
an approximately $1.6-million oper-
ation with 40,000 members and na-
tional name recognition. The website
also includes an online training portal,
used by about 8,000 foster parents.
It all started about 20 years ago,
when Bodner was introduced to two
people who irreversibly changed her
life.
Bodner’s story
In 1994, while living in Portland,
Bodner and her husband met Terry
and Gary, then ages 12 and 10, through
a day laborer hired occasionally by
Bodner’s husband. The boys were the
sons of the employee’s girlfriend.
See Bodner, Page 7A
Seaside high schoolers help adorn cast
of local music festival production
Sewing Club members
participate in costume
apprenticeship
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
Three students from
Seaside High School’s
Sewing Club took part in
the Astoria Music Festi-
YDO¶V ¿UVW FRVWXPH DSSUHQ-
ticeship program in late
June.
The festival, which held
its 13th season this year,
traditionally incorporates
a Vocal and Instrumental
Apprentice Program. The
program’s production for
2015 was the comedic
opera “The Magic Flute,”
RU ³'LH =DXEHUÀ|WH´ E\
Wolfgang Amadeus Mo-
zart. The production used
Astoria as its setting. In
general, the two-week
apprentice program pro-
vides advanced training
to pre-professional sing-
ers and instrumentalists.
It also incorporates local
young dancers.
A new addition to this
year’s program was a cos-
tume apprenticeship, over-
seen by Costume Manager
Cynthia Harber, a local
teacher at Astoria Middle
School.
When Managing Di-
rector Carol Shepherd
heard about Seaside High
School’s Sewing Club,
she saw an opportunity
to provide another venue
to instruct and develop
young people through the
apprentice program. Three
students from the sew-
ing club — Brooke Laws,
Max McNeill and Chastity
Cozzitorto — participated
in the costume apprentice-
ship, and the program ben-
H¿WHGIURPWKHLUSDUWLFLSD-
tion, Harber said.
The program also bene-
¿WHGIURPDEXGJHWIRU
costumes, which gave the
team the ability to create
more elaborate attire. They
KDGWRFUDIWRXW¿WVDQGRWKHU
costume pieces for the near-
ly 20-member cast, as well
as about 18 dancers from
Maddox Dance Studio and
the Astoria School of Ballet.
See Sewing, Page 9A
City considers
regulating medical
marijuana grow sites
Operations would be
subject to licensing,
zoning regulations
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
The Seaside City Coun-
cil reviewed an ordinance
Monday to limit the growth
of medical marijuana to the
city’s three industrial zones.
The council also established
licensing requirements for
local medical marijuana
growers.
The legislation, drafted
by the Seaside Planning
Commission,
resembles
the work done by the City
Council earlier this year to
establish rules and regula-
tions for medical marijuana
dispensaries.
“This creates some reg-
ulatory relief, which was
not created by the state of
Oregon,” City Planner Kev-
in Cupples said. “The city
would be regulating the grow
sites similar to the way they
regulate dispensaries. This is
making sure the city is aware
of what’s going on, and that
we’re aware of who’s doing
the activity and that the activ-
ity is carried out safely.”
The city’s code currently
prevents licensing of busi-
nesses deemed “prohibited
by the laws of the United
States.” Since cannabis
remains a Schedule I sub-
stance under federal law,
the proposed amendment
would grant general busi-
ness licenses for medical
marijuana production and
processing, as long as the
business otherwise com-
plies with city code.
Production and process-
ing of medical marijuana
would be restricted to the
industrial areas in Seaside
based on the city’s zoning
ordinance. Because the ordi-
nance already has provisions
for producing or processing
prescription drugs in the in-
dustrial zone, commercial
production of medical mari-
juana would be addressed by
those, Cupples said.
See Pot, Page 6A