6A • October 14, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Local candidates in the spotlight
council has personally talked
to the people I talked to,” he
said. “I don’t think these peo-
ple should be painted with the
scarlet letter.
Candidates from Page 1A
presentation illustrating the
risk to the city.
“One of the things I’ve
found most compelling about
this election is tsunami pre-
paredness,” Horning said.
“New information is coming
now that compels us to doing
evacuation infrastructure at a
higher priority and a higher
speed level than we have.”
Horning said the next tsu-
nami is due every 340 years
— and the last one occurred
316 years ago, in 1700. Sea-
side is “all going to be lood-
ed” in the event of a tsunami,
Horning said. “The most im-
portant thing to do is to take
care of our evacuation infra-
structure.”
“If we have to choose pri-
orities for projects in Seaside,
building bridges is irst and
foremost in my mind,” he
said. “All of our bridges need
to be earthquake-proof.”
Horning estimated the
cost of replacement at $5
million for each of seven at-
risk bridges. Upgrades could
be inanced by ive-year city
bonds, he said. “The irst thing
I would do is call a communi-
ty gathering and come up with
a design scenario,” he said.
Johnson said voters should
not only consider tsunamis,
but remember storms that
come “even more frequently.”
“Prepare for the big one,
but be ready for the other
ones coming through,” John-
son, who serves as council
president, said. “I think we’re
doing a great job of getting
ready as best we can with the
limited resources we have
available to us.”
Viewpoints
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Gearhart Mayor Dianne Widdop, front, was among those in
the audience at the American Association of University Wom-
en Forum Monday night.
Johnson pointed to his 16
years of experience and past
leadership of the budget com-
mittee, Planning Commission,
and other civic and fraternal or-
ganizations. “We are a city run
by committees and decisions,”
Johnson said. “I take their input
very seriously and will keep
doing that if I am elected.”
Both candidates are life-
long Seaside residents.
Gearhart mayor
Gearhart’s mayoral can-
didates Matt Brown and Bob
Shortman clashed on issues
of short-term rentals, tsunami
preparedness and housing.
Brown, a PGA professional
at Highlands Golf Club, said
he supported Gearhart’s new
short-term rental ordinance.
“I talked to a lot of residents
to get their feedback,” Brown
said. “I was in favor of a true
compromise, one where there
were common-sense regula-
tions like there are in other
coastal communities. But I
was also in favor of a com-
promise to grandfather in
short-term rental owners.”
The city ordinance, which
was put into law at the city’s
last council session, could re-
lieve the rental housing short-
age in Gearhart, Brown said.
“There just aren’t any long-
term rentals,” he said. “If that
number through attrition goes
down over time, that will cre-
ate a market for more long-
term rentals.”
Shortman, who is head of
the Clatsop County GOP, said
Gearhart was “founded on the
daddy trains.”
“I don’t agree with the law
that was passed,” Shortman
said of Gearhart’s short-term
rental rules, which require
registration and inspection of
short-term rental properties.
“Our town was founded on
short-term rentals.”
Shortman said many res-
idents never received the
opportunity to share their
opinions, and those who did
were not heard by councilors.
“Nobody from the mayor or
In Seaside, councilors
Randy Frank and Seth Mor-
risey are running unopposed.
In Gearhart, councilors Sue
Lorain and Dan Jesse are also
unchallenged. They shared
their views on a wide variety
of topics at Monday’s AAUW
forum.
On public service:
Randy Frank: “I’m just
inishing up my fourth year
on the council, and what I ap-
preciate about it is the connec-
tion we get with everybody in
town.”
On housing:
Seth Morrisey: “We need
to address affordable housing.
You can lower the burden on
developers to build multi-
family housing. The fees are
extraordinarily high to build
these types of housing. That
would be the irst approach.”
On the potential closing of
Gearhart Elementary School:
Sue Lorain: “I think resi-
dents will thrilled to (have) a
21st-century school instead of
a 19th-century school with a
19th-century boiler with rats
running underneath the gym.”
On short-term rentals:
Dan Jesse: I supported the
ordinance we came up with in
Gearhart. It’s in our best in-
terest to try to work with the
concept of having them in our
community, but try to keep
them in check so that those
who live there full time can
live cohesively with the peo-
ple who are there short term.”
CITY OF GEARHART VS. PROPERTY OWNERS
Short-term rentals, long-term challenges
Whether at the ballot
box or in court, new
rules face opposition
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
The ink on Gearhart’s
short-term rental rules is
barely dry and already there
are challenges in the works.
“We have engaged at-
torneys,” David Townsend,
a Gearhart property owner,
said. “We are preserving all
of our options, looking at all
of them.”
Short-term rental owners
could ile an appeal with the
state, or gather signatures to
ile a ballot initiative to bring
an “alternative ordinance” to
voters. Townsend and oth-
ers would seek to enable the
transfer of permits in a sale
— prohibited under the city
ordinance — and see the cap
lifted to accommodate more
short-term rentals.
“We’ve engaged attorneys
on both the Land Use Board
of Appeals and the initiative,”
Townsend said. “We are seri-
ously pursuing one if not both
options. If we win at LUBA,
we don’t need to do the initia-
tive.”
A notice of intent to appeal
must be iled by Oct. 27, 21
days after the ordinance went
into effect, according to City
Administrator Chad Sweet.
In a list of frequently asked
questions delivered to proper-
ty owners this week, the city
laid out rules for homeowners
with short-term rentals, in-
cluding limits to street park-
ing, septic capacity, weekly
side-yard garbage pickup,
landscaping and property
manager contact information.
Inspections will be conducted
by the city’s building oficial.
Applicants must provide
proof that city lodging tax-
es were paid. While prop-
erty owners can apply for a
variance from a requirement
by applying to the Planning
Commission, all conditions
must be met within 180 days
from Dec. 16, the last day of
the 60-day short-term proper-
ty owner application period.
Should opponents take
action, supporters will look
to the city to respond with a
counter initiative.
A notice of intent to appeal
must be iled by Oct. 27, 21
days after the ordinance went
into effect, according to City
Administrator Chad Sweet.
Council backs bond
Bond from Page 1A
The $99.7 million plan
scales back from the $128.8
million 2013 proposal, elim-
inating an auditorium, cov-
ered bleachers, long-term
emergency shelters and a var-
sity playing ield. “Because
of those reductions and be-
cause of historically low in-
terest rate, the total cost of the
bond is going from $2.16 per
thousand to $1.35 per thou-
sand,” Dougherty said. “That
is a 37.5 per cent decrease in
the total amount of the bond.”
The presentation stressed
not only safety for students in
schools likely to be looded
in the event of a tsunami or
quake, but the condition of
those schools, Gearhart Ele-
mentary, Broadway Middle
and Seaside High schools.
From 1948 to 1958, the
district built Gearhart Ele-
mentary School and Broad-
way Middle School
Seaside High School.
Those buildings were de-
signed to last 45 to 50 years;
their average age is 65 years.
“They’ve exceeded their use-
ful lives and they’re structur-
ally deteriorating,” Dough-
erty said, presenting photos
of structural cracking, crum-
bling sidewalls, encapsulated
asbestos, inaccessible piping
and leaks from patched lat
roofs.
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If the bond passes, the
school district would then
approach the City Council
for an urban growth bound-
ary expansion, a process
joined by the county and
the state. “We cannot afford
the work before a bond is
passed,” he said. “It’s a pro-
cess we’ve started, but with-
out the vote we cannot begin
the process.”
If the bond succeeds
with voters, the expansion
enabling roads and services
could be completed within a
year. Schools are expected to
be completed at the new lo-
cation within four years.
Phillips offered a motion
that the City Council support
the bond issue, which was
approved unanimously.
“It’s wonderful to have
them endorse this,” Dough-
erty said after the council’s
vote.
“It was such a new thought
with Cascadia issues in 2013,
that’s all people heard,” he
added. “They didn’t hear the
other components of the con-
ditions of the schools. Now
everybody’s aware of Casca-
dia, I don’t have to have that
as a main focus. That’s why
90 percent of my focus is on
the condition of the schools.
I think it’s a shock to a lot of
people that the concrete is lit-
erally disintegrating.”
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