May 26, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A
Housing crunch in mind, Seaside OKs zone change
Property could
yield 40 units
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Citing a lack of affordable
housing, the Seaside City
Council has granted approval
of a zone change on a 3.75-
acre property located between
North Wahanna Road and the
wetlands along Stanley Lake
for a housing project.
“We, as a council, spent
two days of public goal-set-
ting, and we need additional
housing in this community,”
City Councilor Dana Phillips
said at a meeting Monday.
City Coun-
cilor Seth Mor-
risey said there
were similar
apartment com-
plexes on Wah-
anna already, James Folk
and attempts to
expand the city’s urban growth
boundary had been pushed back.
“Anytime we can expand any-
where we try to increase den-
sity or place housing there’s
going to be people who aren’t
going to like where it’s at,” he
said.
Property owner James Folk
pointed to the lack of rentals
in Clatsop County. “There is
a huge, significant need for
housing, and this will definite-
ly accommodate a lot of that,”
he said after the meeting.
Wetlands protected
During public hearings,
neighbors expressed concern
about discrepancies in the
property survey, traffic on Wa-
hanna Road, affordability and
impacts on the environment.
Neighbors said the units would
be priced too high for those in
low- or minimum-wage jobs
to fill the need for affordable
housing. Donna Lyons of
Warrenton, whose mother’s
property borders the property,
questioned the feasibility of
providing workforce housing
at the prevailing wages in the
community.
At a February Planning
Commission meeting, Folk said
units would rent for between
$800 and $1,300 a month. A to-
tal of 104 residents could live in
the five-building complex.
Folk said he is permitted
20 housing units per acre, and
would abide by whatever num-
bers a survey would determine.
The last survey, prepared in
1990, is under revision. Folk
said he expected a new survey
will show 1.9 acres of build-
able land.
The traffic impacts, even
in the worst-case scenario,
would be so minimal, he said,
that impacts would not even
require a state Department of
Transportation study.
Eagles nesting
At April’s City Council
public hearing, neighbor Dawn
Miller sought protections for
eagles on nearby Stanley Lake,
a concern seconded by City
Councilor Tom Horning.
Folk said neighbors are
“trying to make it something
it’s not.”
“Whenever you have trees
there might be bird,” Folk said
last week. “If the trees are in
the wetlands and are part of
the buildable property, they
are never going to be touched.
To me, it’s off-limits to every-
body.”
Monday he repeated that
commitment.
“We couldn’t touch them
(the wetlands) if we wanted,
and we don’t want to,” Folk
said.
Plans are still in the pre-
liminary stages, Folk said af-
ter Monday’s vote, and could
include 10 duplexes.
“I’ll do whatever I can
do make sure it’s a beautiful
project, affordable and people
will be proud to live there,”
he added. “Now that we are
where we are, we have to get
to the grindstone. I’m excited
to get started and have some
great houses for people to live
in.”
An ordinance annexing
the property into the city also
passed unanimously.
Wright named
COO of EO
Media Group
EO Media Group
SALEM — Heidi Wright has been named
chief operating officer of EO Media Group,
which owns The Daily Astorian.
Wright succeeds John S. Perry, who is re-
tiring after 44 years in the newspaper industry,
including the
last 12 with EO
Media Group.
Wr i g h t
comes to EO
Media Group
from Western
Communica-
tions, owner of
the Bend Bul-
letin and other
newspapers in
Oregon
and
California. She
is Wescom’s
Heidi Wright
chief financial
officer and human resources director. She will
join EO Media Group in June.
Steve Forrester, the president and CEO of
EO Media Group, announced Wright’s hiring:
“Our executive committee — composed of
Kathryn Brown, Susan Forrester Rana and me
— is pleased to find a successor to Perry with
the leadership capabilities to help our company
prosper in the digital age. Her prior experience
with family-owned companies in our region is
especially relevant.”
Prior to joining Wescom, Wright was publish-
er of the Klamath Falls Herald and News, owned
by Pioneer News Group. She also worked as a
publisher in Montana for Lee Enterprises. She
has an undergraduate degree and a master’s in
business administration from the University of
Montana.
“Heidi has a lifetime of experience in the
West,” noted Brown. “Her experience at news-
papers in Butte, Klamath Falls and Bend make
her well-suited to understand the communities
that EO Media Group serves in rural Oregon and
Washington — as well as the extraordinary reach
of the Capital Press, our agricultural weekly.”
As chief operating officer, Wright will direct
the business operations of EO Media Group and
supervise publishers and corporate staff. The
company’s headquarters are in Salem.
“It’s an honor and privilege to be joining EO
Media Group,” said Wright. “While I will miss
my friends and colleagues at Western Commu-
nications, I am excited to become a part of the
EO Media Group family. My husband, Richard
Schuurman, and I are looking forward to calling
Salem home in the near future.”
EO Media Group publications include: Sea-
side Signal, Cannon Beach Gazette, The Daily
Astorian, Oregon Coast Today, Coast River
Business Journal, Chinook Observer, Capital
Press, The Blue Mountain Eagle of John Day,
East Oregonian, Hermiston Herald and Wallowa
County Chieftain.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Todd Davidson, Travel Oregon CEO; Jon Rahl, Seaside Visitors Bureau; Ryan Snyder, incoming chair for the Oregon Tourism
Commission and President/CEO Martin Hospitality. In 2016, the Seaside Visitors Bureau received the award for the Outstand-
ing Oregon Website.
Visitors Bureau wins
‘outstanding’ award
The City of Seaside Visitors Bureau
was honored with the “Outstanding Over-
all Oregon Marketing Program Award” at
the 2017 Oregon Governor’s Conference
on Tourism earlier this month in Salem.
The award recognized the collective
achievements of the visitors bureau for
its rebranding and marketing efforts.
Scholarship Awards Night at Seaside High School
Friends and family will gather to watch
students in the Seaside High School Class of
2017 receive scholarship awards in the tens
of thousands of dollars at the Seaside High
School Awards Night on Tuesday, June 6, at 7
p.m. in the cafeteria. Scholarships from com-
munity organizations, colleges, universities,
private individuals, and Seaside Scholarships
will be presented.
The non-profit Seaside Scholarships,
organized six years ago, is responsible for
managing and awarding numerous memorial
scholarships, Achievement Awards, and In-
vestment Grants in varying amounts to wor-
thy seniors.
A common application, developed by
Seaside Scholarships to make applying for
scholarships more efficient, is accessed on-
Managing
Hip & Knee Arthritis
JOIN US FOR A
SEMINAR
line in the winter through the Seaside HS
counseling office. Interviews by Seaside
Scholarships Board members are conducted
with each applicant who meets the spring
deadline.
Each of the managed monetary awards
has criteria determined by the donor or do-
nor’s loved ones and used to match recipients
with scholarships. The newest of the schol-
arships awarded by Seaside Scholarships
include Coastal Family Health, Sou’wester
Garden Club, the Jason Gooding Memorial
Scholarship, and the Wendy Richardson Me-
morial Scholarship.
In addition to the memorials, general
scholarship funds raised specifically by Sea-
side Scholarships are distributed to seniors
including the valedictorians, salutatorian,
and students worthy of recognition. Last year
these included the Centennial Scholarships.
With the mission, “Opening doors for
education,” Seaside Scholarships continues
its on-going effort to raise funds in order to
award scholarships to Seaside School Dis-
trict students with financial need, as well as
academic excellence.
Hoping to continue to grow a substan-
tial endowment to provide funds for future
graduating seniors, the organization gladly
accepts contributions year round. All tax de-
ductible donations or bequests may be sent
in care of Seaside Scholarships, P.O. Box
332, Seaside, OR 97138. Visit the website at
www.seasidescholarships.com for further in-
formation or contact board president Celine
McEwan at info@seasidescholarships.com.
Presentation by
Dr. Michael Vessely
Orthopaedic Surgeon
WEDWESDAY, JUWE 28 th
5:30pm to 6:30pm
Holiday Inn Express
34 W. Holladay Drive. Seaside, OR
Light appetizers served
ADMISSION IS FREE
The Joint
Replacement
Institute
MCMIWWVILLE OREGOW
Please RSVP bd contacting
Natalie.Reed@capellahealth.com
or (503) 435-6571