SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 111th YEAR • August 4, 2017
Kids prepare for once-in-lifetime experience
Seaside
campus
plan clears
fi rst hurdle
Planning Commission
recommendation
headed to City Council
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
The Seaside School District cleared a
major hurdle Tuesday night. Members of
the city’s Planning Commission provided
a recommendation that could lead to the
building of a new school campus outside of
the tsunami inundation zone.
By voting to recommend approval of
the district’s request for an expansion of
the urban growth boundary, the commis-
sion paved the way for rezoning 40 acres
of the property and annexing an additional
49-acre portion of the property, located at
Seaside Heights Elementary School, 2000
Spruce Drive.
See Schools, Page 6A
Southeast
Seaside seeks
a turnaround
Urban renewal plan to
receive county review
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
During an event at the Seaside Public Library on July 27, children use protective eye wear to look up at the sun, in preparation for the
upcoming solar eclipse.
A lesson in the eclipse
By Katherine Lacaze
For Seaside Signal
‘I
see it! I see it!” several children exclaimed, peering skyward
through special glasses at the sun from the parking lot outside
the Seaside Public Library.
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The kindergarten through fi fth-grade
children, as well as their parents and
guardians, were gearing up for the im-
pending Aug. 21 solar eclipse through a
series of games and activities hosted by
the library July 27.
Through June and July, as part of
its 2017 summer reading program, the
library offered preschool story times
on Wednesdays; a handful of special
See Eclipse, Page 7A
KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
About 60 children, parents and guardians
attended the event, Solar Eclipse: Moon
and Sun Experiments, which was put on
in conjunction with the 2017 Summer
Reading program.
Sweet Shop launches new tradition
1920s, the business was known
as Poppino’s Sweet Shop, which
operated as a soda fountain, then
one side became a high-end beauty
See Sweet Shop, Page 7A
See Urban, Page 6A
By Rebecca Herren
Seaside Signal
REBECCA HERREN/SEASIDE SIGNAL
New employee trainee Julia Jenkins (left), realtor Craig Weston and
barista Evan Uritt enjoy time in the garden outside of the Sweet Shop.
wall and shutters, opening up the
closed area to extend the shop’s
new list of wares.
As with many historical build-
ings, the Sweet Shop has gone
through several transitions. In the
Improvements drive funding
Urban renewal is a fi nancing program
authorized under state law and implemented
locally allowing the use of property tax rev-
enues from city and regional taxing districts
to grow the economy in blighted or underde-
veloped areas.
Past Seaside urban -renewal plans paved
the way for upgrades on the Turnaround and
Prom, the city’s sewage plant, 12th Avenue
improvements and construction of a new li-
brary in 2008.
Using tax -increment fi nancing, funding
comes through increases in assessed values
of local properties.
As new development arrives and existing
properties are improved, assessments rise and
see property -tax increases. Property taxes on
the growth in assessed value in the urban -re-
newal area are frozen and increases are allo-
cated to the city’s urban renewal agency and
not the taxing districts. Subsequent improve-
ments can lead to higher home values and in
turn higher assessments, ultimately generat-
ing more funds for the urban -renewal district.
The most signifi cant funds could be slat-
ed for the longer-term, when the money ac-
cumulates.
A gathering place
in Gearhart
With the building’s history
spanning decades of different es-
tablishments, owner of Pops Sweet
Shop Cindy Anderson decided to
sell her Gearhart business of nearly
15 years.
In 2016 during a visit to Gear-
hart, Traci Williams passed the
shop with its for sale sign posted in
the window and a friend suggested
she buy the place; and so she did.
In February of this year, Wil-
liams opened the new Sweet Shop
to welcoming acclaim. Though the
building, interior and menu may
look the same, look again. Wil-
liams has renovated, remodeled
and refurbished both sides of the
building. She removed the false
Round one of an u rban r enewal p lan that
would involve critical bridge and school im-
provements in southeast Seaside has moved
a step forward .
The Planning Commission determined
this month that the report presented by
Elaine Howard Consulting met the city’s
criteria as specifi ed in the master plan. Next
step is the City Council, which is scheduled
to hear details of the report at the city’s Aug.
14 meeting.
The report presents renewal area bound-
aries and provides cost estimates .
Southeast Seaside’s infrastructure goals,
prepared in a May goal-setting session, in-
clude a pedestrian bike bridge, parks proj-
ects and upgrades to unincorporated proper-
ties in the area.
Covering almost 560 acres of land along
South Holladay, Avenue S from U.S. Highway
101 east and the southern section of Highway
101, the urban renewal district would make
up about 21 percent of the city’s total acreage
and 22 percent of Seaside’s assessed value.
“One of the places where urban renewal
agencies can be very effective is in match-
ing money,” City Manager Mark Winstanley
said. “If the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation, as an example says, ‘We are going
to give you money for the Avenue U Bridge,
but we are only going to give you 90 percent
of the money,’ the urban -renewal agency
could pay for 10 percent of the project. You
might be able to build a bridge early because
you are only providing matching money, not
the major portion.”