Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2018)
4A • November 23, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com County housing study gets hearing in Seaside Housing from Page 1A Members of the audience, including South County of- ficials, businesspeople and residents, picked up on this theme. “Looking at the ages of the people in my residential neighborhood here in Seaside and looking at many of them and realizing they won’t be here after two or three more years, and they’ll be selling their houses,” an audience member commented. “The trend I see is people from outside saying, ‘I’m going to make a big buck, I’m going to buy a house and turn it into a vacation rental.’ I’ve seen that happen. It seems there’s a rubber stamp that goes on top of all those. I’m seeing our neighborhood become a VRD.” Others pointed to home- owners who, they said, rented their homes “under the table.” The Clatsop County Hous- ing Study, taken with the par- ticipation of the five county cities of Warrenton, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Astoria and Gearhart, with the unincor- porated townships around the county. The study profiles and analyzes the current county- wide housing supply, housing and demographic trends. Using this information, the authors intend to review existing plans and develop projections based on data and policies. Meeting the county’s need for housing of all types is the goal of the study. The study, available at the county website, provides de- tails on population growth, household characteristics and available land. While the study says that there is “ample buildable land” throughout the county to fill need for the past two decades. Seaside is the most constrained compared to its 20-year housing need. War- renton, Astoria and unincor- porated areas have the most buildable land. County growth is about 1 percent since 2000. War- renton and Seaside are the fasting growing cities; Can- non Beach and Gearhart have been showing “slow and steady growth,” Buckley said. Planners used the indus- try standard of 30 percent of gross income to determine how much a person can af- ford, Buckley said, a measure used by banks and government agencies. Residents shared concerns Campus crews alter drainage schedule Campus from Page 1A Concrete was poured this week and crews are forming walls at the lower level, he said. The foundation is designed “so that the whole building moves as one,” Henry said. “If there’s an earthquake, even if there’s cracks under the ground, it should be able to span any gaps of 4 to 5 feet that might occur. The whole building moves together like a raft.” A 2-million gallon above- ground water storage tank will be made of steel and built with similar seismic specifica- tions to the building founda- tion. The tank, to be financed by the city, will be the subject of a City Council workshop on Monday at City Hall. Henry said the project re- mains on budget but will stay in the “caution zone.” Superintendent Sheila Ro- ley gave high grades to the “wonderful project, with great folks working on it, and great community support.” “It’s still a little bit of a nail-biter, but there’s progress every day,” she added. “We’ll see something vertical pretty soon.” Don’t Catch This Wave, Part 2 Students offer plan to paint new tsunami signage By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal Students played a key role in the passage of a 2016 Sea- side School District bond to finance a move of endangered schools to a new location in the city’s Southeast Hills. The “Don’t Catch this Wave” campaign, launched by stu- dents, reached audiences lo- cally, statewide and nation- ally before the passage of the $99.7 million bond. A new group of students is continuing their efforts, as members of the school’s As- sociated Student Body went before the City Council Mon- day night to seek support for tsunami signage. “From the very begin- ning, the high school stu- dents have led the way in reminding us of this issue,” Mayor Jay Barber said. “You’re leading the way and we’re anxious to sit down with you and see how we can get this done.” Seaside ASB Treasurer Westin Carter, communica- tions officer Luke Nelson and president Mason Craw- ford discussed plans to paint tsunami signs on roadways to help residents and visitors find safety in the case of a Cascadia Subduction Zone event. While the students have some funds, they will need some city money to move forward. Students sought two tem- plates for signs and arrows. Each sign would use require one can of paint. The first sign would include the tem- plate cost. Total cost for 20 signs would be $936, with funds designed for tsunami sign templates, paint and city labor. City officials liked the idea, and Public Works Di- rector Dale McDowell said he would be “delighted” to work with the students. Councilors Tom Horning and Tita Montero suggested additional details for the sig- nage, including maximum run-up elevations and lines indicating whether a loca- tion is inside or outside of the tsunami zone. Students will work with McDowell and Horning — a geologist who campaigned and won on a platform of tsunami safety — to review plans. “I think you have a po- tential partnership that could make that money go further, and maybe do more,” Mon- tero said. “I really like the idea.” R.J. MARX City Councilors Tom Horning (left) and Steve Wright review findings from the county housing study. ‘I’M SEEING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BECOME A VRD.’ An audience member that those figures don’t really reflect affordability. “Could we say the num- bers don’t translate into actu- al cost?” asked an audience member, adding that utilities, taxes and other necessities are not figured in. Future studies could con- sider residential possibilities for soon-to-be vacated school properties in the Seaside School District, not included as available acreage in the study. Residents have the opportu- nity to comment on the docu- ment, with findings posted on the county’s website at https:// www.co.clatsop.or.us/county/ page/clatsop-county-hous- ing-study. The completed document will include proposals for ini- tiatives that may encourage more production of needed housing types, as well as rec- ommendations on forming partnerships and “capaci- ty-building” strategies. Seaside Mayor Jay Barber shared the theme of regional collaboration, and like resi- dents, recognized the need to address short-term rentals. “The solutions to the issues we’ve seen on the screen is a regional, five-city solution,” he said. “The mayors of these five cities are meeting soon to grap- ple with these,” Barber added. “One of the major issues clear- ly is that we need to revisit va- cation rental policies. That will be high on my list and I think that’s true of the other council- ors and other jurisdictions as well.” < &3*.'/1-"3*/. /.*.241".$& &.1/,,-&.3 *2*3"*.'/1-"3*/.2&22*/. < 2*(.40'/1 *.241".$&/1 < 2&3"."00/*.3-&.3 3/3",+/.&/./.& 6*3)".&.1/,,-&.3 ."5*("3/1 1/"%6"8&"2*%&1&(/. ",,*.&)"13 ,*.*$?2.1/,,-&.3"5*("3/1 "3 73 >2/#1&&, 2&(41/-&%*$/ ,"-&"," "5"(&%/1"%&.2$1*0$*;. %&,",:.*$"%&*.&)"13", 73 /6&31&&3!)&&,&11&(/. 96661*.&)"13$,*.*$/1( You can try, but you can’t quit me. Providence has made sure of that for 55 years and counting. Staying the course, Bob prov idenceoregon . org / de a rnorthcoa s t