A6 • Friday, February 15, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Back to drawing board for
Grocery Outlet, commission
Seaside Signal
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Knife River Corp. proposes to grade and replant an eastern
portion of the Teevin & Fischer Quarry, seen on the left, as
a steeply forested hillside once adjacent mining is fi nished.
Knife River plans
future quarry
decommissioning
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Knife River Corp. is
preparing for a future
decommissioning of part
of its Seaside quarry.
The company recently
applied for a conditional
use permit from the county
to expand quarry opera-
tions to an 11-acre strip
of land directly uphill and
to the east of the existing
56-acre quarry. The land is
zoned for forestry and has
historically been used for
commercial logging.
The company proposes
to grade the strip of land
at a 50 percent angle and
replant it with commer-
cial timber, turning a sheer
quarry wall into a steep,
forested slope once adja-
cent mining is complete.
“It’s just looking to the
future and making sure
we’re good stewards of the
land,” said Tony Spilde,
a spokesman for Knife
River.
Knife River, one of the
largest construction mate-
rials producers in the U.S.,
purchased the 56-acre Sea-
side quarry last year from
local timber and mining
magnate Shawn Teevin
and
Scappoose-based
construction
contractor
Thomas Fischer for around
$10 million, including
equipment. The two had
purchased the site in 2006
and operated it as Teevin &
Fischer Quarry.
A quarry reclamation
plan must be approved by
the county and the state
Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries
“to assure quarry sites are
restored and rehabilitated
in a way that accommo-
dates other permitted land
uses upon the completion
of mineral and aggregate
resource extraction.”
The proposed grading
would occur over several
years.
“We’ve got several
years, many years of mate-
rial there,” Spilde said.
A scheduled hearing on a
new Grocery Outlet in Sea-
side has been rescheduled
for the commission’s regu-
larly scheduled meeting on
March 5, at the request of
Main & Main, the capital
group representing Grocery
Outlet.
Planning Director Kevin
Cupples said the commission
will not take testimony on
the Grocery Outlet’s remand
until then.
Although the primary
access to the 18,000-square-
foot Grocery Outlet site will
be from Avenue N, the appli-
cant plans to use undevel-
oped portions of South Irvine
and Avenue O in conjunction
with the proposed develop-
ment. Planning commission-
ers approved the request, but
imposed conditions on the
developers they considered
onerous.
Developers Main & Main
Capital Group of The Colony,
Texas, appealed the commis-
sion’s requirement that the
builder of the 18,000-square-
foot Grocery Outlet provide
a left-turn lane into the site
at 325 Avenue N, or limit
access to right-turn entrance
and exit only.
Main & Main argued
before the City Council that
the required improvements
are unlawful. The appeal,
according to Planning Direc-
tor Kevin Cupples, is pri-
marily based on case law
that limits the requirements
that can be placed on an
applicant.
At the January appeal
hearing, City Council mem-
bers opted to return the mat-
ter to the Planning Commis-
sion for further review.
According to terms of the
council’s remand, discussion
at the March hearing will be
limited to the scope of the
turning lane conditions.
R.J.Marx
Planning commissioners seek to limit left-turns in and out of a proposed Grocery Outlet in
Seaside.
Main & Main Capital
Proposed site of Grocery Outlet in Seaside.
Rodney Roberts
named to join
SEPRD board
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Seaside resident Rodney
Roberts will join the Sun-
set Empire Park and Rec-
reation District board of
directors,
fi lling the
seat
left
vacant by
board pres-
ident Alan
Evans, who
m o v e d
Rodney
out of dis-
Roberts
trict. Rob-
erts will be
appointed Tuesday, Feb.
19, at the regular meeting
of the board.
The board selected Rob-
erts out of seven candidates
interviewed for the board’s
Position 5.
The
board
was
impressed with Roberts’
experience working with
local government bodies
on the South Oregon Coast,
as a sheriff, to provide rec-
reational opportunities and
writing grants, the rec dis-
trict’s executive director
Skyler Archibald said after
the selection.
“He seemed very famil-
iar with our programs and
has a son who participates
heavily in our programs,”
Archibald said. “He’s
retired right now, so he has
ample time to participate.
It was a really hard deci-
sion for the board to make
because there were really
four or fi ve outstanding
candidates.”
A former sheriff, Rob-
erts is now retired.
A second district board
seat, that held by Ed Has-
san, will also be vacant this
spring. Hassan, represent-
ing Position 4, will serve as
acting board president until
the May board election.
Candidate fi ling began
Feb. 9 and goes through
March 21.
I still have some chapters left to write,
things I want to do yet. Feel free to
take a vacation. I might do that, too.
Grateful to be here,
Ann
p r ov idenceoregon . org / de a rnorthcoa s t