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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2021)
OUR 114th Year November 19, 2021 SEASIDESIGNAL.COM $1.00 Gearhart advances land swap for firehouse site By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal Photos by R.J. Marx Kiara Breckenridge, Josh Lair, Jason Hawkins and James Schneider serve hot dogs and hamburgers at the Great Oregon Shakeout event in Gearhart. Gearhart sees communications as key to fire station ballot effort By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal R esident Tom Thies expressed the frustration many were feel- ing at November’s Gearhart City Council meeting. With a vote on a new firehouse delayed until at least May, Thies said, “I’m more than upset.” “We’ve been working on this for years,” Thies said. “It’s in the fall. It’s in the spring. It’s in the fall. It’s in the spring. It’s next year, next year. The price keeps going up $900,000 or so every year. It would be nice if we could set a year, even if it’s years out and get this to happen. I think this is really important. I don’t know if anyone else feels like this, but I get really bummed out about it.” Gearhart is working with plan- ners to bring the 30-acre Cottages See Fire station, Page A6 Gearhart Mayor Paulina Cockrum, City Administrator Chad Sweet and City Councilor Brent Warren at the open house. Whatever the vote for a new firehouse in the Highlands, the city must bring 35 acres into the city’s urban growth boundary. Approval for the process must first pass muster with the state’s Department of Land Conservation and Development, which oversees the administrative pro- cess, consultant Scott Fregonese told City Council at their November meeting. Once land is included in an urban growth boundary, it is eligible for annexation to the city. The expansion will allow Cottages at Gearhart developers to build more resi- dential lots than under Clatsop County’s zoning code. As terms of the agreement, two lots part of the parcel — a 2.14-acre lot for the fire station and 2.4-acre lot for park property — would be transferred to the city. In the event the city is unable to bring the property into the urban growth boundary within one year from the sign- ing on Aug. 23, the agreement would ter- minate unless both parties agree to an extension. To complete the deal, the city must exchange an equivalent, similar amount of property within the urban growth boundary. The swap must be “one-to- one” in terms of acreage exchanged, with equivalent zoning density, consultant Scott Fregonese said. The city has more than 70 acres west of the state’s no-build line that are inside the city’s urban growth boundary and zoned residential, City Attorney Peter Watts said, giving the city “plenty of land” to work with. Fregonese will work with the city to develop a report and findings that address the criteria of the state’s Department of Land Conservation and Development. “That’s going to be important,” he said. We need to have the support of the state, the county as well as the city to actually move this thing forward. All of the state- wide planning goals come into play when we’re doing a UGB swap like this.” The urban growth boundary report will look at demands on public facilities, traf- fic estimates and site analysis, Fregonese said. “We can’t just say, ‘This is the site that we want to do the swap for.’ We have to look at potential for other sites, and then make arguments for why this site is the best for the swap.” Fregonese said it would be “ambi- tious” to complete the urban growth See Gearhart, Page A6 Frustration over Necanicum RV, car encampment Councilors lean toward maintaining Residents petition city to remove vacation rental license the RVs and cars fee at current level Increase irked vacation rental owners By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal A controversial busi- ness license fee is likely here to stay. Seaside city councilors said at a work session last Wednesday that the 2019 hike in business licenses for vacation rental dwell- ing was working to pro- vide greater accountabil- ity and improve neighbor relations. Vacation home- owners said the fee was disproportionate and implemented without ade- quate public input or city outreach. The fee comes in addi- tion to room tax, which yields more than $1 mil- lion — about 20% of the lodging economy — for the city. At last Wednesday’s workshop, Mayor Jay Bar- ber said the license permit fee is “not unreasonable.” “It’s been viewed by some as onerous and unfair, but I think it has had a result that has made our community better in terms of living with these busi- nesses and our residential areas,” Barber said. “By and large when there has been a problem it’s been addressed immediately.” In late 2019, the City Council voted to raise the annual business license fee, adding $400 per year to the cost. The goal was to fund a compliance offi- cer, designed to inspect vacation rental dwellings See Fees, Page A6 By R.J. MARX Seaside Signal Residents who live near a homeless camp off Necan- icum Drive came to the City Council last week with an urgent plea. “City Council has offered greater protection to the homeless individuals than to the residents, business own- ers and homeowners that live here in Seaside,” said Roxanne Veazey, who pre- sented a petition from doz- ens of residents asking the city to remove the camp. Veazey voiced concerns about the city allowing the homeless on beaches, at restrooms, under bridges, in the woods and panhandling at markets downtown. “Most residents thought that the sit- uation would be resolved,” she said. “But in six months, all we have accomplished is meetings for the sake of meetings.” Veazey and others want R.J. Marx The city hopes to relocate the RV and car parking along Necanicum between 10th and 11th. For many neighbors, it should have never been allowed in the first place. the city to prohibit over- night camping in the lot off Necanicum. “This homeless neighbor- hood or your so-called pilot program does not belong in a residential area,” Veazey said. “The city placed it there and should be responsible for relocating it. Neighbors are finding needles, bedding, sleeping bags, tents, lean-to shacks, people living in motor homes, in motor vehi- cles throughout our beauti- ful city. ... What you have is a surefire suggestion: ‘Come to Seaside. Do what you darn well please, and there are no consequences.’” Colleen Gould Gascoigne said she lives a “rock’s throw away from the trailers.” “I get to hear their con- versations and their argu- ments lately,” Gould Gas- coigne said. “Because I have chronic migraines, I don’t sleep. I’m living with this day in, day out. When this started back in May, we did not get any kind of let- ters or anything from any of you saying that this could happen.” The issue of RVs aban- doned or left overnight — sometimes for weeks or months at a time — came before the City Council in April. Necanicum between First and 12th, residents said, had become a long- term parking area and a safety and health hazard for residents. Police ticketed the cars along the roadside, and, over the summer, many vehicles migrated across the street to a city-owned lot near Good- man Park. See Encampment, Page A6
