A6 • Friday, November 19, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Fees: Rental license revenue slightly exceeds costs
Continued from Page A1
and enforce local codes
related to items like noise,
litter and parking.
There are currently 411
vacation rental units in Sea-
side, including vacation
rental dwellings, transit
rental condos and bed and
breakfasts.
Fees start at $475 annu-
ally for smaller rent-
als, increasing to $500 for
those dwellings with six
to 10 occupants and $550
for 11 and more occu-
pants. The money covers
the $95,000 salary for the
code enforcement offi cer
and related expenses for the
department.
The city anticipates about
$165,000 from the license
fees. After itemizing costs
related to the code compli-
ance offi cer and expenses,
they are estimating a sur-
plus of about $29,000.
If the council wanted to,
it could look at reducing
the vacation rental licenses
by as much as 15%, which
would be about $75 apiece,
Winstanley said. “But that
would kill any residual
BUSINESS
LICENSE FEES
Business license fees are
distributed to support
the community devel-
opment department,
the Seaside Chamber
of Commerce and the
Downtown Development
Association, City Manag-
er Mark Winstanley said
Wednesday.
Additional money avail-
able goes to the Seaside
Civic and Convention
Center for use in their
capital improvement
program.
Those fees should remain
at their current level,
Councilor David Posalski
said. “I don’t believe that
there’s a change that we
would want to imple-
ment for this coming
year. But I think it should
be on the calendar
early next year to discuss
changes for the following
year.”
City Manager Mark Winstanley, left, with members of the City Council, Tom Horning, Dana Phillips, Randy Frank, Mayor Jay
Barber, Steve Wright and Tita Montero.
money.”
There will be continuing
increases in costs, he said.
“I think that’s a given in fact
that’s all the conversation
is taking place right now
around the United States
is the fact that costs are
increasing on an ongoing
basis and the costs associ-
ated with the code enforce-
ment offi cer are going to
increase.”
Winstanley
presented
options of keeping the fee
as it is, or reducing it by an
amount to evenly match city
expenses associated with
vacation rentals.
“My sense is that even
vacation owners are feel-
ing more supportive of their
role and managing their
own business,” Barber said.
“Let’s go another year, see
how it goes and see where
we come out.”
Vacation rental dwell-
ings are the topic of a City
Council and Planning Com-
mission joint work session
on Nov. 29.
LEFT: Proposed
location of a
fi rehouse and
police station on
Highlands Lane.
RIGHT: Property
designated for
a proposed
Gearhart fi rehouse
and park.
City of Gearhart
DINING
on the
Fire station: Public meetings, open house ahead
Continued from Page A1
ics and newsletters and
that sort of thing,” Sweet
said. “And then in about a
month, month and a half,
we’ll begin getting that
information out to the pub-
lic for people to debate and
discuss.”
There will also be
scheduled public meet-
ings to present some of
this information in the near
future as well, Sweet said,
beginning right around the
new year. “We’ll continue
the discussions as often as
we can.”
In October, the fi re
department held an open
house during the Great
Oregon Shakeout, a tsu-
nami preparedness event.
Another open house is
scheduled for Sunday, Nov.
21, from noon to 3 p.m.,
interim Fire Chief Josh
Como said, with grilled
burgers and hot dogs.
Gearhart: City’s intention is to go to voters in May
Continued from Page A1
boundary exchange by next
spring because of the pub-
lic notice and hearings that
must take place. “Public
notice is really important
to make sure we follow all
those rules and make sure
that those are done prop-
erly,” Fregonese said.
After the report is avail-
able, public hearings with
the Planning Commission,
City Council and county
Board of Commissioners
would follow, which Fre-
gonese recommended take
place concurrently.
“That should save us
months as we move for-
ward through this with a
goal of April having some-
thing that is brought to
council that can be adopted
as a comprehensive plan
change and a UGB expan-
sion,” he said. “I don’t want
to make any promises but
that’s the goal. We’re work-
ing toward it now.”
Right now, the plan is
to proceed with the UGB
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at Gearhart subdivision off
Highlands Lane into the
city’s urban growth bound-
ary in a land swap for acre-
age in the state’s no-build
line. The land would be
used for a fi rehouse and
police station.The current
proposed location off of
Highlands Lane had been
scheduled for Novem-
ber, but a ballot challenge
bumped that until next
spring.
Despite delays, City
Administrator Chad Sweet
said the process is moving
forward, with a team form-
ing around the fi re station
and councilors and mem-
bers of the public coming
out and wanting to assist.
“At this point in time
we are building our infor-
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City Administrator Chad
Sweet said the city’s inten-
tion is to go to voters in
May for a fi rehouse bond
vote. “That is ultimately
the council’s decision,” he
said. “That is what the staff
is heading toward with the
help of these other folks.”
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The parking has grown
to a dozen families, City
Councilor Tita Montero
said.
Their activity has dis-
turbed the neighborhood
and lowered property val-
ues, residents said.
“You want to take the
property value of that whole
section,” Tom Veazey said.
“Not by a point, but by
10 points. You should be
ashamed of yourselves,
absolutely ashamed.”
The delivery of the peti-
tion coincided with conclu-
sions from the city’s home-
lessness think tank, a group
seeking strategies to man-
age the growing homeless
population.
Among the recommen-
dations, the group advised
establishing a managed
carp park to enable the
city to comply with federal
legal rulings and a state law
related to homeless camp-
ing. “We cannot move peo-
ple out of where they are
camping and where they are
residing in their cars if we
don’t have a place for them
to go to,” Montero said.
Since the parking lot off
Necanicum is already in
use, the think tank advised
the city to “acknowledge
the reality” and enforce
health and safety measures
at the site.
Activist Seamus McVey,
who serves on the think
tank, shared his own expe-
rience with homelessness,
which he said began the day
he left the military.
“I’m the person that
everybody wants to kick
out,” McVey said. “During
my time being homeless,
I’ve been spit on, assaulted
and had garbage thrown at
me. Not by other homeless
people, by people who just
didn’t like the way I looked.
If people don’t deserve to
live in a neighborhood,
where do they deserve to
live exactly?
“We’re all people,”
McVey said. “You don’t
know how we got there.
I’m lucky enough to be off
the streets now. But I’ll be
hanged if I’m going to let
somebody try to treat others
in the position I was as fi lth
and garbage not deserv-
ing of a place to lay down,
not deserving of the basic
human dignity and respect
that we would all want for
ourselves.”
The city’s priority is
to locate a car park or RV
park somewhere within
the region so people could
move from the homeless
camp, Mayor Jay Barber
said.
“This is not a permanent
site,” he said. “This is sit-
ting on property that’s there
for construction purposes.
One of the priorities that
we’re looking at is locating
a permanent site that would
be managed, hopefully by
a nonprofi t organization,
that has experience in other
cities. It also protects the
rights of housed people.”
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