Friday, January 28, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
A rise in housing in south Clatsop County
By ABBEY McDONALD
Coast River Business Journal
With new developments
and a recently assembled
housing task force, Seaside
hopes it can soon welcome
local workers with the
same fervor it welcomes
tourists.
“It’s desperate really,
particularly for workforce
housing,” said Mayor Jay
Barber. “One of the prob-
lems that our tourist-based
businesses have is that
they need lots of employ-
ees, but when they are able
to recruit somebody, they
can’t fi nd a place to live.”
For example, if some-
one manages to fi nd a stu-
dio apartment it can cost
over $1,000 a month to
rent. The security depos-
its alone, Barber said, are
nearly impossible for new
workers to aff ord.
Local leaders have iden-
tifi ed an oversaturation of
vacation rentals and a lack
of buildable land as Sea-
side’s biggest challenges to
address. They’re the same
issues towns face across the
North Coast.
The city is considering
a moratorium on additional
vacation rentals. Short-
term rentals take up over
half of the new develop-
ments of the past decade,
according to a 2019 Clat-
sop County housing study.
The city has approved
the construction of around
200 housing units in the
next few years, on what lit-
tle land is available. Barber
said that he thinks the rent
will only be aff ordable if
developers can access fed-
eral and state subsidies.
“I don’t see how devel-
opers building a multiapart-
ment unit, for instance, how
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Seaside is constrained on all sides by the ocean, rivers and a
hillside creating limited areas to add housing.
someone can invest the
resources right now with
the costliness of construc-
tion materials of labor, and
then rent a two-bedroom
apartment at an aff ordable
level. To me, that’s kind of
the Catch-22 that we’re in,”
Barber said.
New developments
Incoming construction
includes the Cross Creek
development on N. Roos-
evelt, which plans to add
over 70 apartments.
Two
other
incom-
ing apartment complexes,
River Run and another
development on Holladay
and Avenue C, will add
90 units combined. Their
developer, Masudur Khan,
is a hotelier who co-owns
Seaside Lodging LLC.
The apartments are
expected to be completed
this fall. Khan has hired
Ryan Keck as the director
of construction.
Khan’s SaltLine Hotel
opened in downtown Sea-
side in 2020. After facing
his own challenges in secur-
ing housing for staff , and
researching the local mar-
ket, he chose new housing
as his next endeavor.
“Ryan and I, we see that
there’s some opportunity
and there’s some need,”
Khan said. “Based on the
pandemic, of course, this
world has changed. And fi g-
uring out exactly what we
can do that actually we need
for our county, our city, the
needs for our people.”
They hope to fi ll the units
with employees of Seaside
Lodging and local busi-
nesses, as well as remote
workers employed in cit-
ies like Portland and Seat-
tle who have been moving
to the coast since the pan-
demic started.
Khan said they are seek-
ing to reduce construction
costs and fi nd a balance
between generating revenue
and making rent aff ordable.
“In terms of apartments,
we need to solve the prob-
lem, and this is a huge prob-
lem,” Khan said. “We are
working on it because there
is another piece there, the
business. It’s not a charity.
So we gotta fi gure out how
to compromise the cost.”
The River Run apart-
ments are projected to
cost $9.4 million to build,
according to a Khan Proper-
ties presentation.
Khan and Keck said the
city has been supportive
of the new developments.
Keck said there have not
been any signifi cant chal-
lenges to development.
“It creates a little bit more
of a well-rounded commu-
nity, like a little bit past the
hospitality standpoint, more
place for people to move to
live as well. So, in my opin-
ion, that’s the main goal,”
Keck said. “And of course
loving the product because
we have a lot of pride in
what we build.”
Limited areas for
housing
With limited buildable
land, City Councilor Steve
Wright said that new devel-
opments in Seaside are one
factor of several needed
to address housing issues.
Wright is the head of Sea-
side’s recently formed hous-
ing task force.
Geographically, the city
is constrained on all sides
by the ocean, two rivers and
a hillside.
“Until we expand the
urban growth boundary, we
can’t really do much. That is
a topic that’s going to come
back again,” Wright said.
He said that he considers
Seaside to be on the fore-
front of short-term rental
requirements. The city has
an enforcement offi cer who
seeks out unlicensed renters.
The task force has four
members, but Wright hopes
to expand it.
“We’re just going to try
to look at everything. This
task force is not going to
have any simple solutions,”
Wright said. “We’ve prob-
ably already done every-
thing that we can do that’s
simple, and there’s probably
not anything (that) is going
to happen quickly.”
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Schools were advised by
the Oregon Health Author-
ity that they do not have
to contact trace if schools
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“Our students, our staff
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RESOURCES
Lalich, who lives in
Cannon Beach, has spent
her whole career in pub-
lic health, both globally and
locally.
A former Clatsop County
public health director, she
ran a statewide school-based
health program for the state
of Hawaii before returning
here.
As virus cases have
increased, the department is
focusing on the highest risk
populations.
There is a movement
away from individual case
investigation and contract
tracing, she said.
“With omicron, there’s
such extensive community
transmission that it’s not fea-
sible anymore,” Lalich said.
“And it just doesn’t make
sense. It’s not a good use of
resources.”
Any positive case that’s
identifi ed through a labora-
tory or county testing site
is reported by law to public
health, she said. Home tests
are not reportable to public
health.
“We also look at the con-
text of their community,
whether it’s a care setting,
K-12 education or a carceral
setting. If it’s in a long-term
care facility that dictates
whether or not we will step
into action in charge of mit-
igating the risk of a further
outbreak,” Lalich said.
She urged businesses to
develop policies within their
organization.
“It’s really about that
communication conversa-
tion with your employees,”
Lalich said. “Public health
is willing and able and has
Drive-thru booster vaccines are given Wednesdays from
1:30 to 4 p.m. at Camp Rilea. Appointments are required;
sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4cafa-
f2aa4fece9-pfi zer1.
Public Health, in partnership with Columbia Memorial Hos-
pital and Providence Seaside Hospital, is off ering drive-thru
COVID-19 testing at Camp Rilea, Monday through Friday,
9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Appointments are required. Call 503-
325-8500 to schedule an appointment.
The Public Information Call Center has been operational
since the beginning of the pandemic; 503-325-8500.
The Seaside Chamber of Commerce serves as a distribution
center for the county for personal protective equipment;
503-738-6391.
Orders placed by Monday at 3 p.m., can be picked up by
11 a.m. Wednesday.
supported you with those
conversations.”
Generally speaking, the
symptoms of omicron and
other COVID viruses are
similar, she said. “What
we’re learning about omi-
cron is that it has an impact
on the upper respiratory tract
more than the lower respira-
tory tract.”
Of specimens sent to sur-
veillance labs, 100% are
omicron she said. “We know
is it the the primary strain in
Oregon,” she said.
When
should
an
employee stay home from
work?
“If you’re sick, stay
home,” Lalich advised. If
an employee is fully vacci-
nated and symptom-free for
fi ve days, they may return to
work on the sixth day.
“We still want to be mon-
itoring for symptoms,”
Lalich said. “We’re seeing
breakthrough cases.”
People who are not vac-
cinated, have no symptoms
and have been in close con-
tact with someone who
tested positive for COVID-
19 are advised to quarantine.
Close contact means 15 min-
utes or more within 6 feet
with or without a mask or
face covering.
If there are no symptoms,
quarantine for at least fi ve
days and carefully return to
normal activity. If symptoms
develop, remain isolated and
consult a doctor or clinic
right away.
County testing supplies
remain in short supply, dis-
tributed to the highest risk
populations in hospitals,
long-term care, jails and the
workers in those populations.
Whether vaccinated or
unvaccinated, a negative
COVID test before return-
ing to work is not a require-
ment, nor is it recommended
for employees to have a neg-
ative test before returning to
work, except in the case of
health care.
“That’s a very, very, very
important piece of informa-
tion,” Lalich said. “We have
employees who call and say
their employees want them
to get tested and to have a
negative test result. Well, it
may be that you tested pos-
itive and are going to test
positive for the next 90 days
and not be infectious.”
Everybody should be
masked at all times. She said
she expected the masking
mandate in the general popu-
lation will remain in eff ect at
least in the general popula-
tion through June. In certain
health care settings, masks
will be “part of what we do.”
Vaccinations
prevent
more severe symptoms and
additional risks of hospital-
ization and death, she said,
and are available for anyone
who is interested or needs to
get a booster.
Up-to-date used to mean
a completed series of two
vaccines within the last fi ve
months.
Businesses will be able to
present group events or pre-
sentations, with caveats, she
said. “Say you wanted to do
100 people. Cut that back
just a little bit to allow a lit-
tle bit more spaciousness.”
Circulation is import-
ant too, with air fi lters in the
room.
Mask up, and assume that
everyone is infected all the
time, Lalich said.
“The good news — I
think it’s good news — is
we’re giving agency back to
individuals within the com-
munity,” Lalich said. “And
that’s the thing — they’ve
been wanting the freedom to
make more choices instead
of continually being told
what they have to do.”
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