Friday, April 15, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Clatsop County looks at surplus property for housing
Fifteen parcels
are identifi ed
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
In an eff ort to support
new housing and social ser-
vices, Clatsop County has
identifi ed surplus land that
can be developed by cities
and nonprofi ts.
The county last Friday
issued a request for expres-
sions of interest on 15 prop-
erties in Astoria, Warren-
ton and Seaside that can be
used for low-income hous-
ing, social services and
child care.
Parties will have until
May 13 to submit their
ideas.
“Off ering
potentially
buildable surplus land is
one way the county can
tangibly support aff ord-
able housing needs within
cities,” County Manager
Don Bohn said in a state-
R.J. Marx
Strategies listed from the county housing study.
ment. “We look forward to
collaborating with our city
and nonprofi t partners in an
eff ort to move the needle.”
Patty Jo Angelini, the
county’s public aff airs offi -
cer, said the county started
working with the Asso-
ciation of Oregon Coun-
ties and Angelo Planning
Group, a Portland-based
company, early last year to
identify tools to help allevi-
ate the aff ordable housing
shortage.
“Over the last year, local
cities have been forming
committees, looking into
solutions and listening to
concerns of residents and
local businesses,” Angelini
said in an email. “Although
the county is limited in what
we can do, we want to do all
that we can do.”
The expressions of inter-
est will be reviewed by the
county and cities. County
staff will make recommen-
dations to the county Board
of Commissioners.
Eight of the properties
are in Astoria. One is the
site of the former Darigold
Building on the corner of
Ninth and Duane streets.
The others are vacant
neighboring parcels located
between Olney Avenue and
Astoria Middle School.
The county has three
properties in Warrenton,
including more than 14
acres off of Ridge Road, 11
acres to the north of S.W.
Ninth Street and east of
Juniper Avenue, and about
3 acres of off S.W. 11th
Street. The smaller prop-
erty is almost fully covered
in signifi cant wetlands, and
the others have portions
covered by wetlands.
In Seaside, the county
has two neighboring parcels
zoned industrial. One has
access from N. Holladay
Drive near 24th Avenue, the
other has access from U.S.
Highway 101.
Two other properties in
Seaside sit along Neawanna
Creek. One is off of 12th
Street and the other is near
Fifth Avenue.
The property near Fifth
does not have direct access
and has development con-
straints, so it has been iden-
tifi ed as a poor candidate
for aff ordable housing.
Astoria city councilors
plan to review possible sites
with county leaders during
a city work session next
Friday.
The county plans on con-
vening county and city lead-
ers at the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds on May 18 to
discuss aff ordable housing,
micro-housing and home-
less services.
Housing has been a sig-
nifi cant public policy issue
for the past several years. A
countywide housing study
released in 2019 found
that while there was suffi -
cient supply, much of the
housing stock serves the
second-home and vaca-
tion rental market, leaving
a lack of housing for resi-
dents to buy or rent.
County and city leaders
have faced criticism for the
pace of their response to the
housing crunch.
The county’s announce-
ment on surplus property
came a week after the Asto-
ria City Council backed
away from a workforce
housing project at Heritage
Square over concerns about
the cost and vocal commu-
nity opposition.
‘Terrible Tilly,’ a storied North Coast State details new
earthquake and
landmark, goes on the market
tsunami models
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
KMUN
Terrible Tilly,” the historic
141-year-old Tillamook Rock
Lighthouse off the coast near
Cannon Beach, is for sale.
Mimi Morissette, the
owner, listed the property for
$6.5 million. She had once
hoped to turn the decommis-
sioned lighthouse into a large
columbarium, a place to store
people’s cremated remains.
There was room, she said, for
up to 300,000 urns.
But Morissette’s plan
never really took off .
Forty-two years later,
the ashes of only 31 people,
including Morissette’s par-
ents, have been laid to rest
at the lighthouse. Morissette,
who is 77, has concluded it is
time for someone else to take
over.
“It is time for me to pass
the baton,” she said.
An ad went out this week
and Morissette is confi dent
she’ll fi nd a buyer.
“I think it’s a given,” she
said. “I think I’ll sell it and I
think I’ll close it by the end of
the year.”
She traveled recently to a
conference in Las Vegas to
seek out potential buyers. She
told KMUN she connected
with a large cemetery broker-
age and consulting fi rm that
has several potential buyers
in mind.
Morissette bought the
property with her business
partners in 1980 and began
selling spaces for urns, but
cremation was less common
at the time. Then, the colum-
barium lost its state license in
1999 and, despite a fi ght, she
was unable to renew it.
She was also dogged by
consumer complaints fi led
with the state Department of
Justice about how remains
were stored in the lighthouse
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
Tiff any Boothe/Seaside Aquarium
Sea lions roam the waters around Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
and issues with refunds. Some
families told the New York
Times in 2007 that they felt
misled by promises made by
Morissette’s company, Eter-
nity at Sea Inc. In the 1990s,
vandals reportedly broke into
the lighthouse and made off
with two urns.
Morissette said when Eter-
nity at Sea started selling
spaces in the columbarium,
they hadn’t realized the metal
they were using to house urns
could not withstand a mar-
itime environment. Then
there was the issue with the
state license that dragged on
for years. Morissette said she
pushed pause to regroup.
Whoever buys Terrible
Tilly will be taking on a dif-
fi cult-to-reach island prop-
erty that — besides acting as
a home to the dead — shelters
seabirds like cormorants and
common murres on its basalt
crags. Sea lions are known to
haul out on the rocks below.
In fact, the last time Moris-
sette tried to visit the island,
she couldn’t leave the heli-
copter because there were too
many sea lions blocking the
way.
Terrible Tilly, built in the
1880s, became notorious for
being dangerous as well as
expensive to operate. It was
decommissioned in 1957.
Today, the lighthouse
exerts a strong pull on ama-
teur and professional artists
and photographers and can be
seen from various viewpoints
within the popular Ecola
State Park.
The lighthouse is a pri-
vately owned part of the fed-
eral Oregon Coast National
Wildlife Refuge Complex
and the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service holds a conser-
vation easement over the
property. According to Brent
Lawrence, a spokesman for
the Fish and Wildlife Service,
Morissette has agreed to only
visit the island at certain times
of the year to avoid disturb-
ing birds during the breeding
season.
While cormorants and
common murres roost at
Contact YOUR County Commissioner TODAY!
We did our “due diligence.” We looked
for a buildable property in Clatsop
County, in a neighborhood, zoned
CR to retire to. Single family, no
businesses allowed, per the county
ordinance. Per our realtor.
WHY DO WE FIND OURSELVES
SURROUNDED BY MINI-MOTELS?
WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?
On April 13th the Board of
Commissioners will hold a public
hearing to change the zoning
ordinances in all zones in the county
to allow STRs in every zone?
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE
SURROUNDED BY MINI-MOTELS?
Contact YOUR County Commissioner TODAY!
Email them at commissioners@co.clatsop.or.us
Paid for by the people who live, vote, work and volunteer
in Clatsop county and North Coast Neighbors United.
northcoastneighborsunited@gmail.com
the property, they no lon-
ger appear to nest there like
they once did historically.
Black oystercatchers, how-
ever, have been documented
breeding there. The oyster-
catcher’s global population
is small and citizen scientist
volunteers closely monitor
nesting activity near Cannon
Beach.Morissette said she
was raised around lighthouses
and her fi rst priority for Terri-
ble Tilly has been to ensure its
preservation. If the lighthouse
sells, she is dedicating $1.5
million of the proceeds to put
back into repairs and cleanup
at the property. Morissette
plans to retain a 3% royalty
on future urn niche sales.
Though her plans for a
columbarium were not as
lucrative or straightforward
as she had hoped, Morissette
does not regret her purchase
all those decades ago.
The lighthouse is an
important part of American
history, she said, and she’s
proud to have had a hand in
keeping it standing.
MORE ONLINE
In the brief interval
between a megaquake and
a tsunami, it will be import-
ant to know where to head
for safety — and how fast
to get there.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Geology and Min-
eral Industries has released
new “Beat the Wave”
reports for Astoria and the
South County commu-
nities of Cannon Beach,
Arch Cape and Falcon
Cove.
These are the latest,
and fi nal, reports for Clat-
sop County in the agency’s
“Beat the Wave” series,
which models and maps
Oregon Coast commu-
nities that are vulnerable
to a quake along the off -
shore Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone. The agency has
already published reports
for Hammond, Warrenton,
Clatsop Plains, Gearhart
and Seaside.
Scientists say there is
a reasonable chance that
a massive earthquake, fol-
lowed by a series of tsu-
nami waves, could hit the
Pacifi c Northwest within
the next half century.
Anyone in the inunda-
tion zone will have min-
For the latest tsunami
evacuation maps, visit
nvs.nanoos.org
utes — perhaps 30, per-
haps 10 — to reach higher
ground, likely by foot.
Cities that lie on the
coast, such as Seaside and
Cannon Beach, will get hit
fast and hard.
Astoria, situated on the
Columbia River, is not as
endangered, but fl ooding is
almost certain, as are other
quake-induced impacts.
Land
will
liquefy
and slide. Roads will
be blocked or broken.
Bridges and buildings may
collapse. Infrastructure,
from plumbing to electri-
cal power, will be dam-
aged and disrupted. Emer-
gency response could be
paralyzed.
Of Oregon’s coastal
counties, Clatsop is at the
highest risk based on the
population and property
that lie in the inundation
zone, according to Tiff any
Brown, the county’s emer-
gency manager.
“We have the greatest
number of locations where
you’re challenged to get to
high ground,” she said.
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