Minutes of March 3, 2007

OCEANSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
(www.oceansidefriends.org )
Regular meeting, March 3, 2007

President Judson Randall called the regular meeting of the Oceanside Neighborhood Association to order at 9:05 a.m. Saturday, March 3, 2007 , at the Oceanside Community Center . There were 47 Oceansiders in the audience. A quorum is 37 persons.

The minutes of the January 6 regular meeting were approved with no corrections. Kathie Kolody and Bob Carter requested corrections to their testimony as reported in the minutes of the January 27 special meeting. The minutes were approved with these corrections; corrected versions are posted on the ONA website. Treasurer Chuck Wall was not present, but Jud reported that there is $1,604.11 in the treasury.

Jud made two announcements: First, the Tillamook County District Attorney Bill Porter said yesterday that at 1 p.m. on March 13, there will be a circuit court hearing in the death of Julie Herman. Frank Pike, accused of her murder, is expected to change his plea from not guilty to either no contest or guilty. Those two pleas have the same effect. The court is expected to sentence Pike immediately afterward. The second announcement was that Tim Williams of the Oceanside Water District Board says that there are two openings on the board for Oceanside representatives. Anyone interested should call the water district, 842-6462 . Shannon Brosseau confirmed that this is an elected position. The filing deadline is March 15. There is a filing fee of $10 or you can submit a petition with 25 signatures.

Lisa Phipps, coastal planner and liaison with the Department of Community Development (DCD), reported on land use activities affecting Oceanside :

• A new planner was hired in mid January who is doing a good job of learning the process. They also hired a contract planner, Mark Burnes out of Seaside or Astoria and they have notices out seeking a senior planner and a planning manager again.

• On Saturday, Feb. 24, there was a citizen advisory committee meeting for the Highway 131 refinement plan. Input received from stakeholders was well received; however this first workshop was not well attended. (See Joanne Jene's report at the end of the meeting.)

• No new information has been received on the Green Crow application. They have until March 9, to provide the department with adequate time to send notices. Staff will be meeting with Green Crow representative Roy Jones on March 5, which should give them a better sense of what they can expect.

• The Board of Commissioners heard the Anchor Tavern appeal on February 21 on the record (with no public testimony) but with the attorney for each side speaking for ten minutes. After limited discussion, the Board voted 2 to 1, with Commissioner Josi the opposing vote, to uphold the Planning Commission's decision to allow the continuation of the private residence without the required two parking spaces. County Counsel Bill Sargent will be drafting the findings and the order.

• DCD received an application for a preliminary subdivision plat called “Whisper Ridge” of 29 lots, none less than 7,500 square feet and larger with slope. Lisa said this subdivision is “up Hillsdale, off of the Trillium development.” The contract planner will be taking care of this with help from Lisa. The application is not complete—the geo hazard report did not accompany the submittal. Jud asked Lisa if the application would be available for ONA review at the next meeting on April 7. He reported that Rob Trost, the developer, had declined to come to today's meeting. Lisa thought there would be time to review the application prior to its being heard by the Planning Commission in April.

• Other land use activity has been quiet, with only a handful of geo hazard reports, most in the Avalon subdivision, where a lot of construction has been occurring, mostly on small lots.

Craig Swinford asked Lisa about the county not placing a moratorium on developments such as Whisper Ridge since there are inadequate System Development Charges for roads and infrastructure. Deb Macartney asked about concerns about a building moratorium that had been referred earlier to County Counsel Bill Sargent. Lisa recalled that he reviewed these against Oregon Administrative Rules and found that if the water and sewer districts don't find a problem, nothing much can be done by the county in terms of a moratorium. Tillamook County has nothing in place for impact fees or System Development Charges for infrastructure like roads. The Sanitary District and the Water District have their own fees independent of the county.

Lisa said that this is not unusual for counties (vs. cities), and that these are issues that we need to continue to bring up. There is a need to draw a connection between development and what can be done to offset its impact: As Lisa explained it, first you have to be able to connect the development with what you are asking the developers to do, and second, there has to be ”rough proportionality”—what you are asking of them must be fair considering what they are asking.

Earlier we asked the commissioners to take action to establish impact fees, but Lisa thinks other things have taken priority at the county level. She said that we can ask Jud to write a letter requesting once again that they look at alternatives to bringing in fees to maintain the roads.

Steve Macartney said that Liane Welch, the public works director, will be at the community potluck in May, giving a presentation and looking for public input. David VanSpeybroeck commented that it is unusual for a county that has a lot of development not to have impact fees. Lisa said the Board of County Commissioners, as the governing body, has the ability to implement System Development Charges without putting them on the ballot, but she's not sure what would be required for impact fees.

Jud introduced Shannon Brosseau and Liz Wilkerson, members of the Netarts/Oceanside Sanitary District Board. Shannon said that staff and the board had written answers to questions prepared by Mary Flock and others. Jud e-mailed the questions and answers to the ONA e-mail list on February 26 and made copies for handouts at the meeting. Referring to the handout, Shannon commented that the timeline should show that the Netarts pump station and the force main replacement were done by mid 2006. The pump station has been running almost a year now; the force main directional drilling was finished in August. Shannon said she had divided question 8 into parts: the “B” part asks for a breakdown of the $19 million cost of the new plant. The preliminary estimates are available at the NOSD office for a copy fee of 90 cents. Shannon gave these details on question 5: from the $7.5 million in bonds authorized by the first bond measure, $3.75 million in bonds have been sold; from that amount, $3.569 million have been spent. The leftover funds can be folded into the outfall project, if needed.

Mary Flock asked if her tax bill for 2007 would be higher. Shannon said yes; the amount would depend on when bonds are sold to pay for the outfall. This increase will be for the infrastructure (pump stations and outfall) part of the $7.5 million bond issue. There will be another increase when the $15 million in bonds are sold to pay for the new plant and interconnection of the system.

In response to Steve Macartney's concerns about where outfall overflow would go at the new plant, Shannon said they hoped there wouldn't be any overflow. She suggested that Steve come to NOSD Board meetings to talk about these things. The board meets on the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 , alternating between the Netarts Community Club and the Oceanside Community Club buildings. The March 15 meeting will be in Netarts. There is a period for public comment at the end of each meeting. The NOSD Board plans to publish a newsletter in June. The board does not have a website. They use e-mail for communication— Shannon suggested that anyone interested should get on the NOSD e-mail list by sending their address to Tammy Walker ( nosd-tami@earthlink.net ) or Dan Mello ( nosd-dan@earthlink.net ).

Next Steve Macartney spoke about the Green Crow application for a quarry on the hillside overlooking Oceanside . He passed around a photo of Oceanside taken from a kayak offshore and showing the location of the 200 Line Quarry in relation to the town. (This photo is on the ONA website: www.oceansidefriends.org .) The proposed site is less than ¾ mile from the Community Center. The Green Crow application is expected to be before the Planning Commission on April 12. The hearing is at the County Courthouse beginning at 7 pm . Steve passed out contact information, including the ONA website and a private website http://oceansidevillage.wordpress.com w here current information, sample letters and contacts will be posted. He encouraged everyone to write letters to the contacts and to attend the hearing. Steve referred to Lisa a question about how public comments from a large attendance would be handled. She cited the Anchor appeal hearing before the BOCC on September 19, 2005, when 25 individuals testified from an audience of nearly 100. They had planned, and gave, a well organized presentation with little or no repetition. However, everyone present has a right to speak. The DCD has a brochure on testifying at a public hearing.

Jud introduced Gail Bergevin. Gail and her husband Larry have retained David Noren, a land use attorney who has experience in the aggregate field. On Mr. Noren's direction they also retained a traffic engineer and an acoustic engineer. These specialists will provide studies and expertise to assist the county in their decision about the Green Crow application. David Noren had come to the meeting and spoke next.

Mr. Noren explained that generally he represents one client who makes decisions and pays him, vs. a group of clients. Under circumstances like this he accepts payment from others as well. He has looked a little into the incomplete application with Lisa and Bill Sargent. Aggregate resources are considered an important natural resource in the same way that wetlands, wildlife habitat, or scenic views are. The aggregate industry is influential politically and has found ways to adjust the rules to its advantage. Since 1996, you look at impacts both on the aggregate area and on the conflicting uses such as housing and residential use, but you are narrowly constrained to three issues: noise, dust, and traffic. You also look at conflicting uses that are other State Goal 5 list of significant resources, such as parks, wetlands, wildlife habitat, views, etc. that have been identified on Tillamook County's list. The first main issue will be noise; the second will be traffic and transportation. An acoustic engineer and a traffic engineering firm will evaluate noise and traffic issues to see what is there. ODOT and the county have a highway refinement plan, which may have an impact on how the county analyzes the aggregate transportation plan. One uphill battle is the 1,500 foot impact area around the pit. Most of the affected residences are outside that area. We need to extend that area further out in order to for noise or traffic beyond the extraction area be considered. We know there will be a scenic impact as well.

Asked to explain the Goal 5 process, Noren said that in 1973 the state legislature adopted state statutes, statewide goals, and state administrative rules (OARs) that expand on and explain the goals. All counties and cities are required to have a comprehensive plan and land use ordnances and zoning regulations that are consistent with the state goals and administrative rules. Adding an aggregate site to Tillamook County 's inventory of significant resources triggers a review of compliance with the state goals. In 1996 changes were made to make this analysis more objective and to favor the aggregate industry. Tillamook County has 1993 ordnances in place.

Asked if the county's existing aggregate supply was considered, Noren said no, if there is sufficient quantity and quality of rock at a site, you put it on the list because you might need it in the future. Bob Carter asked if after a site is added to the inventory, can the matter be reviewed? No, there is only one shot at it—if there are conflicts that can't be minimized, such as noise that is over the DEQ limit for residential areas, then there is a more discretionary analysis of should it be allowed at all? Which is more important—residential values or aggregate values? But once the conflicts are minimized (below allowable limits) and the site is put on the inventory list, they protect it by not allowing conflicting uses such as new dwellings in the surrounding area. They apply the aggregate mineral overlay district, which allows them to go forward with extracting and processing aggregate. It is Oregon 's state policy to identify aggregate resource areas and protect them (e.g., from new homes) so that when we need the resources, they are there.

Steve said, “Assume the county elects to expand the impact zone to include Oceanside and then approves the zoning overlay. Does that mean vacant lots in the area cannot be built on? Noren replied, in general yes, but he thinks this is an unlikely outcome. Concerns such as this brought on Measure 37.

Kathie Kolody asked about disclosure by developers that homes or building sites are in a zone subject to quarry noise and traffic. Noren thought that disclosure applies to things specific to a piece of property, not the neighborhood at large. Lenora Lawrence said that developers do not have to disclose, but homeowners do.

Jud thanked Gail and Larry for retaining David Noren, whom he knew from work with the Washington County Planning Commission. Speaking personally, not as ONA President, he encouraged anyone who can to assist them to do so. The Bergevin's Oceanside address is PO Box 185 ; phone 842-1255 , e-mail larryathoodtocoast@msn.com .

Joanne Jene and Lenora Lawrence reported as our representatives on the study committee for the Highway 131 improvement plan. The DCD has a grant for this project to improve the northern 4.14 miles of Highway 131, which begins in Oceanside and goes south through Netarts to end in Tillamook at Highway 101. The county has hired CH2M HILL to assist in researching improvements. Alta Planning, a firm studying bicycling, is also part of the study. The project will look at Highway 131 with regard to traffic, safety, congestion, circulation, parking, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and other issues. Nine “stakeholders” have been interviewed by CH2M HILL staff—their comments can be seen on the project website, http://www.puc.state.or.us/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/Highway131TRP.shtml . The first advisory committee meeting was held in Netarts on February 24 with an open hearing (workshop) in the afternoon. The plan is to have additional meetings in April and May and present a summary in June. The issues addressed included concerns about Green Crow, increased traffic and general road maintenance, signage, disabled parking, parking meters or permits, expanded and better marked parking areas at the Wayside, installation of a way station for trucks that we might gain some revenue from, bus shelters, bike parking (perhaps a bike parking lot near the fire station). The study will look at mechanisms for implementing ordnances and system development fees. Oceanside might be designated as a “special transportation area” yet to be defined. The project will propose strategies, ordnance changes, and a corridor plan. Joanne encouraged us to attend meetings. Liz Wilkerson asked about easements along the highway for a bicycle lane. This is not a problem on the state roads, but is on county roads, requiring a community effort to reach a solution. Joanne's e-mail is jenejo@aol.com.

In the public comment period, Craig Swinford spoke about the Anchor owner seeking a license for take out sales. Off-premise sales are not allowed elsewhere in Oceanside at this time. According to Jesse Enright, inspector for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, the notice that an off-premises license had been requested was posted on February 9. The two-week period for public comment ended on February 23. Craig has requested that the comment period be extended, as neither ONA or the county were notified of the application. Dick Butler said he believes sale of liquor to be consumed off premises will compound litter problems on the beach and in town. David VanSpeybroeck suggested that those who share this concern write comments to Jan Smith ( Jan.Smith@state.or.us ) and Jesse Enright ( Jesse.Enright@state.or.us ) at OLCC. The OLCC can be reached at 503 992-5311 .

Deb Macartney gave an update on the community survey, which is going to the Zoning and Plan Review Committee for review and to the county for questions. There is a need to identify renters who may not be on the county mailing list of property owners, but who should complete the survey. If you have names of renters for Deb, you can send them to her at oceansidenews@mac.com .

Jud announced that the next meeting will be April 7 at 10 a.m. at the Oceanside Community Center .

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:54 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Auvil
Secretary