Trashion Show PAGES A8-A9
Headlight Herald
TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2023
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
VOL. 135, NO. 23 • $1.50
Commissioners approve lease for homeless shelters in downtown Tillamook WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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illamook County’s Board of Commissioners approved a lease for Community Action Resource Enterprises to place one no-barrier and several low-barrier shelters on county land on First Street in Tillamook on May 31. Commissioners also signaled their intention to approve the expansion of a subdivision in Oceanside after a public notice period, recognized Juneteenth as a county holiday and named June “Celebrate Local Food Month” in Tillamook County. The lease approval for Community Action Resource Enterprises’ (CARE) request to build new shelters on the property on First Street adjacent to the post office, Hoquarton House and CARE’s headquarters drew unusual dissenst among board members. Commissioner David Yamamoto expressed “grave concerns” about the process used in the lease application and abstained from the eventual vote for approval. Dusti Lannell, the chair of CARE’s board of directors, presented the organization’s planned project for the leased land, which would initially include the installation one communal shelter and six smaller units on the property. The larger communal shelter would
have no barriers for entry, operating like CARE’s temporary warming shelters that are open in the winter and accept people on a night-tonight basis. The smaller shelters would come in two sizes, housing either one or two individuals, or families between two and four people. The smaller shelters would serve as transitional housing and require residents complete an application process. The shelters would be drug free and residents would be connected with employment, social and housing services to help them progress into permanent housing. According to CARE’s application for the lease, the units would be located behind a fence with a gate, shielding them from public view. There would also be two bathrooms, one of which would be ADA compliant. The lease will cost care one dollar annually and run through 2062, matching the duration of the lease of the adjacent Hoquarton House. Funds for the project are coming from behavioral health and resource networks created by Measure 110 that are designated to help provide shelter for those suffering from substance use disorders. The shelters and bathrooms for the site would be purchased from Pallet Shelter, a Washington based company that makes modular structures designed to address housing
emergencies. CARE hopes to have the shelters and bathrooms installed at the site by September 2023. A planned second phase of the plan would add ten small shelters, four family shelters, more standalone bathrooms and a navigation center with additional bathrooms, a full kitchen, laundry facilities and office workstations by September 2024. After consulting with Tillamook City Manager Nathan George, Tillamook Police Chief Nathan Rau, County Commissioner Erin Skaar and County Housing Coordinator TJ Fiorelli, the team from CARE decided that the property abutting their headquarters and behind two county parking lots was the “perfect” location for the project. However, Yamamoto quickly expressed concerns about the project, which he felt had been rushed before the board without sufficient opportunity for public feedback. He noted that the proposed project had only been announced in a press release the previous Thursday and it had not been published in the county prior to the meeting. Yamamoto also expressed concerns about CARE’s operations and ability to operate the shelter and what responsibilities the county would have should issues arise. He noted that CARE is currently without an executive director and alluded to financial issues at the or-
ganization several times, saying, “I maybe know a little more about the finances of CARE than I should.” Linnell answered each of Yamamoto’s concerns. She said that CARE has recently completed a complete financial audit returning no worrying findings and stressed that this project would be funded by Measure 110. Linell also said that CARE had something “better” than an executive director with a consortium of board members and other locals working together to carry out those functions. As for Yamamoto’s concerns about a rushed process, Linnell noted that House Bill 2006, which allows city planners to fast track the approval of shelters to combat the homelessness crisis, is expiring at the end of June, prompting the quick action. Linnell said that CARE had not publicized the planning of the project previously because they felt it was hard to gather public feedback before identifying a site to allow for better evaluation. She also noted that failure to construct more shelters in the county would run afoul of Oregon’s “Right to Rest” law and allow homeless people to legally camp in public right of ways due to lack of alternative. Skaar, who served as executive director of CARE prior to her election as county commissioner, then jumped in to further address
Yamamoto’s concerns. She pointed out that the lease’s terms only allowed for shelters for this purpose and required that CARE maintain and operate them, or the land would revert to county ownership with no requirement to continue the shelter’s operation. Skaar also noted that work at the site would require review and approval from the board of commissioners and that the lease only represented the first step in the process. She said that she worried delaying approval of the lease would give local opposition an opportunity to emerge. She said that the county was at a critical point in its response to the homelessness crisis and that it needed to provide options to move people off the street. Yamamoto reiterated that his objections were to the process that had been employed, saying that he thought the shelter proposal or something similar to it would be beneficial to the county, but that he felt the cart had been put before the horse. That left Commissioner Mary Faith Bell as the deciding vote on the matter. Bell said that she understood Yamamoto’s concerns but that she felt they were coming in large part because he had been out of the county on county business in the past several weeks. She said that in SEE SHELTERS PAGE A10
STR owners and operators object to proposed ordinance update WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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wners and operators of short-term rentals had a large turnout at the first meeting seeking public comment on proposed revisions to the ordinance governing their properties on May 30. They strenuously objected to the proposed updates to ordinance 84, contending that they amounted to government overreach and asking county commissioners to either forego the updates or curtail them drastically. The meeting at the Port of Tillamook Bay began with a presentation by Tillamook County Director of Community Development Sarah Absher about the proposed ordinance update. County commissioners instituted a pause on the processing of new shortterm rental (STR) license applications in July of last year and formed an STR advisory committee to work on updates to Ordinance 84. The pause followed complaints from residents across the county about safety and livability issues that had been created by the recent proliferation of STRs and their popularity during the pandemic. The advisory committee met monthly over the past year, gathering data and community feedback before working to revise an initial draft of the proposed ordinance update presented in January. The committee was made up of both STR owners and operators and members of communities affected by those properties’ preponderance.
The final draft of the new ordinance presented for public comment and approval received committee consensus on many matters, but disagreements on limits on the number and transferability of licenses were not resolved. The proposed ordinance would increase the building standards to which properties seeking an STR license would be held, create a new maximum occupancy formula, and strengthen the existing ordinance’s rules regarding parking, garbage and sound. The ordinance would also add a definitions section, event regulations and a requirement that a “good neighbor policy” be posted in STRs. Most contentious in the committee’s deliberations were discussions of limiting the growth of the short-term rental program in the county or limiting the transferability of licenses. Initially, STR proponents opposed any limitation mechanism. But after direction from the commissioners that they would be instituting a growth management strategy with or without committee consensus, the committee agreed to a cap that would limit new license issuance to an additional 1% of the
number of extant licenses prior to the pause. Over the next year, groups from each of those communities would meet to recommend license limits specific to their community to the board of county commissioners. The transferability question flummoxed the committee even more than did the question of growth management. STR owners and operators on the committee would not endorse any limit to the transferability of licenses, concerned about the effects on the value of properties operating as STRs, while other committee members wanted a transfer limit to promote circulation of licenses. Eventually, by a vote of six votes for, four against and two undecided, the committee included a one transfer limit for existing licenses and a ban on transfer of licenses issued after the new ordinance is adopted. After Absher briefed the meeting on the contents of the ordinance, the public comment portion of the meeting began. More than 30 people came forward or appeared on Zoom to comment on the ordinance, with all but a handful expressing their opposition to the proposed SEE STR OWNERS PAGE A10
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ODHS officials visit Tillamook for emergency supply container seminar WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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fficials from the Oregon Department of Human Services visited the Port of Tillamook Bay to share information about two Conex containers housing emergency supplies that were recently delivered to the airport on May 30. The containers hold the necessary supplies to set up an evacuation assembly point at the Tillamook Airport that can receive and triage
survivors before deciding on the appropriate next step for them. The two, 20-by-8-foot containers were delivered in late April, making Tillamook the first location in the state to receive such supplies from the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). The county partnered with the Port of Tillamook Bay and Nearspace Corporation to accommodate the containers at the port, where they are situated adjacent to the Nearspace facility.
Together, the containers hold supplies that are designed to sustain 100 people for two weeks after an emergency event. There are 17 identical, 18-by-16-foot tents that will house a mess hall, medical tent and shelter for survivors, among other facilities, a main, command tent, an 8-stall shower tent and six two-stall field latrines in the containers along with generators, water purification, meals ready to eat and other SEE ODHS PAGE A10
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