I'm ready to go. >> You know me. I like to start on tone.
figured out how to disable that >> that bell of yours that you hear
» join and come in. >> Oh, okay. Are you are you
» starting? Okay. So, at 6 PM
I'm doing that. I call the order of the Gear Heart Planning Commission.
Thursday, July 9th, 2026. All members of the commission are
present and um Chad and Garrett are here for the staff. Um we have a consent
agenda the minutes of May 14th that have been adjusted, but I I didn't leave the
meeting last time because I wasn't here. um the uh financial report
and we don't have any correspondents. Do I have um a motion to accept the consent
agenda with the improved and edited uh minutes?
» Hello.
Russ moves. Do I have a second? >> Second.
» Second from Jennifer. Uh any discussion or anything?
» Cool. Uh all those in favor say yes. >> Yes.
» All those opposed say no. Okay. >> And I sustain that is in here.
» Okay. Reports staff. Chad, do you have anything to report to us?
» I do. I wanted to give the planning commission a brief update on several
things. Uh the city has been working on. First and foremost, our uh police
department and our officers are safe. Uh they went through quite an ordeal
yesterday. They were involved. They're all in the middle of it and uh we're
considering uh working through that. Uh no injuries on our part. Uh and we are
supporting uh those guys that were there to make sure that they get what they
need. And uh >> can you tell us what this was about?
» Oh, I'm sorry. I'm assuming Yeah, you haven't been in my day all day. Um my
apologies. So there was a a a bolo went out which is an attempt to locate uh for
a person that committed some potentially some terrible crimes murder in the
Tolman area and uh they pinged him in maybe cell phone or credit cards with in
Atoria and then seaside and they located and uh when he was not even really
approached but they were beginning the approach. Uh our officers our officers
were shot in and uh with a rifle and uh our officers returned fire. um not sure
exactly, you know, everything after that, but
that gentleman is deceased and so um they're working through all of the
things that go along with that >> made me very much appreciate uh what
they have to go through and especially now that I've been through this
perspective on how to protect your officers through that process. Very
interesting. Law enforcement definitely uh deserves
some kudo for the work they do that he's safe. No injuries and we're working
through that with a great team of people uh throughout the entire community. So
sheriff, all the departments uh and uh the public bringing things all day long.
So it's been nice. Yeah. Uh tonight we're also going to be
talking about the zoning amendment work uh that's moving forward. I'll leave
that update uh to Mr. Garrett. We're also continuing to work through the
beaches and dunes permitting process uh especially around the vegetation removal
and access issues and due vegetation uh work that work just keeps coming up and
people are wanting to do things out there. So, we're working on our process
to make sure it's clear, defensible, understandable to property owners. Uh
trying to communicate that a little bit better as well. So, more to come. uh
Helila and McCormic Gardens area that direction continues to be pretty active.
Uh there's two subdivision well there's two subdivisions going in smaller uh
eight houses and under for each one of them. Uh and staff we're working with
consultants. Uh we're reviewing issues like access to fire access, water
service, fire flow, future waterline looping. Fireflow and waterline looping
is a a something that we have had planned in
that area, but now the plan has been um brought right to the front because of
these developments. So, working on that situation. Uh but the long story short
is the infrastructure changes we're going to make in there to make things
float better and to have better pressure are going to be better for the community
all the way around. So, it's a good project, but it is keeping us busy. Uh,
the 13th Street and the Kid property issue, uh, we've been trying to keep the
different issues separated. Uh, the legal review has not found in this
legally established public trim or public beach access route on 13th
Street. This is where the fence came up. People were upset. Uh uh the fence
appears to be on private property and uh separately any beaches and dunes
vegetation removal issue being handled as a code enforcement matter. We have
issued some citations for some beaches and dunes mowing that shouldn't have
occurred. Seemed like a good idea at the time but uh so we're uh holding some
folks accountable for that. Uh the important part is that access ownership,
septic easements, dune vegetation and all the other enforcements are separate
issues shouldn't be bonded together. It's really a private property issue. If
the condo association is upset that they don't have the access that they've had
and those are difficult moving forward, that's going to be a civil matter
between the two of them. Um but everything else that we have allowed
including the construction of the houses, the septic systems, the fence
installation, uh and that uh were legal and so we're moving on from that. We did
get a a lot of good information out of our process that we used with our
attorneys. We learned a few things as well that the city did everything right
in that matter. Uh so we move forward. Uh Thompson Creek is also moving
forward. I don't know if some of you are aware of Thompson Creek. Uh it's up
Lewis and Clark Road. It's about 60ome acres that the city of Deerheart owns of
forested land. Uh it used to be our watershed back in the day when Dehart
had 200 residents. Uh there was a 2-in line that fed those residents water. Uh
and I came to Thompson Falls through a damning process that was up on the hill.
Well, we still own that property and during the one of the rainstorms, some
issues with rain and some culverts washed out. So, we have an opportunity
to improve that area and we're working with NCLC, the tribe, engineers,
Department of Forestry, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and whatever other
department that I can't think of at the moment uh to kind of move forward with
some of those things, but we're taking our time to make sure we do it right.
That is a salmon stream that's up in there as well. So if there's an
opportunity to enhance that system to make it work better with the guidance of
things like NCLC and ODFNW and all those um we have an opportunity longterm the
city has no plan for that property. It's not harvestable timber. 2007 storm
didn't knock down a lot of the timber and there was a salvage harvest the city
did gained them about $20,000. Um but that's it. It's an unmanaged
unplanned area. So there's some opportunities and conversations to be
had in the future here with that. Uh the public safety facilities issue,
the fire station is uh also still very much alive. Uh obviously the bond did
not pass, but the underlying problems did not go away. Uh we still have
serious fire station deficiencies, police and city hall space needs,
seismic concerns, public works facility needs. So, the city is preparing a more
structured public conversation before deciding what to do next. We're
going to try to bake that cake a little bit differently. And so, we're trying to
learn as much as we can. And so, there'll be a town hall that'll be
coming up to have some discussions about that situation and to get more
information from folks. Um, because frankly, some of us are still a little
perplexed, but we'll figure it out. So, excuse me, Jeff. That the don't we
have OSHA violations on that building? >> We mitigated a few of them.
» I mean, >> but there are things that we can't fix
that they would like us to see if it was a new building, but the ventilation
issue, the door issue, uh the um turnouts in the fire station,
in the exhaust are all issues we have to fix. And that is part of the OSHA issue.
» I mean, so if we never build a fire hole, could eventually say shut that
building. >> They could give us willful violations
for not repairing what it is that needs to be repaired, especially in those
three safety areas. And I might be missing one, but I don't think so. The
doors, the ventilation, uh, and what was the third I mentioned?
» The turnout. >> Thank you. The turnout and the exhaust
systems and the turnout needs to be repaired. And those are things that we
can do. The underlying issue is the building. Walk along the outside of the
walls, take a look at it on the west side, and you'll see some things that
are a little concerning. Cracks all the way through and through. Um,
seismically, that building was top and that disconnect between people
understanding what type of infrastructure needed to happen in order
to get a new fire station there, which caused a lot of panic, you know, $33
million versus trying to fix this one up and to
make it last as long as possible. kind of seems like that's where we're at. I
mean, a new building, no matter what, is going to cost you between5 and $10
million just in the foundation. So, we're going to deal with it the best
that we can, but we're going to have open communication and we're going to
we're trying to learn everything we can a ton of conversations.
Uh, and so we want to structure that next conversation to try to elicit as
much information as possible and bring the community along a little bit
differently.
Um that connects directly to I think 4th of July. Uh from the outside I think
most people saw the next morning the town was pretty well cleaned up and back
to normal. Um we had a wonderful street dance. It was great. Kids out there was
amazing and and then the adults afterwards were were fun to watch. Um
the Fourth of July parade went really smoothly. Uh no issues to be had with
that. Um,
but what you did not see was how close to capacity the city was. And I'm not
sure how this really affects the planning commission and making decisions
for land use, but I just kind of wanted to make you aware uh that our police
public or fire department public works and volunteers were active from about
7:30 in the morning Saturday until roughly 4:30 in the morning the next
day. uh police and fire both handled with
very high call volume. I think in the fire department we had 90 calls for
service of various fashions in that one day and police had over 70.
It may have been one uh and also Dearheart turns out to be the most busy
with law enforcement and fire um action uh of any city in the county. We were
busier than seaside. We had other communities calling us on the radio,
both police and fire, but especially police saying like Canon Beach, can we
send you out? You guys sound like you're extremely busy. And we were. Um,
so I from a public safety standpoint, it was I I guess I don't want to overstate
it, but we barely held it together and it became dangerous and we need to have
a serious afteraction conversation about staffing, communication, crowd control,
beach impacts, garbage, public safety facilities, and the state responsibility
for what happens on the beach. Um but yeah, even the counselors, I haven't had
a chance to talk to them about what had happened. But the staff uh here and we
we had well there was rumors of 20 state police
in Deerheart at one point helping us, but there wasn't quite that many, I
don't think. Um we had between 10 and 15 additional officers trying to assist us.
uh the public generally doesn't see that side of it because we clean everything
up and make it look normal again. But we were at the limit. Uh so that needs to
be a part of future Fourth of July planning and we'll make sure it did. But
um just wanted to make you aware. Uh the city's also working on broader strategic
planning. Uh the council is trying to develop a clear direction around
maintaining the existing services that we have including public safety, water
infrastructure, reserves, livability, long-term financial stability.
Uh that matters to the planning because growth, infrastructure, service levels,
and public expectations are all connected. So, you know, we'll just be
more plain with you folks about where we're at budget-wise, so that when we're
making decisions in the planning commission that that can be helpful to
you. Uh, water planning is becoming more central to land use decisions as well.
The city's working on water rights, as you know, Warrington water supply
coordination. We got a good agreement with the city of Warrington for a good
amount of time for a good amount of water. So, I that doesn't stress us out
at all. Warrington's been a good partner with that. It is expensive.
Uh, and you're paying that through your rates. Um, but, uh, it's working. So,
I'll let you know. I haven't heard of the review. Um, again, they're way
behind at WRD and we're probably 6 months into the time they said they were
going to respond to us and they haven't. And, uh, we've been keeping in contact
with them to try to get that going as best as possible.
Uh USPS mail delivery transition still active. Uh we're still working with USPS
on the gearart delivery boundaries, street delivery cluster box option
service impacts after the post office contract unit closure. Uh it's not
strictly a planning commission issue, but it affects the residents. So I
wanted to make sure that you knew that uh was going on and uh at the end of
this I can answer any questions. I've gotten some answers back from USPS on
some of the things that we're asking. Uh this one is the we're discussing
transient lodging tax and short-term rental tax right now to make up for the
budget cap that we have here in Gearart. Um because general fund revenue is not
keeping up with cost of course and so we're looking at doing that increase and
I've been getting contacting uh some of the uh
administration with condo association together a group of people so that
they're aware of what's going on. But as we look at what we're going to do with
these taxes and the revenue that comes in, keep in mind the law change that
starts January 1 of this upcoming year. I any new tax that we put on to these uh
is a 50/50 take. So the city general fund could take 50% of it and then the
other 50% has to be used for a visitor type activity which is a little money
and don't ask me anything really particular about that but my team is
working on that with burials or enh
we'll continue to have some communications about that and maybe some
of you would want to get involved. So yeah, I guess the theme is planning
and infrastructure and uh safety. Um any questions?
That was a lot. Sorry.
» Thank you. >> Um what what is the budget gap?
» How much is the budget gap this spring? >> Uh less than what we thought it was
going to be. Our cash carry forward was better than what we anticipated. Uh
because we were saving money at the very end pretty um you know we were taking
some measures. Uh so it's let me guess around under 200,000.
» Okay. And so that
in seaside they call it the tourism tax but we don't really do that here in
Gary. It's called saving money. >> Transient lodging tax,
» right? But you call it visitors. >> Well, visitors is how we'd have to spend
those, >> right?
» Whether or not that, you know, so that's not necessarily a transient.
They are, but >> Right. That's the Yes.
» So, for example, would that be able to hire more
safety personnel for the 4th of July? No.
» No. programs that you already have, things that already happen, those would
be difficult uh to defend the spending on that. Um so the 4th of July, yeah,
you know, it's all visitors, it's all people. Yeah. Well, everybody does the
4th of July. That's not something new. It's actually things that are geared
specifically to bring people into your town. Um maybe some park money uh could
be spent there. Maybe uh some tools and things that we need. Uh maybe we could
look at grants and things to help businesses in town, right? Uh develop,
get some help, what have you. Uh maybe it can be to beautify a few areas uh and
that sort of thing. But it is very restrictive and will be controversial in
every move that we make scrutinized. So BEH
our attorneys happen to be experts in this. Um, so they're going to provide us
with some good work to do and that would probably look like some sort of a
committee that would assist us with the spending of those money. And I think
that the representation from the hotels, the condos, uh, you know, would be a
good idea as well, but we're not sure exactly how that's going to pan out, but
we know we have that budget yet. >> I can I served on the tourism
seaside for 10 years, so you know, their money and and they've
got this big surplus because they do marketing and and and they're more
resort than we are, but they do do it for things like murals that are being
put up. They put things on all the trash cans down in the city. Um
promoting an event, say someone wanted to do a music event, and I think we've
got some of those going. It can be used to help fund those. Um there are lots of
things if you are creative and the way you present it that you can use that
money for but um the the cities I mean like see would love to use it for
infrastructure or police or or fire just as Gearhart would and they can't really
do that but their flower flower flower baskets downtown that's what is dudes
forward. So that's okay. We can mow the lawn out here.
I I was coming north from the south part of seaside last night when all the
emergency vehicles were heading south. And I have to say there are still people
that do not realize that some vehicles got their lights flashing and sirens
going doesn't mean turn in front of me. I
It was a little scary. I think I saw six go through in a matter of minute or so.
Couple minutes. So, much excitement. Sorry about this. You
missed that. >> Okay. Are you done?
» Yes, ma'am. >> I have a couple questions.
» Oh, yes. Eric, >> are you done?
» Yes. Thank you. >> A couple different things. Uh, first
off, with regard to the transit loging tax, the 50 50% of it you can use at
your own discretion. >> Correct.
» Yeah. >> Plus the tax
» that part. Plus the tax entire process, right?
» I do and I know the law has changed from 7030 or whatever to 5050.
» Right. >> Um so I'm aware of that.
» Right. Right. So part of it is there to be used.
» Yes. And the original uh 7% that we have is still 100%.
you referring to the city attorney Behner
and Hamilton. >> Are they still uh just filling in for a
vacancy or have they now hired as attorneys?
» Not officially, but they are uh our temporary attorney. Uh and we're going
to be probably within the next couple months opening up the uh RFP process
again and they will be able to bid on it.
» Uh burials are going to happen in order to say that they were ready to take us.
They've also been in a building here. >> Uh so they've got some older attorneys
that have retired. >> Uh excuse me, more experienced attorneys
that have retired. I don't know if they're old.
» Um and uh some new attorneys that are coming in to fill their gap. And then so
they're balancing in that. They want to make sure that that'll work before they
pick us up. >> Um so far I've been pretty pleased with
uh everything. It's not like having one Peter Watts though. That was nice
because he understood all the stories >> and the code. So, every time we get into
something, there's a little bit more work to get people up to speed with what
we're at, but it's starting to happen. >> With regard to Thompson Creek, is that
going to cost money? >> Yes,
» we have it in the budget.
» Uh, it depends on where we pull it from. There might be some street money. Uh,
generally though, all of our reserve funds are skinny.
» So, I would say that it's, you know, we're tight everywhere. It's going to
strain us, but yeah, we'll be able to figure out how to do the work depending
on whether or not when we were initially starting it, they were talking about a
$50,000 repair. Uh then it went down to $10,000, but now there's more um
uh state and involvement
» and they're still trying to consider, you know, what needs to be done.
» The cool thing is is at the end of it, it's going to be better. And there might
be France because it's environmental related and
» yeah look at that as well. We're going to slow that down a little bit so that
we can look at those items. >> One last thing, you may not know this,
but I just asked you a conjecture. Do you have any clue as to why Gearhart was
ground zero in the entire county for >> Yeah. I mean Seaside's a little bit
better prepared. Um they have a bigger force of people to pull from uh to be
able to and and they're a little bit more contained. uh they don't have all
the driving on the beach and things like that. Uh they know what to expect and
they've got a pretty good system that's down for that. Uh and I think it's a
more controllable atmosphere. Uh as ridiculous as that sounds.
» That being said, the $4,000 firework ban did not quite work like I think they
planned it to. >> Um because as soon as the overwhelming
numbers come in, there's nothing that you can really do other than maybe reach
your hand in, pull one out, give them a 4,000, but there's another, you know,
$4,000 fine. But there's another 50,000 people out there that are not going to
pay attention to that and it's just Yeah. too overwhelming. So,
» but were we more inundated by people? Yeah.
» Other years. >> Yeah. We had uh Yes.
» because I mean Yeah. Every other year those things stay the same. It just
seems like this year we >> Well, there's the 250 year, you know,
I'll give it the the anniversary. You know, 250 years was a big deal. Yeah.
» Uh but this has been a growing issue where it seems like we've been sought
after for certain types of parties on the beach that are attended by many of
the public school kids that are out of Portland. I mean I don't not all of them
uh but a large majority uh C Gable Lincoln uh Benson um all of them the
word gets out on social media that there may or may not be a rave or a party or a
dear heart takeover they're calling it on the beach and that's what on social
media it was called >> uh where these kids were prepared uh and
very well equipped to have a good time >> uh a lot of fireworks, a lot of alcohol,
a lot underage drinking >> uh and all of that. And the streets were
lined on both sides of Marian with people that were parked even on the side
you're not supposed to park on. Uh and we quickly lost control at that point
because we couldn't get those drivers back. We couldn't tow
» cuz that's new. We haven't seen that. >> No, they were all camping in their cars.
We had probably It felt like I thought I counted up to about 90 campers,
you know, people camping, not campers, a few campers
» sleeping in the car. And at that point, we're not going to move along. It's too
dangerous for various reasons. So, uh, that was an issue. Uh, the 10th Street
beach access worked. Okay. But there were four and five cars deep on the
beach. Uh and there was probably oh 30,000 people out there, you know,
from 10th Street to uh past um Sunset Beach and uh it got really crazy. It was
to one point to tell a little story and then
uh we had a call at about 11:30 at night. We pull all of our forces off
when dust hits because it's too dangerous. Okay. So, there's, you know,
where we've gotten, it's always kind of been like that, but not like this.
We got a call for an overdose. Young man was overdosing, and so we had to
tactically figure out how we were going to get down to the beach. Uh, and to do
that, we had to put a convoy together with uh law enforcement and the fire
department because we knew we were going into a war zone.
And they got in there, they went and immediately it started going bad. They
kind of circled the vehicles around like wagons. Uh crowds started coming in.
Fireworks started hitting the police cars. Um and we're talking the major
mortars lit thrown and the explosion goes that's supposed to put it up in the
air. Then the explosion goes uh and so at the cars and crowd was coming in.
Thank goodness a a rave started. A 40 foot uh uh
bonfire went off. The music and the light show started because they actually
had lasers at this thing. And uh the kids turned around and was like, "Hey,
let's do this instead of, you know, surrounding what was going on." So, it
was it was very dangerous. Um we're still having people that are questioning
what they were doing out there, what we were doing out there. And I can't put my
team in that position again. Um, it was that dangerous. We had the state police
assisting us. We had uh the county doing everything that they could.
» This isn't the time place for this conversation, but I can't imagine what
you can plan for doing different next year.
» Yeah, it's going to have to be some big decisions made by some
» uh government entities to >> figure out how to help slow down and
quiet. We'll do everything we can. We're going to start planning it a lot
earlier. We thought we were ready. >> Yeah.
» Um but not for that. >> Just overwhelmed.
» Is it possible to get the state to shut down all the beach accesses?
» Great question. That's one we put into the idea bucket. You know, we're not
advocating for anything. We're just putting ideas in there. Shut down 10th
Street. Well, then where do they back up and walk into? You know, we're going to
have to consider that. You know, human movement is is a study in school on its
own, right? So, how do you move that? How do you advertise in advance? Do we
shut down the beach? Do we tell them that we're not going to go on the beach
no matter what and the state's going to have to take over? Um, and how would
they do that short of um National Guard? Uh, I've been around here for 30 years.
I love the Fourth of July. I love everything it's about, but this was
different. Yeah. So, we'll work on it. But you
know, I don't think most of Deerheart understood any. They didn't see that. I
except for the people there, but there's a lot of good videos online if you want
to see them. >> I was down the beach at seaside
Saturday. There were fewer people down seaside.
The safety zone was almost twice as big as it been where people can actually
come in to see the fireworks. So, everyone was shoved to the north
and the cabanas that they put up were like huge three-bedroom cabanas. Um, but
it's mostly families. There's so much families down there.
There were not as many people down the beach on a Saturday, Fourth of July, as
I've seen in the past. A lot of a lot of them are day triggers.
But it's just different. And and but part of the thing was Canon
Beach, they don't allow fireworks because they have their puffing thing.
They created the puffin thing. Actually, no fireworks came before the puffin
thing. Um and then the seaside with the 4,000 fine. No, it doesn't make a lot of
difference, but for some of them don't make a difference. So, the next place to
go to is Gearhart. >> Mhm. So, but I would say there are
probably 20,000 down on the beach in Seaside. It It was not as big a crowd as
I've seen before. >> Some of the highlight videos are pretty
incredible in Seaside as well. I think later it gets pretty busy, but
» they had they had a controlled good time. It seemed like it
» it was it was pretty controlled. Part of it being because they were so tightly
packed, you really couldn't be having the big bonfire. You're going to
set your cabana on fire and and the next door neighbors to banana. I mean,
» some of the differences is through agreements. Both Canon Beach and Seaside
have certain rights on the beach, >> right?
» That we do not. Um and that was established a long time ago and held uh
to where they could you uh you or the uh city council could not put an ordinance
in place that would affect the beach. >> Well, Seaside has jurisdiction.
» Seaside has had discussions this last about not having fireworks and they
discussion everyone a good job and they were helpful to us.
» All right. Anything else? Thank you, Chad.
» Uh Garrett, are you there?
Do you have anything for your staff report before we get to your
presentation today? >> Uh just really briefly, a heads up that
we're we'll be having um a meeting in August, our regularly scheduled meeting,
and um it looks like we'll be considering two subdivision applications
in a hearing in August. Um, and I'm looking forward to going over
those with you when the time comes. And that's it from my for my updates.
» Okay. How about here? We'll be back in just a few minutes. Um, commissioners,
does anyone have a report?
» Yes. Great. >> Thank you. as fast as I've completed my
require state meeting training as well as ethics training and I've been going
through the land training they have online as well
awesome
okay I don't know I'm seeing required >> J
I have a question >> yes um
» you scheduled meeting in August it's the same day I'm going to be having cataract
surgery. I'm going to ask to be excused now. I may be able to uh attend via
Zoom, but I don't want to. >> Well, the best thing to do, Emerson, is
to send an email to Angelina, we can excuse you. If you are here, we won't do
excuse. >> That would be good.
» Okay. So, so if you send a just send an email,
» okay, >> and and then it will put on the agenda
and we will ignore it. if you can see us or just listen to us.
» One good eye pirate. A pirate. Okay. Um, are there
any comments from our visitors tonight that are not related to the agenda?
You have anyone? Chad, this is your job. >> Oh, thank you. All right. Uh,
» I can't see. >> Okay. So, we have no public hearings. We
have no unfinished business. We have no new business, but we have information
discussion. And this is your time, Garrett. So, take it away.
All right. Thank you. So, um I want to go over a proposal that staff has on a
project that um we think that we should work on with you uh in the remainder of
this year um following those subdivision hearings in August. And the project
builds on a couple of discussions we've had in the last several months um to do
some limited uh zoning ordinance updates that are aimed at um alignment with new
state laws and rules and cleaning up some issues that
um lead to like lack of clarity for property owners and staff. Um, so the
project doesn't involve like creation of uh like new realms of policy. Um, we're
we're envisioning this being a pretty limited scope uh project, although it it
involves three distinct topics and I'll review those for you brief briefly.
Um, before I forget, I wanted to mention that the report that goes along with
this item, I meant to include some links uh
hyperlinks that you could click on um to read more if you wanted to. And was I
was trying to keep the report really brief. And I'm interested when we get to
discussion if anyone tried to use those and if they worked and I think we'd be
interested in in redistributing that in a way that works. if not the link that I
was using off the planning commission packet had a dead link uh or two. But in
any case, this project would essentially do zoning ordinance updates primarily
focused on article 13 administrative provisions
and also the article for the beach and dune overlay zone.
Um there's two topics that would mostly
center on article 13 uh our procedures and administrative
provisions. The first one is in response to new state rules
uh related to goal five cultural areas. And the second topic that would
primarily center on article 13 is related to housing laws.
Um and housing related rules that have been adopted by the state.
We reviewed some of the housing related matters in April of this year uh at our
April meeting. The goal five cultural areas topic is a
new one for for us at the planning commission. So I'll start reviewing
that. Um, in December of 2025, the Land
Conservation and Development Commission adopted new rules that they had been
working on in the prior year. And the rules
essentially will require two sort of new broad areas of action for local
governments. Um, one is that when an application
comes to the city that it that will lead to ground
disturbance and it's an application that already
requires some form of public notice. Think conditional uses, variances,
um, partitions, subdivisions, reszones.
If we get an application like that and it's predictably going to lead to ground
disturbance, the new state rules require us to provide a unique notice to
selected uh Indian tribes that the application has been received
uh and is complete. And then the rules require us to respond to any
comments that we receive from those tribes in a specific manner and to
include those comments and our responses in the record of the decision.
It's really a procedural requirement. Um so there's not it doesn't introduce new
approval criteria to any type of application.
Um but the intent of it is for communication with tribes between tribes
and local governments to uh improve and to offer tribes a meaningful opportunity
to comment on land use applications uh and have those comments um considered in
decisions. So that's the first one, the first part
of the rule. Uh the second part that requires some different local action
going forward is that um tribes will be able to propose that certain sites uh
they they they're free to propose any site uh they want to uh that certain
sites should be considered culturally uh significant sites under Oregon State
goal five. And um when local governments receive an application
uh for a site to be considered culturally significant
um the local government will have to follow a uh goal five comprehensive plan
amendment procedure um to complete certain analyses and
consider uh an update to the comprehensive plan to officially
designate that site as culturally significant.
and along with that uh protect it protect the the culturally significant
resources uh in some way or another. And so um again no new substantive
requirement uh in terms of like these sites are already known and you have to
protect them in this way like we do with flood planes for example.
um just new procedures that we're going to have to follow. And the rules say
that local governments can implement them directly from statute and don't
have to uh amend their zoning ordinances or
comprehensive plans to get ready uh for that. It goes into effect January 1st,
2027. Uh but DLCD staff uh including our north
coast field representative Brett Estus um and the goal five specialists are
recommending that local governments at least review their codes and probably
need to make uh at least some kinds of updates.
Um one to signal to staff to not forget to
do the notices when there's a ground disturbing application that comes in.
Um, and two, to make sure that we have some processes in place to handle
a proposal for a new culturally significant site. Um, and along with
that, having some way to charge a fee to make sure that we can recuperate the
costs of that, you know, rather lengthy process of considering one of those
proposals. So, um, that's the first topic that, you
know, we think we want to, we're not sure if we're going to get applications
or how often this is going to come into play, but, um, you know, we take DLCD
staff's recommendations seriously. Um, I don't think we want to be caught
surprised with a culturally significant uh, site application with no procedure
fees in place. um or we have to handle a comprehensive plan amendment.
And so that's something that we want to uh deal with proactively.
And again, that'll be focused on article 13, our administrative provisions.
Um the second topic outlined in the memo is
related to the beach and dune overlay zone. And there's some points of clarity
that we want to bring forward for your consideration that we think will make it
um uh easier and clearer for staff to implement the overlay zone and easier
for property owners to read it and know what they're allowed and not allowed to
do. Um,
and so that uh I'm I'm actually going to leave leave that one as relatively
brief, but we'll we'll get more into that when we have our our workshop later
uh in the year. And then the third topic is related to housing laws.
And that again is we covered a variety of housing topics um in our April
meeting, but the one that this zoning code update would focus on is related to
procedures and the idea that there's certain kinds of land use applications
that state law has said are are really supposed to be processed
um with I guess you could say less process and fewer standards than we have
been processing them with typically in gearart. So
um partitions and subdivisions are really supposed to be type two
uh administrative review decisions where staff issue a public notice and
there's opportunities for the public and neighbors to provide written comments.
and then a decision is made in a in a staff report notice of decision uh
without a public hearing. Um and there there would still be appeal
opportunities uh after the decision is made.
But that's the I that that's the the area of housing law that we'd be
focusing on in this update is aligning procedures
um with state guidelines and laws and rules.
Um and again that's related to article 13
primarily. And so normally
I wouldn't propose like a three topic zoning ordinance update covering that
breadth the breadth of those issues but um
we are going to be trying to to keep the changes relatively minimal and targeted
and again they're intended to just implement uh
state rules and provide clarity rather than create new policy direction. Um
um and so we think that we can do this uh in a relatively efficient manner. Um,
we're proposing to give city council a briefing on these topics in
uh, August and then come back to you for a workshop in at your regular meeting in
September where we would have the proposed ordinance changes drafted
for your review and discussion. And depending on how that goes, um
potentially having a hearing as soon as, uh October of 2026,
um and and then moving into, you know, a
city city council hearing and adoption, you know, later in the year in in the
early new year. So, um that's the overview. There's
there's a one other topic that we discussed earlier in the year. It was
really sort of a catchall which was broad-based
review and clarity updates for the whole zoning ordinance.
And given um some of the issues we've experienced
with the beach and dune overlay zone in the last year um the January 1st, 2027
implementation date for goal five cultural areas
and um that we're getting, you know, we're starting to get more partition and
subdivision applications. These seem like three topics that will
have um some like immediate relevance uh and impact on um how you work with the
code, how staff works with it, and how Gearart citizens experience it. Um and
so I think there there's going to be yet more work to do after this, but this
seemed like an appropriate uh sort of project size package to work on together
in 2026. So I'll leave it at that for now. and h happy to answer any
questions. >> Does anyone have a question? Jennifer,
» could you Gary, could you describe again what would prompt either a revision or
addition to the to the comprehensive plan?
» Sure. So DLCD uh has recommended that we review the comprehensive plan
um related to the goal five cultural areas issues
and um
see if there's a need for some kind of supportive sort of broadly supportive
policy statement uh that that backs up the zoning ordinance updates that that
we'll do on that topic. Um,
and also to review and see if there's any specific procedures that that
contradict or are incomplete uh in relation to
um to what's in the state rule. For example, I haven't done this yet, but
perhaps the compre if the comprehensive plan said um had had policies on how it
how it should be updated itself. Let's say the comprehensive plan says this is
how we update the comprehensive plan and it only describes a procedure where um
where staff and the city can propose updates but doesn't describe any
procedure that includes third parties proposing updates.
um you know that basically implies that only the city can propose updates and
that's in contradiction with the new state rule that that tribes are supposed
to be able to propose updates. Um to designate culturally significant sites.
So we'd be taking a look from that perspective.
Um, so I' I'd imagine like limited sort of
broadly supportive policy statements uh in a new section and checking on the
goal to uh procedural statements and and it would be limited to that
topic. I don't think that um comprehensive plan policy changes would
be needed for anything else that we're contemplating in the housing or beach
and doing overlay realm. Although we of course have to, you know, that that is
like one of the first steps is to is to inventory those and just make sure we're
staying on the right side of them. And if there's an issue, we'll bring it up
to you.
What what is our what is our city's um requirement for does it have to be voted
on if we change the comp plan? Does it have to be voted on by someone or the
the public or how does that >> Yeah. So it's um we have uh a a planning
commission hearing um and a a recommendation and then ultimately it's
a city council uh hearing and then a city council decision. Um, and it's
appealable under, you know, Oregon, Oregon's land use laws. Um,
so but city council decision. It's not like
a change to the city charter. It's not a a public vote or something. I don't I
don't know what a change of the city charter would entail, but
» it's a city council action. Yeah. >> So, we listen, we make a recommendation,
» then it goes to city council. Yes, Eric. >> Uh Garrett, with regard, for example, to
these two subdivisions you're going to be bringing forward, uh will our work on
that be impacted by SB5 1537?
Our procedures be any different than they would have been before that law was
passed? >> Um, no. We're f we're following our
zoning ordinances direction, which is that subdivisions
require a planning commission hearing. And so is it is an important point of
clarification. Um, there seems to be room within state law
for us to keep having hearings before the planning commission on
subdivisions and partitions and to have the planning commission be the
decision-making authority. So, I don't think that we're
violating state law by doing that. Um however
the decisions at least in regards to housing
on subdivisions and partitions um
when when housing is involved the standards have to be clear and
objective. We have to limit our decision- making to clear and objective
standards. And that really undermines the whole purpose of having
a planning commission um make the decision.
Uh which is that, you know, there's decisions that there's enough discretion
and judgment involved that it really shouldn't be up to staff for some
decisions. Um,
and it needs to and the decision needs to be needs to include like deliberation
in a public hearing where evidence can be presented and
um, you know, alternative evidence can be presented and and weighed all out in
the open in that setting. And that's that's not how housing related
subdivision and partition decisions are supposed to be made anymore.
um we're just supposed to stick to the clear and objective
facts. And um since that's the case, that is a
matter that as sort of as a matter of principle you could argue is more
appropriate for staff to handle.
» Answer your question, Eric. You didn't like the answer. Not that I don't like
it. I'm just confused though. um like are we supposed to deliberate or are we
not supposed to anymore? >> Yeah, on a on a housing related
subdivision application, um
there there just isn't much room
for deliberation.
um like the staff report will you know increasingly look more like a checklist.
Um and
to the extent that there is something to deliberate over like and if and if you
denied the application
or imposed a condition of approval on the application that was the result of
deliberation. um
there's a decent chance that that deliberation was not on a matter that is
clear and objective otherwise there'd be nothing to deliberate about.
I know it's difficult to so I think I get the picture that you want to have
the hearing, you want to have the whole thing discussed, but we don't really get
to decide, so to speak, in the sense that it's already the the uh ordinances
are already decided for us kind of. Yeah, the issues are already decided for
us, but we get to hear about it.
» Yeah. Yeah, we all do, right? But we're not really in a decision
making position as much as we were, >> right? I mean, you you are you the the
decision in August, the decisions in August will be yours on those
subdivisions. Uh but increasingly like um
if you exercise discretion and judgment um your decision is
increasingly appealable these days. Yeah.
» Yeah. Okay. I I understand. I I thank you for the clarification.
» Yeah. >> Any other questions for carrot?
» You know. Hey, you're all easy. So we will you will present to the city
council in August then a planned workshop
where we'll discuss what you have unless the city council has something you don't
foresee at this point and then we will have the public hearing where we can
hear from everyone all at the same time so everyone gets an equal chance uh in
October. Is that correct? >> Yeah, as soon as October. We'll see how
it goes with city council and we'll see how the workshop goes with y'all in
September. But >> okay,
» so that it's best to have public hearing for everyone at one time so everyone
gets an equal chance. >> Okay, that that is fine.
» Okay. All right. So, thank you, Garrett. What else do we have on agenda? Concerns
of the commission. Are there concerns? Um, my concern, I just put down
fireworks. That was my concern. >> Gearhart needs to do something about the
fireworks. >> The interesting piece is that we did
have a firework complaint one. That was it.
» That's because we were all told unless they were shooting at you, do not call
them. >> It was It was an interesting statistic.
They are not shooting. We just keep awake at night. Okay. We have no
questions for the land use because we don't have it. It is 7:57.
No, it's 657. Sorry, Angelia. 657.
Me. >> Thank you all. Thank you, Gary. I know
people chat. What is the fine heart for illegal fireworks?
first photos. >> I do not know what DRS is.