Astoria takes a step closer to workforce housing at Heritage Square City, developer to negotiate details By Nicole Bales
Astoria takes a step closer to workforce housing at Heritage Square
City, developer to negotiate details
By Nicole Bales, The Astorian 5 hrs ago
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People gathered in front of City Hall on Tuesday night in a demonstration against a workforce housing project at Heritage Square.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
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A closely divided Astoria City Council voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday night to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a Portland-based developer to create workforce housing at Heritage Square.
Edlen & Co. has proposed workforce housing for lower-wage workers and supportive housing for people in treatment for mental health and substance abuse on the downtown block next to City Hall. The agreement will allow the city to collaborate with the developer on details such as the income mix, building configuration, parking and ground-floor uses like child care and retail.
The City Council also voted unanimously to adopt changes to the city's comprehensive plan and development code to support housing at Heritage Square and other parts of the downtown core.
"It's not an easy decision," Mayor Bruce Jones said during deliberations that took more than two hours. "There's lots of arguments against any location in town you want to do something. But we have a crisis in this town of housing. It's undeniable.
"And unless somebody does something big and bold about it, we're going to have the same problem that we have now, which is that people that can't even dream of ever owning their own house will never be able to. They'll be paying too much rent wherever they are."
Over the next several weeks, Edlen & Co. and the city plan to host a series of open houses to collect public input and refine the concept. The developer will also prepare an application for the government financing needed to launch the project, which is due by late April.
The project faces several hurdles — both financial and political — before the city makes a final decision. In a last-minute amendment to the negotiating agreement, the city or the developer can terminate the talks at any time before a disposition and development agreement is finalized.
The vote on Tuesday, however, represents a significant step forward.
'We need this housing'
The empty pit at Heritage Square left from when the foundation of the old Safeway collapsed after heavy rains in 2010 has long been an eyesore downtown. Over the years, the city had discussed a plaza to enhance the Garden of Surging Waves and a mixed-use project with a new library and housing.
The City Council made housing at Heritage Square a policy goal in 2017. Last year, the council called for workforce housing and invited proposals from developers.
“I believe as we move forward with the negotiations with Edlen, we will be able to deal with some of the issues that people are most afraid of,” said City Councilor Roger Rocka, who made the motion to enter into the agreement with the developer. “I don't believe that we should make our decisions based on social media. I believe we should make our decision based on what we believe is the right thing to do. We need this housing. The people who work here need this housing.
“I think five years from now, we will all be looking back at this project and saying, ‘I don’t know why we were ever afraid of it. We are proud of it. This is just what our city needed.’”
City Councilor Joan Herman, who represents the downtown ward that covers Heritage Square, spoke out against the way some opponents have portrayed the project and the City Council's actions, particularly on social media.
"I appreciate the strong feelings this issue has caused in our community," Herman said. "I'm very distressed, though, by the dissension, some of which I believe has been done deliberately, both on social media and at large. And there has been a great amount of misinformation and fear-mongering — some of it deliberate, in my opinion — by members of our community who should know better.
"It's not befitting the town that we all love."
City Councilor Tom Brownson, who in January had voted to move forward with Edlen & Co.’s outline, voted "no" on entering into the negotiating agreement. He wanted to pause the process to give the city time to try to get buy-in and understanding from neighbors who oppose the project.
Brownson also raised concerns about the mental health component involving Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Clatsop County's mental health and substance abuse treatment provider. He questioned whether the agency, which is partnering with Edlen, could properly manage the suppportive housing units.
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City Councilor Tom Hilton, who voted against entering into the agreement with the developer, said the mental health component and the public input on the project left him torn.
“Torn for the compassion I have for my community, and torn for the desire for our community to thrive,” he said.
Hilton, who grew up in Uniontown, reflected on the changes he has seen in Astoria. While change is inevitable, he said, it is important that the community evaluates how to move forward.
'Save Our Astoria'
Before the City Council met, people opposed to the housing project filled the sidewalk outside of City Hall, many waving "#Save Our Astoria" signs.
Save Our Astoria, the group that organized the demonstration, created a Facebook page this month to rally the community about "unhealthy development."
Over the past few weeks, critics of the Edlen & Co. outline have taken to social media and have described the project in increasingly disparaging terms.
One memo being circulated — called "The Heart of Downtown Astoria," drafted by Planning Commissioner Cindy Price — includes a section on the potential impact to the downtown core.
The memo claims that concentrating lower-income and mental-health housing would do nothing but degrade the surrounding business district. It questions the effect of the Merwyn Apartments, the Astoria Warming Center, a LiFEBOAT Services drop-in center downtown and a Helping Hands facility in Uniontown on police and nearby businesses.
"If you build it," the memo said, "they will come."
Price, who used to represent downtown on the City Council, is one of the most active critics of the Edlen & Co. outline on social media.
Back in 2016, Price was part of a 3-2 vote by the City Council against advancing a mixed-use project with a new library and housing at Heritage Square.
In 2017, Price was part of the City Council when the council made housing at Heritage Square a policy goal.
In December, before the Edlen & Co. outline was publicly released, Price urged the Planning Commission to delay the code changes for housing at Heritage Square, citing concerns about parking. She was the dissenter in a 4-1 vote for an amendment to the development code that would move multifamily housing downtown from conditional use to permitted use.
On her Facebook page, Price has said she favors a small number of market-rate townhomes, row houses or condos at Heritage Square, with open space leading to the Garden of Surging Waves and some public parking. On Facebook and Nextdoor, she has raised a series of objections about the Edlen & Co. outline and suggested other locations in Astoria and Warrenton for housing projects.
"This monstrosity of a project will not solve the county's housing crisis," Price said in a Facebook post over the weekend. "There will be as many or more people on Astoria's streets, in dilapidated vans, and on the Riverwalk as there are now, and we'll have a monstrosity in the center of downtown."
In response to a comment from a reader who hoped another stalemate would not leave the empty pit at Heritage Square for another decade, Price stated, "Agreed. And yet 10 more years of the hole would be better than this project. As is, at least there is parking for businesses."
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