Winter Film Night Jan. 21

Winter Film Night Women's Work for the Wild A Presentation of HRVRC and CRAG Law Center Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave. Saturday January 21, 7 pm (doors at 6:30) Suggested $5 Donation Please join us and our friends at CRAG Law Center in kicking off HRVRC's 40th year of protecting the place we love, with a night of 10 short films about wild places and the women who love them. We are especially excited to present the premiere screening of Maiden of the Mountain directed by Trip Jennings and Ralph Bloemers. The film tells the inspirational story of the life and work of local conservationist giant and HRVRC co-founder, Kate McCarthy. The proceeds of the film night go towards Kate's most personal project, the Mt. Hood/Cooper Spur Land Trade. For the last 15 years, HRVRC and CRAG Law Center have worked to bring Wilderness protection to thousands…

Read more

Missing Middle Housing Presentation

"Missing Middle" Housing Presentation Speaker: Eli Spevak Wednesday November 9th, 6 pm Hood River City Hall, 211 2nd, Hood River  You are invited to a presentation by Eli Spevak on "Missing Middle" housing and how it can help Hood River retain its small town feel while creating more affordable housing choices. Housing is the hot topic in Hood River as the City is starting to work on the housing strategies adopted last year in their Housing Needs Analysis and as the Westside Area Planning effort gets underway. Anyone interested in the future of neighborhoods in Hood River is encouraged to attend. Eli Spevak is a for-profit developer in Portland. His company, Orange Splot, is known for producing creative and compatible infill housing. Prior to starting his own company, he worked in the non-profit housing sector, managing the finance and construction of over 250 units of affordable housing for Habitat for Humanity, Human Solutions and the…

Read more

A Legacy Park for Hood River?

Parks District Shocker Hood River Valley Residents Committee advocates for protection of our best farm and forest lands while supporting wise planning that makes our urban communities more healthy and livable.  We --and a much larger community of local citizens-- have been working with Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation District for the last six-months to create a large park --Westside Park-- on one of the last sizable parcels left next to town, a 20-acre piece at the corner of Fairview and Belmont, catty corner to Westside Elementary School. So it is with great disappointment that we find the Parks Board abandoning pursuit of a large park next to town and instead return their focus to a former orchard property on Barrett Drive more than three miles out of town. Yes, that Barrett! See our Hood River News Op-Ed on why that is a terrible idea. Westside Community Park Concept Plan Presentation Wednesday June 8th at 6…

Read more

New Vacation Rental Rules for Hood River

The number of homes in Hood River that are being converted to vacation rentals has skyrocketed in recent years with the advent of Air BnB, Homeaway, VRBO and other online platforms. In 2000 about 4% of the City's housing stock was reserved for seasonal use (vacation rentals and second homes). By 2015, that number had shot up to 12%. About 2/3 of vacation rentals are investment properties owned by someone who lives outside of Hood River County (see maps from Livable Hood River). Concerned with protecting the integrity of residential neighborhoods from "the party house next door" and preserving Hood River's limited housing stock for year-round residents instead of out-of-county investors and second home owners, the City Council decided that Hood River needed rules to govern STRs. The City's draft regulations use a "cap and density" approach--they the limit the total number of whole-house non-owner occupied vacation rentals in residential zones (143…

Read more

Walmart Expansion Denied by Oregon Supreme Court!

It's Over. . . Finally! Walmart Expansion Denied by Oregon Supreme Court   Walmart's expansion plans for its Hood River store finally reached the end of the road this week when the Oregon Supreme Court denied review of Walmart's case. If you remember, the City of Hood River denied Walmart a permit to expand its non-conforming store by 30,000 square feet for the second time in December 2014. Walmart appealed that decision to LUBA which upheld the City's denial. Walmart then appealed again, this time to the Oregon Court of Appeals. In October, the Court again upheld the City's denial. After losing at the City, LUBA and the Oregon Court of Appeals, we all thought that would be the end. But Walmart has vast resources, so they directed them at one last hail mary, an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court. Unlike the lower courts, the Supremes get to choose…

Read more

Mt. Hood/Cooper Spur Lawsuit Moves Forward

Our case against the US Forest Service had its first test in Federal District Court on Wednesday and we emerged with a win! Last July, we filed suit against the Forest Service for "unreasonable delay" after waiting more than six years for them to complete the Mt. Hood/Cooper Spur land exchange ordered by Congress way back in 2009. The Forest Service had sought to have the case thrown out, saying that the court did not have jurisdiction to compel the agency (USFS) to act. Judge Anna Brown disagreed and denied the  Forest Service's Motion to Dismiss. At the hearing the judge said that the "agency can't ignore a mandate of Congress, put it on a shelf and let years go by." In such situations, the court can enforce a mandate of Congress. In denying the Forest Service's Motion to Dismiss, Judge Brown noted that the sheer lapse of time would…

Read more

Sense of Place March 4th

Sense of Place Lecture: Oregon's Special History in Conserving its Environment, Michael McClosky March 4, Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave., Hood River, OR. Doors open at 6:30 pm and lectures begin at 7:00 pm. Cost is $8 for general admission, $5 for GO! members. HRVRC is honored to sponsor this Gorge Owned lecture on the roots of Oregon’s conservation movement from one of its earliest activists. Born in Oregon, Michael McCloskey started his career as the Conservation Director for the Sierra Club, where he worked for 40 years both as the CEO and Chairman. In his book, In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club, McClosky traces Oregon’s conservation movement from the 1880s to 2013. Learn about the key players and the impacts their work had on making Oregon one of the country’s most innovative states for environmental conservation.

Read more

Smart Growth and the City of Hood River

On February 23rd, our Executive Director, Heather Staten, was at City Council where she presented a short talk on Smart Growth and the future of Hood River. As Hood River grows, we face many challenges--how do we make sure Hood River gets better not just bigger? We propose some specific solutions with lots of pictures from around town.

Read more

Punchbowl Falls County Park

Board of Commissioners Hear Punchbowl Park Plan March 19 at 5 pm The Board of Commissioners will be meeting on Thursday night to consider the Park Advisory Committee's concept plan for Punchbowl Falls as a County Park. Here is the Punchbowl Falls Concept Plan It is very important that the community attend this meeting to show their support for the project. Those of you who formerly used Copper Dam Road to access the Hood River know only too well that public river access through private property is a very precarious thing. Public ownership of Punchbbowl Falls as a County Park is the best way to preserve access in perpetuity. If you value the Punchbowl Falls property as a community asset, please come and let the commissioners know that they should protect and preserve it for future generations. If you can't make the meeting, send the Commissioners an email. Final Public Forum on…

Read more

Waterfront Refinement Plan

New Zoning for Hood River Waterfront Approved by City Council The Waterfront Refinement Plan was approved by the Hood River City Council at their December 22, 2014 meeting. Here is the adopted zoning code and map for the Waterfront Overlay area. The new overlay represents a real improvement over previous code: it creates higher design standards for buildings at the waterfront, protects the waterside path (requires landscaping and expands setbacks for development), and changes the zoning along Nichols Basin to allow commercial development along the proposed new shoreline park. While it makes improvements, the new code allows more intensity of development within the Nichols Basin park area than we would have liked. HRVRC had pushed to retain more public open space in this area. For the rest of the waterfront, the Refinement Plan retains existing restrictive Light Industrial zoning. HRVRC sees the future of the waterfront not as a industrial…

Read more