Gil Kelley, Director of Citywide Planning for San Francisco and former Planning Director for theCity of Portland, was the keynote speaker at our Annual Meeting, August 16 at the home of Kate Mills. Gil is also a part time resident of the Hood River Valley. His wife Jan has recently become a fulltime resident of Baldwin Creek Drive and Gil joins her on long weekends and holidays. This is an excerpt of his talk. I was asked to relate my San Francisco experiences to Hood River. That question may seem like a head-scratcher at first, except that, in some ways, what happens in the cities and towns in North America has the largest influence on the areas outside them, the rural areas. As a colleague of mine, Mike Houck often says, “In livable cities is the preservation of the wild.” Making cities work so that people want to be there…

Extensive excavation, fill and tree removal along Phelps Creek and in the wetland areas of David Ryan’s new property at the corner of Country Club and Frankton (the proposed Super Walmart site of a decade ago) and Andy von Flotow's adjacent property have resulted in cease and desist orders and enforcement measure by state agencies. See coverage from Hood River BizBuzz. Inquiries to the county have revealed a gap in the County’s land use code that needs fixing. It turns out the County has no code directed at protecting natural resources in the Urban Growth Area (UGA). The City of Hood River has a Natural Resources Overlay that protects riparian areas and wetlands in the City Limits. Outside of the UGA, Hood River County’s Stream Protection Overlay would have prohibited most tree removal and excavation within 50 feet of Phelps Creek, but the overlay zone specifically does not apply in the…