Intentional Planning

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…

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Ryan Finds Loophole in County Code

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…

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Climate Change Art Party

Friday, November 6 from 5 to 8 pm Art Party for Climate Change Columbia Riverkeeper Office, 111 3rd Street, Hood River Let your creative juices flow this First Friday by dropping by the Columbia Riverkeeper office and decorating a tile for a state-wide art project to bring attention to the need to take real steps on climate change. People across the state will be creating tiles that will all come together for a giant Salmon on the Square on November 14 in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland. We will have paint, colored paper, markers and beer to help you decorate your tile. Hosted by Oregon Climate, Hood River Valley Residents Committee, Columbia Riverkeeper, Gorge Ecology Center.

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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…

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LUBA Affirms Hood River’s Denial of Walmart Expansion

Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) has affirmed the City of Hood River’s decision to deny Walmart a permit to expand their existing store by 30,000 square feet. The Hood River Valley Residents Committee and Hood River Citizens for a Local Economy filed a joint brief with the City of Hood River in defense of the City’s denial. LUBA’s ruling may well be the final chapter in a saga that began back in 2011 and included two denials from the Hood River City Council and three trips to LUBA. In their ruling, LUBA upheld the City’s decision that its zoning ordinance imposed a 12-month expiration date on vested rights. Walmart, which has operated a 72,000-square-foot store in Hood River since 1991, had argued it had a “vested right” to expand the store based on its original 20-year old site plan which included an expansion area. Walmart’s land is zoned Light Industrial (LI)…

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HNA and BLI????

Nothing like three letter acronyms to make your eyes glaze over! In this case they stand for Housing Needs Analysis (HNA) and Residential Buildable Lands Inventory (BLI) and they are part of a hugely important process that the City of Hood River has just started to determine how the city can accommodate the expected population growth of the next 20 years. Along with that they are doing a really interesting study to see how vacation rentals and second homes effect the local real estate market. Some say that as much as 30% of our housing stock is taken up by these seasonal users--this study will let us know for sure. HRVRC is on the Technical Advisory Committee for the project. Here is a powerpoint laying out the workplan and goals of the project. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on this as it will have long term effects on the City…

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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.

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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…

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Walmart Redux

City Council Denies Walmart's Vested Right Again On Tuesday December 2, the Hood River City Council once again voted 4-3 to deny Walmart's vested right to expand their non-conforming store finding that such a right had expired long ago since Walmart had made no construction effort in over 20 years.  Walmart has until January 9 to appeal the decision to Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). Walmart Redux--Remand Hearing at Hood River City Council Tuesday, December 2nd at 6 pm the City Council will once again consider whether or not Walmart can use a 20-year old permit to allow expansion of its store and bypass the City's current “big box” ordinance and non-conforming use rules. When the City first voted on this back in December 2012, the Council decided that Walmart’s right to expand its store by 30,000 sq. ft. had expired because Walmart let 20 years pass without attempting any…

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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…

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