Dee Tour Appeals Fails Due to Deadlock HRVRC's appeal of Dee Tour, a proposed concert venue and amphitheater at the site of the old Dee Mill, was held before the Hood River County Planning Commission on December 10.  The Planning Commission needs 4 affirmative votes to reach a decision but because only 5  of the 7 members were in attendance and with the votes 3-2, our appeal failed (lacking 4 votes, the appeal fails and reverts back to the prior staff decision). We wish had had the opportunity to make our case before the full commission as we feel we would have had a good chance of prevailing. We thank the Dee area locals who came out to the hearing to watch or testify as well as those that submitted written testimony on the project. While HRVRC ultimately decided not to further appeal the decision to the Board of Commissions, we…

Cell Tower Ordinance at Planning Commission Work Session March 25 Last fall, HRVRC organized a Citizen Advisory committee last fall to work on an ordinance to regulate the siting and design of cellular communications towers. The Advisory Committee was sparked into existence by a number of controversial applications for towers proposed near residential areas. Currently, Hood River County does not have any specific zoning rules for cell towers. The Advisory Committee met 3 times and was plugging away, albeit slowly, at crafting an ordinance based on the prior work of former County Planner Anne Debbaut. The speed of progress on the regulations changed considerably when the Hood River County Board of Commissioners made implementing an ordinance to regulate the siting of cellular communication towers a priority for this year at their 2015 Goal Setting Session. New Community Development Director, John Roberts fasted tracked work on the ordinance. He convened two…

There are exciting things happening at the Hood River Waterfront! The Port of Hood River is continuing to work on the development of Lot 1 and Nichols Basin in the heart of Hood River’s Waterfront. This spring, HRVRC Executive Director Heather Staten was on the advisory committee that developed preliminary plans for the design of a 2-acre park and walking trail along the west shore of Nichols Basin. The Port recently received a $445,000 state grant for the park and trail. Construction is slated to start this winter. In July, the City of Hood River and Port will embark on a Waterfront Plan Refinement process to craft new zoning codes for much of the waterfront. They will consider: the balance between employment lands, recreation spaces and habitat vehicular and non-vehicular transportation building height, setbacks from river, design standards, view sheds acceptable uses in each zone parks and trails environmental impacts,…

ODELL BOUNDARY SETTING NOW OFF THE TABLE In September, the Hood River County Board of Commissioners indefinitely postponed the state- mandated boundary setting process for the unincorporated community of Odell. The County started this effort back in 2013 with public meetings presenting three different boundary options. Local opposition quickly developed over the two largest proposals favored by the Commissioners because they converted far too much farmland to urban uses. Additionally, state agencies weighed in that the larger proposals failed to meet Oregon guidelines for boundary setting. This is at least the third attempt the county has made at setting an urban boundary for the community of Odell. While HRVRC was opposed to converting high-value farmland into development, we believe it would have been beneficial to our community for the County to complete the boundary setting process. Under state law, once an urban unincorporated boundary is set, the County has much…