News

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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Mt. Hood Land Trade Stalled

Way back in 2009, President Obama signed the Public Lands Omnibus Act which called for 770 acres at Cooper Spur, owned by Mt. Hood Meadows, to be traded for 120 acres at Government Camp owned by the US Forest Service. This Congressionally-mandated land trade put an end to years of fighting and litigation over the future of the north side of Mt. Hood. The trade had our wholehearted support as well as the support of Mt. Hood Meadows, Hood River County, conservation groups and recreational clubs. The Act required the Forest Service to complete the exchange in 16 months, but six years have passed and the trade is still nowhere near completion. The Forest Service has stalled and delayed, complained and explained, but made little progress. Read more. . . 

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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.

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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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HRVRC sponsors Sense of Place Lecture Series

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HRVRC is pleased to be a supporter of Sense a Place, a lecture series produced by Gorge Owned GO! and we are especially pleased to be the sponsor of  Oregon’s Special History in Conserving its Environment: An Evening with Michael McClosky" on March 4, 2015 at 7pm at the Columbia Center for the Arts. Learn about 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.  Cost is $8 general, $5 for GO! members. More info. . .

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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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City of Hood River Appeal Fees

JUSTICE WITHOUT PURCHASE: THE APPEAL FEE CASE As a watchdog group, one of the most important tools in our toolkit is the ability to appeal a local decision we believe to be unlawful. Therefore we’ve been watching with keen interest a lawsuit that started in Hood River Circuit Court and is now before the Oregon Court of Appeals. The suit was brought by two low-income plaintiffs, after requesting, and being denied, a fee waiver in an appeal of a Planning Commission decision to the Hood River City Council. The City of Hood River has one of Oregon’s most expensive appeal fees–it charges appellants the same amount it charges developers for their permits—resulting in fees as high as $5,000 compared to a state average of just $840. Brent Foster, attorney for the plaintiffs argued that the City’s appeal fees violated the Oregon Constitution’s “Justice without Purchase” clause that prohibits charging fees…

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