Tillamook locals compete in Schwingfests
Garibaldi Days ready to roll Page A2
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Headlight Herald
Tuesday, July 23 | Vol. 136, Issue 30
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Davis nominated by Democrats in HD 32
FEMA flood plain development restriction updates accelerated WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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July 15 letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that Oregon governments will be required to update flood plain development ordinances by the end of the year. Tillamook County Director of Community Development Sarah Absher discussed the options for updating ordinances and impacts on her department and development in the county with the board of county commissioners on July 17. Work on updating the requirements for participation in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood insurance program has been ongoing since a 2009 lawsuit by the Audubon Society, which claimed that the program was harming Coho Salmon in Oregon in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). FEMA commissioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to investigate the claim and in 2016, the fisheries service released a report saying that the flood insurance plan was causing a take of Coho and other salmonids that would lead to their eventual extinction. This meant that FEMA needed to update the requirements of partner governments in the flood insurance plan to comply with federal statute. But that work was delayed, first by a 2016 suit against FEMA by Oregonians for Floodplain Protection and then by a 2018 congressional delay of three years passed by former Congressman Peter Defazio. When the implementation stay expired in 2021, progress resumed on updating the program, with a proposal for updates released in 2023. The biological opinion called for the program to update the ordinances for building in flood plains to achieve zero net loss in three areas of floodplain functionality that help preserve fish habitat: flood storage, water quality and riparian vegetation. Under the new rules, any projects proposed in the 100-year floodplain would have to include mitigation efforts that would lead to no loss in any of the three fish habitat functions to receive building permits. The new regulations would allow agricultural, forestry and fishing activities in the floodplain but would make obtaining permits to place fill, add water impervious surfaces or remove vegetation more difficult. Since FEMA is a federal agency and not allowed to make land use laws, it will be relying on the localities it partners with in the flood insurance program to implement the new standards. Those partnering governments will need to adopt the ordinance updates to continue participating in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which covers more than $275 million of property in Tillamook County. Initially, FEMA officials had said that they would not require governments to update their codes until the proposal had undergone full NEPA review, expected in either 2025 or 2027, but that changed with the July 15 letter. Now, local governments have been told that instead they need to update their ordinances using one of three options provided by FEMA by the end of 2024. Those options are adopting a model ordinance from FEMA that includes a no-net-loss standard for new development, requiring developers to obtain habitat assessSee FEMA, Page A10
COURTESY PHOTO
Andy Davis COURTESY PHOTO
A group of Tillamook FFA members at the chapter’s banquet earlier this year.
Tillamook ag shines WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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ollowing several lean years, the Tillamook High School Agricultural Sciences and Industrial Technology program has experienced a resurgence over the past decade, culminating in its selection as Program of the Year by the Oregon Agricultural Teachers’ Association this year. Teachers Brooklyn and Hayden Bush have been two of the teachers at the core of the program’s recent success and recently sat down with the Headlight Herald during a two-day retreat for leadership of the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter. The pair said that the success had only been possible with strong support from the community, the dedication of other teachers in the program and most of all, the hard work of the students. “I think the students also are what help make this program stand out because we can only do so much,” Brooklyn said. “We can guide and say you should do this; you should do this in competitions or whatever it may be but ultimately, they’re the ones who have to put the work in and do it and so that’s a testament to them.” Tillamook High School’s (THS) agricultural program and
corresponding Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter have deep roots, with the FFA chapter dating back to 1949. In its early days, the program had a large presence at the Port of Tillamook Bay, including a working dairy farm. Through the years, the program had cycles of strong and weak performance, usually predicated on funding support from the school district, but in 2008, amid the great recession, the program saw its most drastic cuts and was forced to scale back to two parttime teachers. Around the same time, the statewide FFA made the decision to decouple from the Oregon Department of Education and move to a self-funded model. Taken in tandem, these developments seriously depleted the THS program, and by the time Brooklyn arrived in 2015 after graduating college, there were only 70 students enrolled. But the infusion of new energy quickly paid dividends, and in the first year of Brooklyn’s tenure, enrollment doubled. It doubled again two years later when Hayden was hired into an open position, leaving a job in the private sector. Hayden is a Tillamook local and graduate of the THS agriculture and FFA programs and said that returning to teach here was always his dream. “My dream, my
plan was always to come home, to my home school, home program,” Hayden said. After meeting Brooklyn while studying in Oregon State University’s agricultural education program, the couple moved back to Tillamook even though there was only one teaching position available. Hayden said that they decided that Brooklyn should apply because he believed she was a better teacher. “The reality is, and I’ll say this 900 times over, my wife is an exceptional teacher and ten times what I will ever be in the classroom,” Hayden said. The growth that the program began to experience with the Bushes arrival has continued apace in the years since and now more than 670 students are enrolled at THS, Tillamook Junior High School, the Wilson School and Trask River High School. Hayden said that the program growth was attributable in large part to a generational shift in educational philosophy ushered in by the arrival of new teachers. In past years, programs offered just six classes to students, but under the new system THS is offering 14 distinct classes. So, instead of offering four
See TILLAMOOK, Page A10
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recinct committee people from across Oregon’s 32nd House District gathered in Seaside on July 18, and selected Astoria City Councilor Andy Davis to represent the party in this November’s election. The selection followed candidate Logan Laity’s withdrawal from the race after moving out of the district and will see Davis face off against Republican incumbent Cyrus Javadi. Laity withdrew from the race on June 27, after running unopposed in the March primary election. In a statement announcing his withdrawal, Laity said that a work relocation was forcing the decision and pledged to donate $10,000 to the new Democratic candidate. Interested party members had until July 16 to submit their application for candidacy ahead of the July 18 convention held at the Bob Chisholm Community Center. Davis was the only candidate to apply by the deadline and he was nominated by the convention. Davis was elected to the Astoria city council in 2022, after moving to Oregon from Indiana in 2015. Employed as a research analyst for the Oregon Health Authority, Davis also serves on the board of the housing nonprofit Copeland Commons, as well as the Clatsop County budget committee and countywide citizen advisory committee for the county’s comprehensive plan update. Davis studied at Wabash College and Indiana University and ran unsuccessfully for the Clatsop County board of commissioners in 2018.
Developers eye Tillamook property for workforce housing WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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wo developers discussed the possibility of constructing 36 workforce apartments on a property to the west of Adventist Health Tillamook with the county’s housing commission at a meeting on July 18. Steven Wade said that he is working with the county and his partner, Clayton Taylor, to realize a project on site but that it will take considerable work to combine different financing elements and realize the project successfully. Wade and Taylor are targeting the property immediately to the west of Adventist Health Tillamook’s campus on Third Street, with a vision of turning the three-acre parcel into housing for workers at Adventist or other area businesses. The apartments would be spread across two, three-story buildings, with both one- and two-bedroom units, as well as a leasing office located in a separate
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building. The first hurdle for the project is the site’s status as a brownfields property, meaning that it has hazardous material concerns from a past use. Wade said that for the project to move forward, the county would need to remediate those issues and remove a house that is on the property as part of its brownfields program. A more considerable obstacle comes as Wade and Taylor consider funding for the project, which they estimate will cost around $8 million. Wade said that offering the units at rent levels affordable to individuals earning the area’s median income would not generate large enough returns to attract private investors as equity partners, leaving the project to rely on institutional investors. To secure institutional financing, developers will need to either put down 40% of the project’s cost up front, which is a nonstarter, or demonstrate the project’s viability
to banks by preleasing the site. Preleasing involves developers finding local businesses that agree to lease a certain number of apartments in a project for a set period, removing the risk of low occupancy. Wade said that he and Taylor plan to approach Adventist Health, the Tillamook County Creamery Association, county government and other local businesses about preleasing, and encouraged commission members to have other interested business owners reach out. Another critical element in making the project financially viable will be receiving funding support from government programs. According to Wade, the project will need to secure at least $1 million in grants, or forgivable or low-interest loans to make the economics pencil out. Wade mentioned Tillamook County’s multifamily housing grant program as a possible source of support, as well as the county’s property tax abatement program for workforce housing.
Wade said that he was optimistic about the project’s prospects and that he had already had conversations with the property’s owner, who had signaled a willingness to sell the property for housing development. Wade explained that he hoped that the Tillamook project would help his team get their foot in the door in the county and make future projects easier to achieve by building successful relationships with financiers and contractors. The Tillamook project is not the first that Wade and Taylor have attempted in the county, as they are also involved in the Maker Manzanita proposal, which envisions a two-phase project that would add 68 total units of workforce housing to that city. However, according to Wade, that project has recently hit a snag as promised state funding for infrastructure improvements fell through, leaving developers on the hook for almost $3 million in infrastructure spending to facilitate the development.
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