[All-Gorge] 🍫 A Craving for "Snickers" - Gorge Commission May ‘26

A tense day for the Columbia River Gorge Commission as legal counsel issues a stern warning over public records, while state leaders from Oregon and Washington deliver a "cold shower" on the upcoming budget cycle. This episode covers the May 12, 2026, Commission meeting at Elk Ridge Golf Course.

In This Episode:

• The ADU Debate: A new working group is formed to look at Accessory Dwelling Units.
• Climate Crosswalks: How the Gorge is aligning with new Executive Orders from Governor Kotek.
• Vital Signs: Why the Deschutes River is losing its status as a cold-water refuge for salmon.
• The "Data Center" Rhetoric: Residents and tribes push back against new transmission lines.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Official Meeting Materials & Video
• The Vital Signs Data Hub

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you spend any time around Gorge Policy, you've probably heard people talking about Snickers. No, they aren't passing out candy bars. They're talking about SNCRs. Or the scenic, natural, cultural, and recreational resources we're all here to protect. But at this past month's Gorge Commission meeting, the vibe was anything but sweet. Before the lunch break, Commission's legal counsel Jeff took to the floor for what can only be described as a legal scolding. He warned the commissioners they've been too slow in responding to staff requests for public record searches. Jeff didn't mince words. He reminded the room that if you use your personal phone or email for commission business, the records from those accounts may be considered in the public interest and part of the public record required to be disclosed under both federal and state public records acts. He noted that ignoring these requests isn't just a headache for staff. It creates a massive legal liability that could get the commission sued. And speaking of liability, the financial outlook is getting lean. Washington State Representative Kevin Waters dropped by to warn that Olympia is staring at a potential $9 billion deficit. Meanwhile, Oregon has directed all agencies to submit, quote, revenue neutral, unquote, budgets. What that means is that the commission finally got $75,000 for new online permitting software. They can't afford to bring their part-time staff up to full-time status, though. The agency is essentially being asked to do more with less for the foreseeable future. Turning now to the hot button issue of housing, Underwood resident Sally Newell, who actually served on the commission back in the 90s, brought up a major point of friction. She argued that the Gorge's plan to, quote, channel development into urban areas, unquote, is hitting a wall because towns like Carson don't even have a sewer system yet. Here's her key warning. Sally urged the commission not to solve this by opening up the general management area to more development. Instead, she argued that the focus must remain on fixing the infrastructure in our existing towns so they can house the people who, quote, pour the beer and make the beds, unquote, in the gorge, without sacrificing protected rural lands. Now I know it sounds like a technical detail to bring up sewer, but here's why sewer systems, or the lack of one, is a total deal breaker for housing. Think of it as a sewer to sidewalk ratio. To build the kind of affordable housing the gorge needs, like multi-story apartments, townhomes, or even small cottage courts, you typically have to have a municipal sewer system as capacity that large can be challenging on septic. If a town doesn't have those pipes in the ground, every single new home is required of its own individual septic tank and a large drain field, which already has to be thousands of square feet just for a single family home. It takes up a massive amount of space. You end up with a single house sitting on a whole acre of land where you could have had, say, 10 or 20 apartments. Without that infrastructure, our urban areas are basically forced to stay rural. So even if the zoning says yes to housing, the plumbing says no. It's an invisible wall. Until Carson or other gorge towns can afford to fund those multimillion dollar sewer upgrades, the land use goals for, quote, high density growth, unquote, meant as the trade-off for restrictions outside those areas, remain physically impossible to meet. And with that reality on the table, the Economic Vitality Committee is moving forward with a new working group to explore accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, to see if they can provide a low impact path for workforce housing to relieve that pressure valve. On the climate front, staff is busy, quote unquote, crosswalking the Gorge plans with new mandates from Oregon Governor Kotek and the Washington State Resilience Strategy. But not everyone is buying the buzzwords. Commissioner Laura Brennan-Bissell expressed concern about the state's climate talk as, quote, all hat and no cattle, unquote, calling for more focus on tangible agricultural issues like how synthetic fertilizers are impacting the river. Finally, we heard significant pushback against two massive regional energy projects, the Goldendale Pump Storage Project and the Cascade Renewable Transmission Cable. Officially, these are renewable energy projects designed to move power to major cities in the Northwest, but local residents and tribal representatives have started calling them, quote, corporate data center projects, unquote. While these lines definitely serve the broader public grid, it's clear that locals are actually asking: is the regional benefit worth the damage to cultural sites or resources through installation? The Yakima Nation and many longtime residents, no amount of green energy is worth the loss of irreplaceable cultural landscapes. There's a lot of data to dig into this month, especially regarding the warming temperatures in the Columbia that threatened the salmon. You can find all the links to the Vital Signs data hub and the raw meeting materials in our show notes. Commission's next stop is a presentation to Hood River County on May 20th. And you've been listening to a production of open gorge.org, home of the Scamania Dispatch and the Click of Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to ScamaniaDispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.