[Skamania] 💧 Rezone Denied, Water Running Short - Stevenson Sept '26 Round-up

Stevenson's City Council turned down the Attwell Road rezone its Planning Commission had recommended. Nobody spoke in favor, and the owners never came. Plus a plan to share planners with Skamania County and North Bonneville, a water system with about 40 hookups left, and a pump that didn't start.

In This Episode

• Cabinet of curiosities: the man with the lantern
• The Attwell Road rezone, from recommendation to denial
• A staff correction on the environmental review
• Sharing planners with the county and North Bonneville
• City administrator interviews
• The EDC contract and its three-number typo
• The pump station overflow
• A water hookup outside city limits, and 40 left inside
• Backwoods Brewing moves to a state permit
• Cascade transmission, from the siting council

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The man with the lantern, from the Columbia Gorge Museum: https://www.columbiagorge.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Wills_Peter_Samuel_Corwine.pdf
• Our August Stevenson round-up: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/who-actually-plans-stevenson-august-26-round-up/
• Stevenson agendas, packets and video: https://www.ci.stevenson.wa.us/meetings
• The Sept. 17 council video: https://vimeo.com/1227930016
• EFSEC's Cascade Renewable Transmission page: https://efsec.wa.gov/facilities/cascade-renewable-transmission

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey there, and welcome back to Open Gorge. It's our Halloween month, so before the meetings, another little something from my cabinet of curiosities. Today, we go back to 1904. A man named PSC Wills ran Stevenson's first telephone line. He piped the town's first water from Scar Springs. He opened the Stevenson Hot Springs, and he hoarded old newspapers. Neighbors remembered him heading out in the evening after a full day's work with his sack of tools and fittings and carrying a lantern to work on the water lines. In 1928, a fire in his house all but destroyed his newspapers, and in 1937, at 78, in the old Dumet store building, it was there, unfortunately, in another fire that he passed away. But if you ask some of the longtime locals in Stevenson, late at night you can still see his lantern flickering and drifting through the streets, making his way dutifully to his next job. That story comes from Daphne Ramsey's stories the Tombstones Do Not Tell. Stevenson's water lines also come again to haunt us in this episode. Now on to September's business. This one's all Stevenson. September had one council meeting, and the Planning Commission's meeting was canceled. But that meeting settled something we've been following since July. So let's start there. You might remember the rezone on Atwell Road. It's about half an acre at 201 southwest Atwell. The owners asked to move it from suburban residential, the city's lowest density home zone, up to R3, which allows apartments. They said they want to build their own retirement home there, plus a few rentals. Five to seven units in all. R3 would allow up to ten. In August, the Planning Commission recommended saying yes, but only under something called the R3 overlay. It's a set of design rules that requires space between buildings, shared open space. It keeps density the same, but makes it harder to pack the units in. The typed August minutes are out now, and the vote was four to one. Chair Ann Keesey was the no. On September 17th, the question went to City Council. And here's the detail worth knowing. A motion printed on the council agenda wasn't the commission's version. It was plain R3, no overlay. A neighbor, Bernie Bacon, caught that in a letter to a council. Then came the public hearing. Every single speaker was against it. Elizabeth Galloway has lived on the street for about 16 years, and she said when you turn onto it, your blood pressure goes down, and that a denser lot there would be jarring. Mary Repar pointed as a city zone study which found Stevenson hasn't come close to using the R3 land it already has. Michael Perry noted more than 20 empty R3 lots in town, though it's really important to note that those don't have the same owners, and having owners for lots that are willing to put in the work for a project is certainly a different question from what zoning the lots might have. So three more neighbors sent in letters that were opposed. Nobody spoke in favor and the owners didn't come. A council member asked whether they had ever appeared before council or the commission. The answer was no, only their architect and consultant had. A council member moved to deny the reasons given, no demonstrated need, the character of the neighborhood, the fact that the current zoning already allows an accessory dwelling, and a comprehensive plan that dates back to 2013. A motion carried on a voice vote. How each council member voted isn't public yet, but the minutes should be in the October packet. One more thing from that hearing. The staff report said an environmental review decision under the state's CEPA law had already been issued. The county's planner, Josh Nieeblock, told council that line was a mistake. No decision had been made yet because the commission's version was different from what the owners had applied for. And Neblock agreed that if the rezone was denied, no review would be needed. So why does this keep happening? Here's the short version. The city's long range map marks that area for high density. The zoning on the ground says the opposite. Staff said that out loud. That's quote, where the conflict is arising, unquote. Until the city updates its plan, every request like this one turns into a fight over that gap. Which brings us to the planning itself. And as you can imagine, this is quite an issue as even though there might be abundant lots that can offer higher density zoning, it hasn't necessarily translated yet to an abundance of apartments. In August, we asked who actually plans Stevenson. In September, the mayor's written report gave the city's answer. The city planner job is still vacant. The county planner is Stevenson's main contact, and that costs about $3,000 per month. Now the mayor is exploring a one-year deal for 2027 to share planning services with Scamania County and North Bonneville. Nothing is agreed yet. The idea is that Stevenson keeps setting its own rules and county staff do the technical work. Stevenson and North Bonneville actually shared a planner 50-50 about 20 years ago. This is called an interlocal agreement and can be a really great way for different counties and cities to save money. There's a joint meeting of the council and the Planning Commission plan for October to sort out next year's priorities. And the critical areas update, which the city and county are doing together, should reach council in October or November. Moving on to staffing at City Hall. The mayor says council screens city administrator candidates the day before the meeting. Interviews are set for October 13th. The community meet and greet afterwards. There could be a special meeting in October to make the pick. You'll remember the first search ended when sadly the chosen candidate turned the job down. Next, a contract with a typo in it. Council approved next year's contract with the Scamania Economic Development Council, $31,662. That covers a per resident fee, a small business advisor position, and a lobbying firm, CFM Advocates, whose contract the EDC runs. But the payment section lists three different numbers in one sentence, council members caught it, and it'll be fixed before the EDC's director, Kevin Waters, signs. Now over to Public Works, and one very rough night. The recoding at the Rock Creek Pump Station is done, but on the last day, the public works director said a temporary pump failed on a weak battery and its alarm went with it. The backup pump didn't start, and sewage backed up for several hours and overflowed a little into the county parking lot. Crews found it the next morning, treated it with lime, hauled it off, and laid fresh gravel. The report to the State Department of Ecology is done. Then there's water. Doug Loveless and Gudrun Staffelmeyer asked for a city water hookup for an old house they bought just outside town. Right now it runs on creek water that isn't safe to drink. They offered to pay for everything. The Public Works Director explained why that's still hard. Stevenson's code from 1981 sets a long list of conditions. You need an annexation petition on file, a house that existed when the rule was written, and a sworn statement that there's no other safe water. But here's the bigger number. The director says the city has about 40 water collections left under its current plan. A new water plan starts in early 2027, and the council hears the long-term water options in December. One more item from Wastewater. Mary Repart asked about a notice that Backwoods Brewing had applied for a discharge permit. The public works director said the move from a city permit to a state ecology permit was a director's own call. For the last year and a half, the director said, quote, we have no idea what Backwoods has been sending us, unquote. A state permit means state testing, so the city will know. A quick word from downtown. Kelly O'Malley McKee of the Stevenson Downtown Association shared a survey with 163 responses. People want more businesses, public restrooms, and fewer empty storefronts. And parking. And actually, this is not too unusual. Parking reform has been a really big deal in a lot of different cities because often there are small, irregular, historic lots that are that could be utilized for small businesses and to keep all the vibrant amenities that a town wants running. Often it's not as much of a necessity to have as much parking as old code used to require. So, finally, the Cascade Transmission line, the one proposed for the Bed of Columbia. Councilmember Jeff Breckel sits on the state's Energy Sighting Council as Stevenson's member for that project. We'll be reporting in for that FSAC meeting later in this month. Breckel reported on its September meeting. The state, Breckel said, only needs to know whether a local rule flat out prohibits a line like this. When Breckel called that, quote, a tremendously different question, unquote, from what cities thought they were being asked. And the Sighting Council's decision doesn't reach National Scenic Area land, which would need its own approval. So what's next? Findings of fact from the Atwell Denial, which start the appeal clock, city administrator interviews on October 13th, the Planning Commission on October 12th, Council on October 15th, and a joint session on planning sometime in October. For all the details and links, check out the written newsletter at Schemania Dispatch.com. You've been listening to a production of open gorge.org, the home of the Schemania Dispatch, and the Click a Taddler. 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 Schemania Dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash open gorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.