By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS — Thirteen months ago, Luke and Jocelyn Glaze of Salem bought two commercial lots along U.S. Highway 101 downtown Yachats that had been an unfinished, foundation-only eyesore for more than a decade.
As real estate investors and developers, they planned to continue with the idea originally planned by former owner Doug Sowden of Eugene — build three apartments over two retail spaces. They found a contractor and using their own funds went to work building out the project now visible to anyone passing by.
But when they went to get financing to continue, Luke Glaze told the Yachats Planning Commission on Tuesday, banks told him they weren’t interested in the residential-over-retail concept in Yachats.
“All of them — and I’ve asked about 20 — have concerns with mixed-use,” Glaze said.
So Glaze asked the commission last week to change minimum lot size restrictions on the property to allow the two first-floor commercial spaces to be converted into long- or short-term apartments or to sell as condominiums.
But without the change in order to get bank loan soon, he said, the project — framed, mostly enclosed and roofed — could fail.
“I’m trying to keep my options open,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty I the market.”
The commission voted 5-1 to reduced the minimum lot size necessary to turn the commercial/residential property into a multi-family project with five dwellings. Commissioner Jacqueline Danos voted no, saying the loss of downtown commercial space overshadowed her desire for more housing in the city.
In a hearing that took more than an hour, there was a lot of discussion about parking — there is more available than required — and where a west-facing garbage can area will be located. But commission chair John Theilacker and city planner Katherine Guenther disagreed repeatedly over his desire to see updated building plans.
Theilacker said he was uncomfortable approving the change without seeing plans. Guenther and Glaze said nothing in the original plans are changing except to install residential doorways in the two ground floor units instead of larger commercial doors.
“I have no problem with additional units,” Theilacker said. “I just need to see a plan that’s up to date.”
But Guenther repeatedly countered that it was outside the scope of the planning commission to review building plans — Lincoln County building officials do that.
The commission has every right to ask the applicant for added information, Guenther said, but in this case there’s no exterior change to the design of the building.
“The question is converting commercial to residential,” she said.
The commission eventually voted to approve the change, but asked Guenther to get an updated building plan with areas marked for parking and garbage collection.
In other business last week the commission:
- After a 60-minute hearing, voted 6-0 to approve a conditional use permit for a bed and breakfast operation by Douglas Kraus, 355 Horizon Hill Road. Kraus proposes to rent one or two bedrooms a few times a month when family or friends are not using the downstairs portion of his home.
- Agreed to send a strongly worded letter to the city council objecting to returning the city planner to working two days a week. The commissioners said the previous council had agreed to have a planner work four days a week and that more than 16 hours a week was needed to get everything done. Until last week, Guenther had been working on a combination 2-year-old planner/interim city manager contract paying her $84,000 a year. She and departing city manager Heide Lambert could not come to agreement on new hours or pay, so Guenther reverted to two days a week as allowed under terms of the old contract.
