Yachats Planning Commission OKs permit for 5-space RV park on Fireside Motel property to house temporary workers

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

The Yachats Planning Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to allow a small recreational vehicle park on a portion of the Fireside Motel property to temporarily house seasonal workers.

A conditional use permit sought by motel owner/operator Drew Roslund and his business partners would create five gravel pads and hookups for RVs in a grove of spruce trees on the east edge of the Fireside property.

In testimony to the commission, Roslund said the RV area is not the best use of the large open space, but a temporary solution to a well-documented shortage of hospitality workers and workforce housing that is limiting business at the Fireside and Overleaf motels.

He encouraged the commission to put restrictions on its use “to protect the character of Yachats” and said he has already begun investigating the possibility of building workforce housing on a portion of the large, open property within 2-3 years.

“RV parking is not the highest and best use of this property,” Roslund said. “The owners, including me, do not accept this as a permanent fixture on the property. There is ultimately going to be much higher density on this property.”

The commission’s nearly three-hour hearing on the issue bounced between details of the proposal, concerns of neighbors over possible drainage issues, and larger concerns over the lack of affordable housing in Yachats and the central Oregon coast.

In approving the conditional use permit, the Planning Commission put a handful of restrictions on the development and its use, including:

• Permitted for two years, with three possible extensions of one year each. Roslund asked for a five-year permit.
• A maximum occupancy of 10 people;
• That no park tenants can work elsewhere;
• Screening where needed on the south side of the RV park where it abuts neighbors on Coolidge Lane. There is already a 30-foot wide buffer between the neighbors and the RV park that is part of a large “flag lot” to the west.
• Widening a short gravel road to the park off the Fireside’s entrance to 20 feet.

Opposed to delaying decision

While RV parks are referenced in Yachats’ municipal code, there is no other allowance for them, said Katherine Guenther, the city’s planner and now interim city manager. But the city allows a conditional use for manufactured “dwelling” parks in areas zoned for motels, Guenther said.

If it wanted to approve the permit, Guenther said the commission needed to decide if an RV park and a manufactured “dwelling” park were similar enough.

At least four commissioners said they were satisfied the two uses were similar enough.

Commissioner Jacqueline Danos, who wrote a letter to the commission saying the city needed to take other steps to first deal with housing issues, cast the only vote against the permit. She said Tuesday that she was worried about setting a precedent for RV parks in Yachats and asked to delay the decision until the city’s attorney could look at the issue and more residents had a chance to weigh in on the request.

“I understand why Drew needs to do this,” Danos said. “The city has done nothing on housing.”

But others opposed any delay and said the fact that such parks need a minimum of two acres and conditions put on Roslund’s development – and any similar, future requests — can deal with livability issues.

“We’re adults. We can make a responsible decision,” said Commissioner Christine Orchard.

Oregon law says the whole conditional use process – including any appeal to the City Council — needs to take place in 120 days from when the permit was requested, which was May 13.

Two nearby property owners wrote in opposition to the request. One couple, Norman and Shelley Cimon of LaGrande who own an adjacent vacation home, said the development could lead to drainage issues — later disputed by Roslund and one planning commissioner — and objected to piecemeal development of the property.

“I’d like to see Mr. Roslund build it out … a robust development,” said Shelley Cimon. “But it’s a slippery slope when you grant a conditional use permit for a piecemeal development.”

Two others – including the developer of Yachats’ only low-income subsidized housing project – testified in favor.

Can’t wait for long-term solution

Roslund estimates the RV park will cost $80,000 to develop, including removing 26 of 200 Spruce trees. The RVs would sit rock and gravel pads and be connected to water, sewer and electrical utilities that once serviced a house at that spot.

He said other hospitality businesses around the country get seasonal workers by offering sites for RV travelers willing to do front desk, landscaping or maintenance work in exchange for a free place to stay. He said a trial offer on www.Workamper.com got many responses, including one traveler who wanted to camp in the site and work until the park was developed.

“I could use 10 additional staff right now,” he said. “We are doing this for the short term … there’s no way others would do this unless it was for the long term. This is just to get us some staff.”

Roslund said motel managers will interview applicants, check references, look at online reviews of their stays elsewhere, and “if an employee does not work out … they leave.”

Roslund said although the Fireside and Overleaf motels were not renting some rooms because they lacked staff, the cost of converting motel rooms into apartments with kitchens was prohibitive. But he said later this month there will be housing for staff in a rental house in Overleaf Village and he is considering changes in the Overleaf event center to provide housing.

“RV parking is a temporary solution until we and/or Yachats create more permanent solutions to the workforce housing problem,” he said. “I and the other business owners cannot want for 5-10 years for this problem to be ameliorated or solved by the city or county.”

To read the RV park application, the city’s staff report on the proposal, and letters for and against, go here.

To read Drew Roslund’s statement to the Planning Commission go here.