YACHATS — Yachats’ officials are holding their cards close to the vest as they continue to negotiate to stop a 20-acre clearcut near the base of the Yachats Ridge immediately south of the Yachats River bridge.
What is known publicly is that negotiating points set by landowner Clemente Rocha of San Jose have undergone several iterations and continue to do so after Yachats officials made an official financial offer Oct. 15 to delay the cut. The offer is based on leasing the trees on the 40-acre parcel after Rocha who initially considered selling the property, changed his mind and said he would not sell but would instead consider a 25-year lease of the trees.
After hiring a timber appraiser to determine the value of the timber, the city made an offer of $76,667 to Rocha and another $75,150 was made to logging contractor Joshua Howard of Dallas, Ore. Howard purchased the trees from Rocha in June.
Prior to the offer, Rocha said he wanted $450,000 and Howard said he wanted $250,000. Both have since countered the city’s offer.
The counter offers are “higher than we can afford given our other priorities,” Mayor Craig Berdie said during the city council’s Wednesday, Oct. 23 meeting.
“So we are leaving our current offer on the table for now,” Berdie said. “It’s an ongoing discussion but things could change very quickly. They are able to log at any point.”
Rocha also placed the option to sell back on the table, but Berdie said the price was “extraordinarily high compared to the appraised value.”
While I very much appreciate the efforts of the mayor and City Council to reach an agreement with Mr. Roca to save the trees and the view, I have to question the value of this latest proposal. My reading of it is that the city will give Mr. Roca and Mr. Howard almost $152,000 just so that in 25 years we get to go through this all over again. Granted we save the trees and the view but is that worth $152,000 when after 25 years of regrowth, most of it will be restored anyway? Not to mention the precedent we may set for other landowners in the area to seek a payment from the city to not log their property too. I never thought I would be the one to say this but maybe it would be better to just let them log it and we all move on. (Please note that I am speaking as a private citizen and not as a member of the city’s Planning Commission)
I feel that it is optimistic to say that in 25 years of regrowth most of the logged view will be restored anyway. That assumes that the property owner will make the significant investment of reforestation. It seems to me that Mr Rhoca is not in the tree farming business but is only looking to profit on the land given to him. Is it not more likely that he would clear cut the timber and then put the acreage up for sale? We may be looking at a devastated eyesore for many years.
They do not have to replace or replant. Look to the east of Yachats for the horrible scar left by a landowner who did a clear cut and choose not to replant as the fine is less than the cost of reforestation.
I agree with Marc. If it’s not possible to complete a deal to save the parcel in perpetuity, it would be better to leave the negotiation at this time. The win-win solution is for the land owner and the city (or another entity) to enter into an agreement that will pay the owner and the logger a sum (reasonably tied to the appraisal) that will result in the parcel not being logged for profit, ever. An agreement to conserve the parcel in perpetuity should permit thinning and improvement of the property solely to improve the health and safety of the forest and make the area more useful for approved recreation activities.
The beauty of Oregon is our forestry, when we choose to leave a forested hill intact we have to consider the risks we may also be placing on the community with the heightened risks of fire. As seen in Otis where the entire community was destroyed. What the city should be negotiating is the reforestation and not to payoff the contractor and landowner. Creating a much healthier future forest that would be safer and still provide the charm.