The Dalles City Council met last night covered a lot of ground, as it was the last meeting before the council takes its annual August recess. Barring the need for a special session in August, councilors won’t meet again until September 9. To cover everything needed, the meeting went beyond its three-hour length, requiring a council vote to extend the meeting another 15 minutes.
The majority of the meeting was taken up with a hearing appealing a decision by the City Planning Commission to approve the Cascade Commons project. That’s the plan to demolish the old Thomas Motors/Griffith Motors building across from Sawyer’s Hardware and build in its place a five-story building with commercial business on the ground floor and apartments above.
The hearing opened with a bit of a surprise as Mayor Rich Mays asked a question that traditionally results in silence and got this reply from Dan Meader, the person making the appeal:
“Does anyone in the audience wish to challenge the qualifications of any members of the city council? I’m sorry to do this; I don’t like it but yeah, I have to. Councilors McGlothlin and Long — I respect them a great deal, but they serve on the Urban Renewal Board, and less than a year ago, they voted to grant the application $1.17 million dollars. That, to me, is a pretty strong commitment to the project. I am entitled to a fair and partial tribunal, so I ask they recuse themselves.”
In the discussion that followed, city attorney Jonathan Kara, and special land-use attorney Chris Crean [correct spelling] cited the requirements for recusal in such cases and said the situation did not rise to that level. Councilors ultimately rejected the appeal, so the Cascade Commons project will continue.
In other action, councilors approved a pair of change orders on two FAA grants for the airport, a hangar lease and a resolution making transfers in the budget. Councilors also will discussed various code amendments for short term rentals. They included such things as limiting the total number of short-term rentals for no more than 1 percent of the households in The Dalles, tying parking requirements to the number of bedrooms, and requiring any new application be at least 300 feet away from any existing businesses.