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Some Realities of Landslides and Other Mass Movements on the Landscape

Duane Slide 2013
Slide on Duane and 5th St in Astoria in 2013.

I. GENERAL CONCEPTS OF MASS MOVEMENTS

Mass movements are important geomorphic processes in many parts of the world.  Landslides and other mass movements can occur whenever the particular landscape is unstable.  Land Stability relates to the resistance to movement.  The term best used to describe this resistance is ‘Shear Strength’.  The factors involved in shear strength include: level land; solid material [rock]; compact material such as clay or sand; non-expanding clays such as illite; vegetation cover [trees, grass, etc.]; good internal drainage so that water does not accumulate within the material; and typically conformity of material [for example all sand].

Land Instability relates to slope failure and the movement of materials.  The term best used to describe the susceptibility to slope failure is ‘Shear Stress’.  The factors involved with increasing shear stress include: steep slopes; unconsolidated, loose material; unconformity of different materials [for example sand over rotted rock over solid rock]; cracks or joints in rocks; expanding clays such as vermiculite or montmorillonite; loss of vegetation [especially the binding effect of roots]; saturation with water [for example springs or heavy rainfall events]; added weight such as structures or roads; undercutting of slope such as a roadcut; heating and cooling; wetting and drying; and freezing and thawing.

The basic causes of mass movement relate to the excess of stresses to resistance.  In other words, when shear stress [instability] becomes greater than shear strength [stability] a slope will fail.  Increased stress may come from added materials from upslope that can cause rapid failure.  Heavy rains can increase pore pressures to expand or push material away from the slope face.  Such movements can be related solely to a heavy rainstorm, BUT most often there is a lag time from the rain event to the infiltration of rainwater to the buildup of pressures in the material to the slope movement.  The author has seen such a ‘lag’ on numerous occasions in St. Vincent and Jamaica in the West Indies and even here in Oregon.

The importance of any given mass movement ‘event’ is determined by:  the amount of energy and material involved; how often it happens; what occurs between events to stabilize the slope; and the timing and size of the event.  In other words, how much is the event able to transform the landscape – from a major ‘slide’ to a few rocks tumbling down a hillside, AND what impact does it have on roads, structures, and human safety.

Mass movement of any material on slopes is under the influence of gravity and can be rapid or slow.  Rapid movements generally can be explained by such events as earthquakes; vibrations from road traffic or machinery; weight of water; lubrication by water; removal of material at the bottom of a slope; or the weight of buildings and other structures.  Often the sudden alteration of a landscape is caused by high amounts of precipitation.  Bedrock can give way on a joint or fault or crack.  Such failure often is related to the bedrock layers sloping in the same direction as the general land surface slope.  The failure is compounded if the rock layers are composed of different minerals and textures of materials [such as a combination of mudstone, sandstone, and basalt].

Unconsolidated materials can experience shallow or deep landslides depending on the character of the materials involved.  Deep slides are the result of shear stress increasing with depth and exceeding the shear strength.  The material gives way as the mass becomes unstable.  Other natural factors may be of lesser importance overall, but do contribute to movement in addition to precipitation.  Freezing, heating, and wetting processes all contribute to the expansion of unconsolidated materials and the pushing up of these materials from the surface.  The ‘pushing’ often is uneven because the mixture in the material may freeze, wet, or heat in variable ways depending on the size of the individual particles and the minerals involved.  As these same materials thaw, dry, or cool the materials contract in varying degrees again depending on the particle sizes and minerals.  Thus, materials are more loosened on the sloping landscape and subtly moved down slope by gravity alone.

Different terms are recognized depending on the types of movements that occur.  ‘Falls’ describe breaks at joint planes or cleavages in rocks and result in the breaking off of rock faces on a hillside leaving a steep, exposed cliff with fractured bedrock.  Angular blocks and slabs pile up at the base of the slope.  Trees and other plants are broken and scarred by the rocks.  ‘Slumps’ usually occur where there are differing shear strength layers and failure comes in the layer or layers where shear stress exceeds shear strength.  A steep back wall exposes the rock or unconsolidated material.  The movement often is a back rotation that uproots trees and other plants and tips them back toward the slope.  ‘Flows’ usually need water that can come naturally from rainfall or springs and also from irrigation or watering of lawns.  The flow has a lobate form that buries ground plants and soils and can bend trees.  ‘Slides’ slip over one or more surfaces and are helped by wetness [can be slippery or solution of minerals], earthquakes, and/or steep slopes.  A concave scar exposes rock or other material at the back of the slide.  The displaced mass may move a few feet to more than a mile downslope depending on the size of the event.  Trees and other plants are broken and bent.  ‘Creeps’ usually are quite slow, deforming the slope and tilting objects on the surface.  Tree roots usually are bent to reveal the down slope movement.  Otherwise, creeps are the most subtle mass movements.  However, creeps can expand into something more dramatic if the shear stress increases for any reason.

Some examples help to illustrate the complexities of mass movements.  In 1970 ‘rock avalanches’ attributed to large slope failures killed 18,000 people in Peru.  Experts described complex landslides involving the detachment and flow of masses of rock from a cliff face or steep slope.  At first it was a simple transfer of rock on a planar surface.  The rock rapidly disintegrated as it fell away from the cliff and soon became a flowing body of highly fragmented debris that was deposited as an ‘apron’ beyond the foot of the failed slope.

In a 1982 study of mass movements in the Oregon Coast Range, the kinds of movements varied with the materials and their mineralogy.  ‘Debris avalanches’ occurred in non-expanding clays with low water-holding capacity.  ‘Creep’ was attributed to shear stress and deformation of materials.  ‘Slumping’ was attributed to shear stress along failure surfaces.  Both creep and slumping mostly happened with expandable clays [smectite and montmorillonite].  ‘Earthflows’ were slow and deep with moisture involved and with mixed mineralogy.  Poorly crystallized minerals with ‘gels and coats’ on the mineral grains resulted in abundant pores [water present] that accounted for a fluid behavior.

No matter the type of mass movement, the results seem to create three distinct slope segments.  The ‘Detachment Zone’ often shows a sudden failure along a surface leaving a concave shaped form sometimes referred to as a ‘slump scar’.  The ‘Transport Zone’ involves fragments transformed into a debris flow or fall or creep.  Often there is high velocity movement and little debris is deposited here.  The ‘Depositional Zone’ is where the material loses its momentum and comes to rest when it reaches a gentle slope [often the valley bottom or a near level street].

Once the materials come to rest, the upper slope material [detachment zone] and lower slope material [depositional zone] re-adjust to slope angles of stability.  These angles, called ‘threshold angles’ or ‘angles of repose’, vary with the type of materials transferred or remaining.  In general, the steepest threshold angles are in jointed and fractured rocks [around 45 degrees] and the lowest or gentlest are in clays [around 10 degrees].  Sandy slopes [dunes], talus slopes [broken rock debris], and colluvial slopes [finer gravity transported material] have moderate threshold angles [ranging from 20 to 35 degrees].  Thus, even after a major mass movement event, smaller and still significant further movements can be expected until all the affected materials stabilize at their threshold angle[s].

Evidence of instability and the presence or threat of mass movement events can be observed in any unstable or mass movement prone landscape.  Some of the best evidence includes:  a steep upper slope [greater than 45 degrees]; fresh exposure of soil or other loose material; lobe shaped forms, especially on lower slopes; bent or scarred trees; tilted fence posts and telephone/electric poles; seepage of water along the slope [springs, etc. may indicate a convergence of sub-surface water from different sources]; water drains [gutters] and lawn sprinklers; unconformities of materials [loose over compact] on a slope; buried soil layers; cracks in foundations; and slumping ‘arcs’ of pavement on streets.

II. MASS MOVEMENT REALITIES APPLIED TO ASTORIA

A good place to start in looking at the types of materials and their distributions throughout Astoria is the Soil Survey of Clatsop County [U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, 1988].  The report contains descriptions of all the soil types that are found in and around Astoria, airphoto maps of the distribution of each soil type, and evaluations of the soil types for varied uses based on the soil properties.  One caution about using this soil survey report is that the boundaries between soil types are somewhat general.  From investigative work by the author, more detailed soil sampling and soil type identification are needed for evaluations of specific sites [such as individual property lots or exact areas affected by mass movements].

There are two main groups of soil types that are of importance in Astoria related to mass movements.  One group consists of ‘terraces’ on the more gently sloping landscapes.  The soils of this group are called Knappa loams and Walluski silt loams.  These soil types occur on level to gentle slopes [up to about 10 degrees].  The location of these soil types in Astoria suggests that these materials include colluvium and thus are a part of the ‘depositional zone’ that was described in part I above.  The general locations of these materials are:  on the northside of Astoria eastward from about 5th Street to east of the Performing Arts Center and southward from about Franklin Avenue to Irving Avenue; from the Millpond area eastward to about 37th Street and southward from Marine Drive/Lief Erikson Drive to Irving Avenue; and on the southside northward of the Old Youngs Bay Bridge, mostly west from 7th Street to about Dresden Street and upslope to about McClure Avenue in the eastern sector and to about Niagara Avenue [Former Gray Elementary School area] and Alameda Avenue in the western sector.

The other group consists of colluvium [“soil material, rocks, or both, moved by creep, slide, or local wash and deposited at the base of steep slopes”].  These soil types occur on slopes ranging from near level to 45 degrees and are the soil materials most likely to undergo mass movement again.  The soils of this group are called Ecola silt loams, Templeton silt loams, and Svensen loams.  The Ecola and Templeton soils are derived from siltstone debris and the Svensen soils are derived from sandstone debris.  The general location of the Svensen materials is:  north of Olney Avenue to about Niagara Avenue and east of 7th Street including the area of Astoria Middle School, Shively Park, Coxcomb Hill [Astoria Column], and the Transfer Station/future John Warren football stadium.  The general location of the Ecola and Templeton materials is the rest of the higher portions of Astoria including: the areas upslope from Alameda Avenue and West Bond Street in the west; upslope from Niagara Avenue [near the old Gray Elementary School] and Astoria High School, McClure Avenue [west of 7th Street], Klaskanine Avenue [east of 7th Street] in the south and extending beyond the water reservoir [at Williamsport Road] and wrapping around the south and east sides of Coxcomb Hill; east of the Astoria-Megler Bridge upslope from about West Duane Street to about 5th Street and then upslope following Irving Avenue eastward to join the sector wrapping around the east side of Coxcomb Hill.

The locations of these soil types in Astoria suggest that these are materials in the ‘detachment zone’, the ‘transport zone’, and parts of the ‘depositional zone’ that was described in part I above.  These soil types also represent the landscape above the detachment zone that is very vulnerable to further mass movement as the material either drops off a cliff face or continues to move seeking to achieve the ‘threshold angle’ or ‘angle of repose’ discussed in part I above.  These soil types in the deposition zone also are subject to further movement because they are loose and may be in the process of re-adjusting to reach a threshold angle.

The areas mapped as these soil types include: portions that are very shallow to ‘soft’ bedrock; significant portions that have rotted siltstone, sandstone, or even basalt over this bedrock; and portions that have more than 5 feet of unconsolidated colluvium material over this bedrock.  Thus, it is hard to predict where mass movements may occur or how much material might move because of the uneven, irregular depths to the underlying bedrock.  However, some general traits of these soil types and their materials can be stated.  All of them have increasing clay content with depth.  This clay may not be an expanding clay, but it does hold larger amounts of water which allows the material to be ‘lubricated’ and to move.  Also, the increased weight of this stored water can contribute to elevated shear stress.  All of these soils are described in the soil survey as being vulnerable to collapse of roadcuts and being “subject to sliding and slumping because it is very plastic and underlain by highly fractured bedrock”.  Also, the soil survey cautions that limits to  ‘development’ for recreation sites, building sites [including dwellings], and ‘local streets and roads’ are ‘severe’ due to the slopes and potential mass movements.

In conclusion, about two-thirds of Astoria is subject to mass movements of varying kinds.  The extent and severity of any one event is hard to predict.  However, the soil survey report and its maps provide a good starting point to show where movements can be expected; the survey was used by the author to generate the discussion presented in part II.

Another source of information to be used for future mass movement considerations in Astoria is the new data and maps of landslides released by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) [released in October 2013].  The DOGAMI scientists used LIDAR, a laser-mapping technology to locate 120 landslides within the Astoria city limits; 83 of these have moved in the last 150 years [and more or less confirm the information in the soil survey report].  The scientists then used the inventory of mapped landslides to create landslide susceptibility maps.  About 55 percent of Astoria is classified as “highly susceptible to shallow slides” where movement occurs along a plane less than 9.5 feet deep.  About 37 percent of the city is “highly susceptible to deep landslides” where movement occurs along a plane at depths greater than 15 feet.

III. SOME MASS MOVEMENTS IN ASTORIA’S PAST

The following discussion is not intended to cover all the history of landslides and other mass movements in Astoria.  Rather it is written to illustrate that many parts of Astoria have experienced land movement events – some very large and some small.  The discussion also will point out that there have been important changes to the infrastructure of parts of Astoria because of these previous mass movements.  The discussion uses newspaper articles and photos from the mid-1950s [some of which refer to earlier events] and newspaper articles and photos from about 2003 to the present [some of which also refer to earlier events].

Two particular areas seem to be the focus of mass movements that occurred from about 1949 through 1954 according to a collection of accounts in Astoria and Portland newspapers that the author was able to look at recently.  One location centered on the north side of Coxcomb Hill and the other on West Commercial Street at 1st Street.  On the north side of Coxcomb Hill there were several different events.  Starting in 1949 and extending into 1950 an earth flow happened on the hill between 18th and 21st Streets and affected 23 homes from Irving to Grand.  By October 1950 area residents were relieved to know that 17 inches of rain in that month “failed to cause any new movement of the Coxcomb hill slide which crawled down the slope for many weeks last winter”.  However, in November 1950 there was a “slight movement of earth” about 50 feet above the top of the Coxcomb hill slide area.  This movement was dismissed by city engineers as “merely an adjustment of the ground” and “not connected” to the Coxcomb slide itself.  “The old slide area remained stationary… and a drainage system installed there last summer [1950] by the city was working well”.  In 1952 there was another slide in the same location on Irving Avenue near 22nd Street where several houses were wrecked and “five were moved by owners to other parts of Astoria”.  In December 1953 a mass movement began in the same area of a slide in 1920; “the slippery clay of Astoria’s north slope began flowing at 27th and Irving… producing the city’s third major slide disaster in five years”.  Apparently it was slow for more than a week after about 4 inches of rain, then the earth “speeded its movement”.  The flow was about a block wide between 27th and 28th Streets from Irving to Grand and also affected the end of 25th Street and Grand.  About 10 houses were affected, water and sewer lines were severed, and about 300 feet of pavement buckled on Irving Avenue alone.  The newspaper photos were dramatic!

The statements issued by city officials in December 1953 regarding the mass movement[s] from Coxcomb hill were very revealing.  First, the earth was falling away from Irving Avenue, not pushing down on it.  However, photos of the roadway show severe buckling.  Second, “the system of creeks flowing several hundred feet above Irving Avenue has absolutely no connection with the slide and has no effect on it”.  More recent understanding of water flow and especially subsurface water movements affecting mass movements would refute that statement.  Third, “the recent logging operation on Coxcomb hill has no bearing upon the present earth movement… experts believe removal of trees tends to stabilize the earth”.  In fact, plants, including trees, and especially the roots of these plants helps to stabilize slopes [contributing to shear strength].  The author has seen many, many mass movements following logging on sloping landscapes, especially with soils similar to those underlying the hills of Astoria.  Fourth, “the center of the slide is the center of a fill which was made in a natural draw at least 40 years ago.  A slide occurred in the same spot in 1920”.  There should have been no surprise that another movement event would occur in this location!

A map was published in the January 10, 1954 Oregonian showing “Astoria’s three slide areas” is very revealing [see map attached].  There must have been mass movements both on the north slope and on the south slope of Coxcomb hill since that date because of several ‘missing streets’.  On the south slope, 8th Street now is discontinuous [rather than paralleling 7th as shown on the map] from Klaskanine to Nehalem; now McClure Avenue does not continue east of 7th Street; and Lewis, Nile, Ohio, and Potomac streets do not exist [they were east-west streets between 12th and 15th streets which also no longer exist] near the present location of Astoria Middle School.  On the north slope, now Madison Avenue does not extend east of 16th Street; Lexington and Jerome Avenues do not extend east of 17th Street; 18th Street does not extend south of Grand; 19th and 21st Streets no longer exist; 20th and 22nd Streets do not extend south of Franklin; there now are only dead end streets of  18th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th off the ‘reconstructed’ Irving Avenue; and 19th Street no longer is the route to the Astoria Column!

The area of West Commercial Street and 1st Street seems to be of concern from the late 1940s.  In October 1950 the newspapers reported no movement in the slope area where the fear of a slide caused the installation of a new drainage system in summer 1950.  However, in January 1951 residents of the west Commercial Street hill told city council “there has been earth movement ther this winter despite the new drainage system installed last summer”.  The city officials responded that the movement might have been much worse without the drainage system!  Starting in December 1953 and continuing into 1954, there was a significant mass movement centered on 1st Street and West Commercial Street.  One report indicated that it was about 400 by 500 feet and another report said 300 by 600 feet.  Regardless, the event damaged at least 26 homes and displaced at least 30 families.  In addition to 1st and West Commercial, homes and pavements were affected on Hume, West Bond, and West Duane streets also.  The land was visibly sliding downhill… it “moved as much as 2 feet an hour, tilting and toppling the houses”.  Reports continued to show that houses were moved an average of 12 feet and some up to 20 or 25 feet.  The movement “occurred in a short period of time and slipped more violently and without sufficient warning to get houses out”.  Photo captions included: “fissures opened in paving, deep into earth, as relentless downhill movements persist.  Soapstone, underlying clay soil, is blamed for slide as water seeps down the rock”; and “paving sunken estimated 35 feet below former level”.  In February 1954 the West Commercial slide continued about 50 feet west of the one reported earlier.  In early 1954 Astoria City Council also “heard strong recommendations by state officials that studies be made to determine if there are other potential slide areas in the city”.

In October 1954 Astoria city council responded to another movement event, this time at 38th Street and Harrison Avenue.  Emergency measures were taken to install new drainage flumes in a slide area described as “an old one which has been moving gradually for many years…”.  The newspaper made reference to 1902 maps on which the area “is marked as a slide area, and there has been earth movement there ever since”.  Now, Harrison is discontinuous in this area.

“Geologic studies show that when water seeps down to the soapstone [ie. siltstone] it serves as a tilted, literally greased, skid down which 10 to 30 feet of overlying clay soil slides of its own weight, carrying buildings with it.  The resulting movement is a mudflow, not a landslide in the strict sense of the term”.  There was “some speculation that the severe earthquake of 1948 may have contributed to the movements since”.

Fast forward to 2004 and the author’s arrival to live on the North Oregon coast.  Almost immediately newspaper articles in the Astorian and Oregonian pointed to continuing mass movement issues for Astoria.  The first discussions concerned the 2002 slide that had been edging down hill near 33rd Street and “finally gave way”, at an estimated 35 feet deep.  Associated with this movement event was the contention that it “was triggered by the botched construction of a retaining wall at Marine Drive and 32nd Street”.  Essentially, the construction work related to “a small commercial development on the site” that cut into the base of the slope in the ‘deposition zone’ and almost immediately pushed the shear stress beyond the shear strength level and gravity flow took over.  Apparently, persons were “familiar with the land movement in the neighborhood by the shifting and settling that plagued the original store that sat on the site from 1910 to the 1970s”.  Some of the damage to upslope homes, roads, and other structures was attributed to the building of the ‘new Safeway store’.  However, continuing cracking of foundations, walls, and pavement and severed water and sewer lines.  Related surveys revealed the earth movement was up to 40 feet deep and was the result of the removal of a large amount of earth at the base of the slope.  Sensors placed in the soil measured as much as 16 inches of movement in the neighborhood above the excavation site after the work began.  Twenty-eight properties suffered damages.

In January 2006 a mass movement event occurred in the South Slope neighborhood on Bridge View Court upslope from Astoria High School.  After weeks of rain, the earth beneath a new home began to move downhill.  The home was declared uninhabitable when the backyard gave way leaving “a cracked and muddy incline with fissures 30 feet deep”.  An “arc shaped fault line” extended behind this house and the one next door.  Both the storm sewer and sanitary sewer lines had to be re-routed above ground.  The land down slope is the location of Astoria High School.  Students were “being warned to stay off the hillside, where the deep cracks and tilting trees pose a hazard”.  The homeowner assumed “the site was safe because the city had approved it”.  In fact, “a geotechnical evaluation of a building site on a slope is required by city code only if it’s within 100 feet of a known slide area”.  [The city code should be changed to reflect the data available from the Soil Survey and the DOGAMI landslide maps].  The area of the subdivision “was not a known slide area”.  However, there was a “known slide area several hundred feet away, below Waldorf Circle, where there was a landslide onto the high school track in the late 1950s”.  [The whole hillside upslope from the high school has ‘prime mass movement potential’]!

In January 2007 another landslide happened in the same area as the 1953-54 ‘West Commercial Street’ slide described above.  “Persistent heavy rain over the last several years, including a record 22 inches in November, gradually raised the water table and eventually reactivated an old slide”…  The new slide area was bounded by Bond, West Duane, Hume, and First streets and the land was owned by the city which “has prohibited its redevelopment”.  The city closed Commercial Street between 1st Street and Hume Avenue and 1st Street between Duane and Commercial Streets.  Eventually, Bond Street was opened as a one-way street westbound.  By March, 3 inches of rain in one weekend caused “significant movement”.  The slide continued to move “in the same boundaries as the old slide [1954] and is almost a mirror image of it”.  The recent heavy rains “allowed loose clay on top of 30 foot deep siltstone formations to slide downhill”.  Geotechnical engineers said the earth was moving “as far down as 20 to 30 feet below the surface”.  There were 10 to 12 foot vertical drops from the edge of the slide to the material moved below.  Eventually, this slide expanded beyond the bounds of the 1954 slide, especially down slope onto Bond Street and upslope into Duane Street.

In December 2012 a landslide brought down trees and mud behind the Clatsop County Jail on Duane Street which dead ends behind the jail.  Strong winds swung the trees around in the soil that had been saturated by rain.  The trees then toppled down a steep hillside.  [In looking at this location, the steep hillside represents the ‘slump scar’ of a former mass movement or the ‘detachment zone’ described in part I.  The debris from the landslide covered Duane Street [the ‘transport zone’ as described in part I].

IV. CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Two important questions can be raised related to the preponderance of mass movements in Astoria.  1] What has been known about the ‘potential’ for mass movement events to occur?  2] What can or should the City Council do ‘going forward’ from the present to protect people and property in Astoria?

1] The potential for mass movement events first can be reflected in the history of known events over the past century.  Newspaper articles, photos, personal accounts and other evidence alone are enough to convince one that mass movements in Astoria are a real threat.  The city of Astoria is “so well known for its unstable geology that the ‘Astoria Formation’ is a term found in geology texts”.  “The city has all the ingredients needed for a ‘high-hazard classification’ for landslides”.

Resolution No. 08-23 ‘A Resolution of the City of Astoria Adopting the City of Astoria Multi-jurisdictional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Addendum’ adopted by the City Council on October 20th, 2008 and approved by the Mayor on the same date in part recognizes the threat of landslides:
*“Where it appears a landslide, or other earth movement hazards may be present… may require a site investigation and report by a city approved engineering geologist or soils engineer”;
*“Land divisions in areas of steep slopes, unstable soils, weak foundation soils, or landslide potential will be permitted only after a favorable site investigation report has been completed”;
*“The City has drafted a Geologic Hazard and Hillside Development Ordinance which will guide development related to earthquakes and landslides”;
*“A map showing past slides can be found within city records”;
*“The majority of the city is located in areas of high landslide hazards” [map explanation];
*“Astoria is at risk of landslides because of its location on the hillside above the Columbia River and Young’s Bay.  The extent of the landslide hazard includes most of the residential portion of the city”; *“The city of Astoria ‘Areas of High Water and Past Slides’ map originally developed in 1974 and updated as recently as 2008 identifies previous occurrences, location and extent of earth movement in the City of Astoria”;
*“The city of Astoria’s vulnerability to landslides… is high due to location of critical facilities and residential development within landslide prone areas… the probability of landslides is high”.

City of Astoria Comprehensive Plan [of 2009?], Section ‘Geologic and Flood Hazards’ CP.390 ‘Background Summary’ discusses earth slides:
*”The area on which the City of Astoria is located has experienced many earth slides throughout its history”;
*”The sharp escarpment on the north side near the top of the main ridge indicates that a major movement of land took place many years ago”; [most likely this was in 1700 when a significant earthquake triggered the last great tsunami – recognized by local geologists and soil scientists and other experts]
*”Most of these slide areas are in a siltstone and claystone sedimentary rock unit”;
*”There are two types of slides common to Astoria: …shallow earth slippage generally not more than two feet in depth… the deep (and much more serious) landslide caused by rotation or movement along a slippage plane caused by water pressure build up within the earth… preventing construction in landslide areas is the best deterrent”.

CP.395 ‘Conclusions and Problems’ includes comments on landslides:
*”Since 1950, it is estimated that sixty to seventy homes have been seriously damaged by earth movement… cost of street and utility repairs is estimated to be over $2 million”
*”The Engineering Department has detailed information on recent landslides (during the last 50 years)… the City has acquired … much of the active landslide areas on the north slope”;
*”The City Engineer, land agent and Building official all have access to geologic data”;
*”The City and other public agencies own most of the lands on the south slope”;
*”The City has an opportunity… to control how new subdivisions are designed, thereby reducing landslide hazards”;
*”Geological information indicates that the bedding planes under Astoria generally dip toward the south, and that the landslide potential on the south slope… could be considerable as development increases”;
*”Great care should be taken to insure this area does not experience the same problems encountered on the north slope of the City”.

CP.400 ‘Geologic and Flood Hazard Policies’ includes comments on landslides:
*”Where it appears a landslide, or other earth movement hazard is present, the approval of the City Engineer will be obtained before a building or development permit is issued”:
*”The City Engineer and/or Planning Commission may require a site investigation and report… in such cases”;
*”The City Engineer will file copies of all geologic and soils reports… furnish copies of them to interested persons”;
*”Land divisions in areas of steep slopes, unstable soils, weak foundation soils, or landslide potential will be permitted only after a favorable site investigation report has been completed”;
*”The Planning Commission will submit site investigation reports to the City Engineer for evaluation”;
*”The City Engineer and/or Planning commission may require the submission of detailed topographic maps in steep slope areas, indicating the location of drainages, springs or other natural features”;
*”Site investigation reports… will generally indicate where construction may take place without enhancing earth movement hazard… the location of evidence of potential or past earth movement”.

The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries [DOGAMI] landslide maps at 1:8000 scale have been available to the City of Astoria since about 2008. “The city has long been aware of the jeopardy – it had the maps for five years before they were released publicly last week”.  These maps are in the public domain as of October 2013.  There are 3 different ‘layers’ depicted on 3 map sets: Map set 1 are landslide inventory maps for the City of Astoria – colors on the maps show existing mapped landslides’ Map set 2 are corresponding shallow landslide susceptibility maps – colors show areas at risk for landslides with depths of failure less than 15 feet; and Map set 3 are corresponding deep landslide susceptibility maps – colors show areas at risk for landslides with depths of failure more than 15 feet.  “These maps and results are valuable… they aren’t for site specific evaluations.  However, they give planners an idea of what is out there and where to focus their efforts”.  These maps greatly decrease the risks of making mistakes in development and building decisions.

2] What the City Council can do going forward to protect people and properties from mass movement damage mostly focuses on the strict use of the documents and maps outlined above.
*The DOGAMI landslide maps should function as the basis for all land use planning decisions.
*Site specific work must be done as outlined in the City of Astoria Comprehensive Plan.
*All statements within the Plan that include the phrase “may require” need to be changed to “WILL require”.
*The City Geologic Hazard and Hillside Development Ordinance must be adopted [if it has not been done already].
*The requirements for comprehensive geotechnical reports prior to construction must be enforced and a reputable geotechnical firm hired.
*The subsequent construction must be closely monitored by the City Engineer to insure the report guidelines are followed precisely.
*The City Planner and City Manager must recognize the hazards that go beyond the selling of lots or ‘buildable lands’ in potential mass movement areas – do not allow the philosophy of “let the buyer beware” to sway decisions.  The potential damages to the landscape go far beyond these ‘lands’ to the infrastructure damages – streets, utility poles, sewer lines, water lines, and other things for which the city would be responsible to ‘fix’.  Learning from the past, the costs could be enormous and FEMA or other agencies probably would not be there with funds to help.

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FEATURES

Astoria For Sale

The city’s attempt to more aggressively market some of their “excess” properties (empty lots and larger parcels) through a local real estate company draws protest from a wide variety of residents

bulldozerThe Great Depression (that’s the one in the 1930s and early 1940s) brought many tax foreclosures to the Astoria area, which in turn brought a good deal of land into the hands of Clatsop County. Starting in the late 1940s, after World War II, much of that land was sold to the City of Astoria for ridiculously small amounts of money (i.e. between one and ten dollars!). Since then, the city has been trying to sell this bounty of land, but hasn’t made it a priority, so that only when a potential buyer approached the city did it respond, and after many decades, the city was still left with many properties that it considered “excess to critical city need”, or “not associated with our duty to provide essential services or recreation opportunities to our citizens,” according to the city manager, Paul Benoit.

At the beginning of 2013, the Astoria City Council set a goal to remedy that situation. City staff went to work, hiring Mike Morgan, the mayor of Cannon Beach and a long-time consultant with the city, to lead the effort to set up a program to start selling off this property. From a total of over 1300 properties that the city owns, the team pared down the list to 37 properties, and developed a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a real estate company to act as the agent for the sale of these properties. They also proposed a plan to allow adjacent property owners to get first dibs on these properties, before listing them to the general public.

By August, Area Properties had been brought on as the agent, and the plan was approved by the council unanimously. Letters went out to adjacent property owners in October. Only then did they, and then after coverage of a subsequent city council meeting, most other local residents, find out about the program.

What’s For Sale
The initial maps of city-owned properties for sale, dated August 8, were available by request from city staff. They were black-and-white versions of the county tax lot maps, and were divided into four areas: Alderbrook, Uppertown, West End and South Slope. These maps included mostly relatively small lots, with one notable exception. Taking up almost a quarter of the Uppertown map was a combination of three contiguous lots that were labeled 38th to 40th, Lief Erikson to Land Reserve; Irving, 35th to 38th; and 900 Blk 36th. This area includes a system of trails, piles of logged blowdown, and towering evergreen trees. Nearby residents, and others shown the map, were amazed that this land was deemed buildable and was on the list.

west end and south slope map
West End & South Slope. The large circle in the center of this aerial photo is the property at the west end of Niagara Avenue. It forms part of a large forested area in back of Astoria High School that is owned partially by the Coast Guard. A cluster of forested properties to the west of Astoria Middle School on either side of 7th St. are also part of the sale. The small circle near the bottom of the photo is the house already sold. Near the top are several properties for sale that are on a relatively steep forested hillside that is the result of several slides. The Port of Astoria is at top left, with downtown Astoria at top right.

 

Bernie Wood, a teacher at Clatsop Community College, was concerned not only about the larger parcel (Irving, 35th to 38th, from above) in back of his house on Irving Avenue in the Uppertown neighborhood, but also a much smaller lot that he had been using as part of his backyard. The smaller lot, which runs along 36th St. in back of four houses that front on Irving, is the kind of property that the city was highlighting in their presentations to the public in the early days of the project. Driveways, alleyways, land used as gardens and for garages and sheds – small lots that somehow the city never sold and many property owners didn’t even know wasn’t theirs. Wood and his neighbors were concerned that a developer might get a hold of this property, and combined with the larger property behind it, might build right up to their houses. One of the owners on the block has put in a bid of $4000 for the smaller property.

At the request of several residents, the city eventually provided aerial maps with the properties for sale marked on them, as well as updated tax lot maps. On the new maps, about 3/4s of the 38th to 40th, Lief Erikson to Land Reserve property was eliminated from the sale, evidently due to its being outside the city’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). At the November 18th city council meeting, a letter from Terrie Remington (a resident on Irving) was read by Bobbi Brice, and after further testimony from Wood, the mayor asked the council to remove the Irving, 35th to 38th parcel from the sale. The council agreed unanimously.

uppertown map
Uppertown. The blue oval indicates the property to the south of Irving Avenue that was removed from the sale. Still for sale are a large, steep parcel extending from Highway 30 up to Grand Avenue on the eastern edge of the Uppertown neighborhood, and several parcels to the north of Irving Avenue that form part of a greenbelt corridor bordered on the west by the 1950s slide zone. These proper- ties are at 22nd, 27th, 28th and 29th Streets. The small red circle above the blue is the property behind Wood’s home on 36th St. City property on Mill Pond is also for sale. The top of the aerial photo is the East Mooring Basin, and the bottom forested area includes reserve (watershed) land owned by the city, but not for sale at this time.

 

Jan and Vicki Faber were shocked when they received their notification letter. They, like other adjacent property owners, were given 4 days to bid on the property on the 2900 block between Harrison and Irving. As a result of Jan’s testimony at the October 21st city council meeting requesting more time to make their decision, the council decided to review the whole process and extend the decision time to 4 weeks.

A quick look at the aerial maps combined with zoning maps shows that most of the properties for sale under the city’s program are forested or wooded sections of Astoria that are zoned residential. Sales of these properties and subsequent development would have the potential to disrupt wildlife corridors and change the character of many areas of the city. The most affected areas would be Uppertown; along Irving Avenue from the eastern end to 18th Street; and the South Slope, especially at the end of Niagara and down 7th St.

alderbrook map
Alderbrook. Several properties for sale are scattered along Ash and Birch St. in Alderbrook. Additionally, steep, heavily forested land to the bottom left is part of the sale. Most of Alderbrook is wetland. One of Astoria’s water treatment ponds is just visible in the upper right hand corner.

 

As of this writing, bids are still being taken from adjacent property owners, and none of the properties for sale has been marketed to the general public.

The Opposition Mounts
Adjacent property owners weren’t the only ones who were surprised by the city’s property sales program. Once the program became generally known, the city council chambers were packed with folks who testified against the sales, and it became the talk of the town.

Confusion reigned at the November 4th council meeting, with several people demanding better documentation of the program before it could be allowed to continue. At the next council meeting on November 18th, the city provided aerial maps and a presentation to the audience on the background of the program and where the properties for sale were located.

Testimony at both November council meetings was overwhelmingly against the sales, for various reasons. Art Limbard, a geologist who lives in Warrenton but teaches ENCORE (Exploring New Concepts of Retirement Education; see encorelearn.org for more information) classes in Astoria, was very skeptical about the geological stability of much of the land under consideration, and cautioned against any sales of public land before further studies were done. Fred White, a retired landscaper who lives on Irving in the famous 1950s slide zone, also cautioned against selling property that was slide-prone.

Shel Cantor, a retired engineer who’s lived in Astoria for 10 ½ years, provided a good case for holding off on sales of property in the current market. He stressed that 2013 and 2014 would be the worst possible time to sell land, as the value is rock bottom, and likely to increase in the near future. If the city’s fiduciary responsibility is to get the best deal for our land, Cantor argued, then we should hold off with these sales for at least another year.

In a letter to Councilman Drew Herzig earlier this year which he updated after attending the November council meetings, Limbard expressed concern about the property for sale at the end of Niagara: “I call attention to city land to the west of 3rd off Niagara and Madison on the ‘south slope’ – land that currently is forested. To me, there are good reasons why this land has not been developed and is forested. The unstable slope conditions are vulnerable to the weight of buildings and roads and it appears that landslips have occurred in the area in the past.” He goes on to state: “In fact, there is evidence that many parts of Astoria are affected by naturally unstable slopes, made more hazardous by so-called development. Cutting into the base of slopes, adding weight to slopes with homes, other buildings, roads, etc., and ‘lubricating’ these slopes via watered lawns and disturbed drainage patterns compound the mechanisms of slope failure.”

Sue Skinner, a nurse practitioner at the Lower Columbia Clinic in Astoria and a longtime resident, criticized the city for not providing more information to the public about the sales much earlier in the process.

Several other residents testified at the two November city council meetings, citing various reasons for their opposition to the sales, including potential destruction of wildlife habitat, inability of some adjacent property owners to purchase city property at this time even if they wanted or needed that property, questions as to the necessity of the city selling property at this time, concerns over process, and worries over the future value of their property and character of the city.

Where Do We Go From Here?
Despite impassioned pleas and alternatives presented at the council meetings and via email, the council voted 4-1 (with Herzig dissenting) to continue the program as envisioned earlier in the year. The people had prevailed, noted Mayor Van Dusen, in removing some property from the original set, and giving adjacent property owners extra time to decide whether to make a bid on neighboring property. Herzig noted, however, that the public was obviously against the program, even in its modified form, and as a representative of the people, he could not in good faith vote for continuing it. (Herzig voted with the rest of the council throughout the year to approve the program.) Unlike some previous land use decisions by the Astoria City Council, where there was plenty of testimony on both sides of the issue, this decision saw only negative testimony by the public, and the council sticking to their guns regardless. The main reasons given for continuing on with the sales program were: decreasing water and sewer rates by attracting more people to the city; lessening the burden on city staff for maintenance of city property; and bringing in more money to city coffers, both for the capital improvement fund (from the sales) and the general operational fund (from property taxes).

This public land sale brings together several projects that the city has been working on in the last few years. Relatively uncontroversial was the one sale already achieved by the program – a house located on the South Slope that the city bought to settle a lawsuit by the previous owner after the house was flooded due to an error made during a water system repair. The city lost money overall on the deal, but saw the property go onto the tax rolls, with the new owner a prominent property management firm in the area.

A large wooded area at the western end of Niagara Avenue was the subject of a council meeting about a year ago, where the city proposed packaging the property – which had been platted many decades ago as a new subdivision but never sold and developed – with a local realtor for sale as “needed” single-family housing. That parcel is one of the larger ones in the current sale. Neighbors of the property have been vocally against selling it, fearing their property value and quality of life would both go down. So far, though, no nearby property owners have bid on that parcel, or any part of it.

However, there have been several written bids submitted to the city by Area Properties, working with adjacent landowners. The process is that each of these bids will be reviewed by the city council, with a public hearing also scheduled on each so that the public can weigh in. The first public hearing has been scheduled for December 16, at the next city council meeting, and will consider the following offers:

5300 Block of Alder Street, Alderbrook, 0.23 acres, James and Mary Huber, $19,000.
1st & W Grand, Uniontown, 0.23 acres, Robert Jacob, $7,200.
400 Block 3rd St, Uniontown, 0.11 acres, Lawrence & Carol Thomas, $15,000.
4600 Block Birch & Ash Sts, Alderbrook, 0.79 acres, Michael & Lorna Zametkin, $16,000.
4700 Block Ash St, Alderbrook, 0.41 acres, Susan Brookfield & Michael Cowan, $26,500.
1600 Block 5th St, South Slope, Lance & Katherine Freeman, $8,500.
600 Block Exchange St, McClure’s Addition, 0.11 acres, Roger Dorband & Patricia Barnes, $6,500.

After all bids from adjacent landowners have been considered, Area Properties will list the properties not already sold on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) so that the general public can bid on the properties in the usual way of real estate transactions. However, the council has directed that there will be no minimum bid for these properties, and potential buyers can pool resources to bid on any property, or any part of each one. The council will be the final arbiter of any multiple bids on a property, and any conditions on the sale.

The city has given mixed signals on whether the property sales program will continue after the final disposition of the initial 37 properties has been determined. There has also been no indication of how long this current program will continue. With a good portion of the large wooded lots throughout the UGB of the city already or potentially for sale through this program, local residents have formed a group called Friends of Astoria’s Natural Areas (see box), and are seeking ways to preserve what has become a treasured part of Astoria.

Friends of Astoria’s Natural Areas (FANA)
Residents opposed to the sale of some of these properties, mainly due to the possible loss of natural areas in the city, are banding together to possibly purchase some of this property, influence the sales in a way beneficial to the maintenance of the natural areas, provide volunteer labor for maintenance, and also work with the city on planning approaches that might keep these properties public. Their first meeting will be held at the KALA Gallery at 1017 Marine Drive on Tuesday, December 17 at 7 pm.

 

In an open letter to the Astoria City Council, Cantor states, “The procedures for this sales program can be modified to comply with your fiduciary responsibilities, encourage good-neighbor purchases, and preclude the sell off of city-owned land to developers, speculators, and mini-timber-barons.”

Summing up the feelings of many, Skinner states in an email to local residents, “There are so many reasons why preservation of open space is crucial – the water(shed), the air, the stability of hillsides, the preservation of a little bit of wetland… We are sitting on riches beyond gold here. Please attend the Astoria City Council meetings, find out what’s going on, and speak out.”

City Manager Benoit agrees. In a recent op-ed, he concluded, “…stay engaged and keep a close watch. An informed and involved public, advising and working together with elected leadership and city staff, is a key to keeping the community on a positive course.”

Categories
FEATURES

Oysterville Sea Farms – Putting the Oyster Back in Oysterville

cannerytoday
The Oysterville Cannery today. Photo by Oliver Robbins

For generations before the pioneer settlers arrived, Chinook Indians gathered oysters and camped in the area that is now Oysterville. They called it “tsako-te-hahsh-eetl” which, like many Indian words, had two meanings: “place of the red-topped grass” and “home of the yellowhammer (or red-shafted flicker).”

restoration1Soon after the first white settlers arrived, Oysterville became a rowdy, lusty boomtown. By 1855 its population and importance were such that it became the seat of Pacific County, Washington Territory. The town had many firsts – a school, college, newspaper, and finally, in 1872, a church – First Methodist.

Late in the 1880s fate took a hand: the long awaited railroad line ended at Nahcotta, an isolating four miles away, the native oysters became scarce and, without the possibility of a local livelihood, residents moved out en masse. Finally, in 1893, the courthouse records were stolen in the middle of the night, and the county seat was moved to its current location in South Bend. Oysterville gradually became the sleepy little village it is today. (adapted from the Oysterville Restoration Foundation website)

restoration2The only oyster business in town these days is Oysterville Sea Farms (OSF), founded in 1991 by Dan Driscoll, a third-generation oyster farmer who grew up in Seattle, but spent his summers in Oysterville helping his dad on the farm and learning the ropes. After graduating from the University of Washington with degrees in Communications and Psychology, he moved to Los Angeles to work in the film business. “Life was good down there, but not fulfilling,” he told me.

He lived and worked in LA for seven years before returning to the Northwest, to visit his family in Oysterville. It was October 1990.

“My dad told me that he had a business that was not good enough to sell, but too good to give up, and asked if I wanted it. I said sure, but only if you and mom give me the cannery. They did give me the cannery, which was pretty mean of them, because the cannery was in such bad shape then it was a liability,” he recalled.

restoration3His father helped to start the process of restoring the cannery building and his mother “even went to the Oysterville design review board to get their approval, got our first shoreline exemption permit, and our first building permit for the Oysterville cannery restoration project.”

Short History of Oysterville Cannery
In 1939 the property on which the building is located was sold by Ed and Randolph Sherwood to a partnership called Northern Oyster Company, made up of Glen Heckes, Roy Kemmer and Ted Holway, all active oystermen with sizable oyster beds. The building went up in 1940, and received massive government contracts after the start of the U.S. role in World War II in December 1941. Ted and Virginia Holway eventually owned 100% of Northern Oyster Company, and in 1966, they signed a contract with their daughter Ruth and her husband Dick Sheldon to sell them the company.

In 1969, oyster canning operations at the Oysterville Cannery were shut down. The Sheldons retained Northern Oyster Company, which included the oyster beds, equipment and boats. This left the Holways with the cannery and no means to support it.

restoration4
Les Driscoll in the field.

In 1973, Les Driscoll (Dan’s father) began selling both oysters and non-seafood items at the cannery in the summertime. Soon after, the Holways gave the Oysterville Cannery to Les and his wife Virginia Ann. On April 21, 1976 the Oysterville Cannery Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Restoring the Cannery and Building the Business
Driscoll and his parents spent about 20 years restoring the cannery, partially financing the project (which Driscoll says costs “in the hundreds of thousands”) by selling shellfish and other items marketed under the Willabay label. Finally, in 2011, the restoration was pretty much complete, and Driscoll set his sights on starting to recoup his investment, and continuing to involve the community in the business. Most of the oyster farmers on Willapa Bay sell their oysters wholesale to markets on the West Coast and beyond. But OSF is a retail operation, both on-line and fresh at the cannery.

In June 2011, an anonymous complaint was received by Pacific County concerning the selling of certain items at the cannery. The complaint alleged that OSF was out of compliance with Pacific County’s latest development and zoning ordinance, adopted in the early 2000s. That ordinance strictly limits the type of development and business activity allowed on the shoreline of Willapa Bay. Since that complaint, OSF has been clamoring to comply and stay open, but has also been fighting many of the decisions of various state and local agencies.

oysterville1940
Though these battles are on-going, the gist of the whole debate about whether OSF should or shouldn’t be allowed to continue to follow its business plan is best summed up in the testimony of Alan Trimble, a professor at the University of Washington, who has worked in the Willapa Bay area for over a decade, at a Pacific County Planning Commission meeting on November 3, 2011. The following is a shortened version of that testimony.

Should OSF Be Allowed to Do Business?
“My name is Alan Trimble. I’m a scientist at the University of Washington. I’ve been working here about a decade now and we live in Nahcotta right across from the port. I’m a marine ecologist. My profession is to worry about the science of water quality and things living in bays, and I’ve devoted a decade to this particular estuary and I have to say it’s a pretty special place – entirely by accident.

“People will claim that they are responsible for keeping it the way it is, but actually the fact is it’s the way it is because we already removed most of the resources from this place and most of the businesses failed. If you look at ancient pictures of Raymond, South Bend and Nahcotta and Oysterville, there were restaurants, there were bars, there were hotels, there were roads, there was a railroad, and there were several mills all over the bay. There was a very large industrial business, and in fact the Oysterville cannery was in the commercial district of Oysterville.

dan16“All of it is gone, essentially, and now we’re left with what we’ve got. I completely understand the desire to try and keep working buildings on the water working, given how hard it is to get any new buildings ever built anywhere. It’s very hard. It’s also extremely hard to start up a new shellfish business – the number of permits required and difficult things that people have to do to try and even begin to do any shellfishery in this bay is nearly impossible.

“So I would suggest that we don’t actually have the problem we think we have. It is not that somebody is here trying to petition this place to put in a Wal-Mart or a power plant or a pulp and paper mill. This is someone who’s operating the one and only (talk about unique!) building of its type on the bay. There are no others. No one else can come through here and petition to change this kind of building (that they also happen to have) into a restaurant, or a place that sells T-shirts, or an art studio, or anything else. There aren’t any other ones.

“So I don’t see the conflict, frankly. I don’t see the specter on the horizon of hundreds of large businesses coming to the edge of the bay looking to scoop up the last three remaining historic buildings and turn them into some corporate empire. I don’t see it. And I do see that the protections that the federal government has on historic buildings (and there’s a reason why they have them)…it’s almost impossible to keep them standing. Most of those places have to have limited liability corporations and nonprofits to get donations just to keep the building standing. And they have to do all sorts of special events and things to keep those buildings viable and to continue to comply with permits: put in new septic systems, upgrade pilings, whatever it is that they have to do to continue to exist no matter where they are. It’s really expensive, and having a business with only one aspect – let’s say that the only legal aspect was to sell shucked oysters, and that was somehow in the county codes – there wouldn’t be a business standing on this peninsula. If that’s all they did, they’d be gone.

“People have diversified: they sell clams, they sell crab, they sell salmon, they sell other things to remain viable. I think we’ve all been in the other stores around the bay that sell clams and oysters and soda pop and other things. It’s not a big deal to sell a T-shirt, really, with respect to water quality.

“So, my two-cents-worth as a scientist is this: Puget Sound is trashed, and will be forever. So is Chesapeake Bay, so is Willapa Bay: if you look at it from the perspective of what it used to be, it is nothing like it used to be. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s almost nothing left of what it used to be, species-wise. It’s dominated by introduced species that we farm, trees that are planted at ridiculous densities to be harvested to make paper, and a few houses. It is nothing like it used to be.

“My paramount goal as a scientist is to keep this place working as a sustainable community that uses the resources we have and the people we have – jointly – to succeed in progressing into the future.

Dan the Oyster Man
Dan the Oyster Man

“Dan’s business, while it has some warts (it hasn’t been perfect, and I don’t think anybody would say that it has) is a reasonably good model of how to succeed against all the pressures that are out there. I think that I would suggest that this group figure out a way to reach a legitimate compromise to show a model of how a sustainable, small, multifaceted, waterfront business can actually work – because there aren’t any other ones: it’s the only one we have. Right, we have canneries, but nobody can go there and buy anything. We have people that ship to faraway places, but nobody can go to you to buy anything. It’s not a…it’s a different thing: those are industries. This (Oysterville Sea Farms) is not an industry.

“Finally, I see absolutely no threat whatsoever from this kind of business – in fact this specific business – to the water quality or health of Willapa Bay. I can’t find one. It may be there, but the county has specified an ungodly-expensive septic system, and they don’t pump seawater and they don’t dump fresh water into the bay, and they collect all their garbage and they don’t even have a real kitchen in the building over the water – it’s across the road on land.

“People walk out on the dock and look around, and sit on decks in chairs, and eat some food and talk to each other, and see the beautiful bay out there, and begin to understand what aquaculture is all about. It’s the only place on the whole bay where they can do that. It’s the only place that you can sit and enjoy eating oysters while you’re watching a dredge dredge oysters in front of your face. And the thought that that’s going to go away and that’s going to be a positive benefit to the bay I think is asinine.

“So let’s not confuse the issue of whether this is opening the door to the world destroying Willapa Bay. If there was a whole waterfront district like there is in Seattle and Tacoma and Olympia and Chesapeake Bay, with hundreds and hundreds of waterfront buildings out over the water with old pilings rotting into the bay, and somebody was going to bring in a Costco or a Wal-Mart or IBM or Intel and put a factory there, that’s a whole other thing – and I bet you a lot of people would show up at a meeting like this to talk about that.

“But that’s not what this is about, so I don’t want us to be confused about that.”

While the dust settles from the legal battles, OSF goes on. In future installments of this story, we will delve a little deeper into the issues and the various players in the debate, and hopefully document the solutions that allow Driscoll and OSF, along with the rest of the Willapa Bay shellfish companies, so important to Pacific County’s economy, to continue to deliver the great shellfish they are known for locally and worldwide.

Categories
FEATURES

Astoria Armory Redux

a vision, a resource, a plausible future

jack benny USO
Overflow crowd of naval personnel witnessing Jack Benny performance. May 10, 1944. Photo courtesy of Heritage Museum library.

On July 9th, several people responded to an invitation to an open house at the old Armory building, bordered on the south by the old Lum’s dealership, on the north by the Bowpicker fish & chips boathouse, and on the west by what’s now the Clatsop County Historical Society Heritage Museum, in Astoria. The invitation read in part “…it would be a shame to lose this incredible resource as there is nothing like this building anywhere on the North Coast.”

How true.

armory
Present day Armory building and Heritage Museum. Photo by Bob Goldberg

From the outside, the Armory building is pretty nondescript. But as you step inside, you stare up at a fine example of a lamella roof, and step onto a gym floor that looks brand new. You can imagine the stands full of people cheering on the Astoria High School basketball team; chairs filling the floor and the stands and bleachers full with Jack Benny on the stage for a USO show; lights flashing, music blaring and kids whizzing around on their roller skates; kids dancing to “Waltz of the Flowers” in pink satin tutus for Jeanne Maddox’s Christmas dance recital; or a packed house to take part in the Scandinavian Festival.

Yes, lots of history in this building. Designed by John E. Wicks and his daughter Ebba Wicks Brown, and erected from joint federal, state and county funding by local builders, the Armory building added a gym, recreation center and community armory to the existing USO hospitality house (now the Heritage Museum, and formerly Astoria City Hall) in 1942. Used as an armory during World War II, the main floor gym became the home of the Astoria High School basketball team afterwards, as their gym (now Clatsop Community College’s) didn’t have any place for spectators. Many great tournaments and games were played there, according to Jon Englund, who was AHS’s center in the 50s. Englund, now head of Englund Marine, remembers playing in the Coast League, and coming in second to Milwaukie in 1955. “In big games against Seaside, the place would be packed, with over 3000 people. It was great,” Englund told me. He said the Royal Chinooks, a semi-pro basketball team, played there in the 50s, the Harlem Globetrotters paid a visit, and there was wrestling and special events “that were a big part of my life.”

Also in the 50s, there were home and auto shows at the Armory, where the basement would be used for the cars. Skip Hauke, the current president of the Astoria/Warrenton Chamber of Commerce, remembers these shows, as well as the Astoria Regatta coronation ceremonies. In particular, he remembers being the train bearer for Regatta queen Lidia Dorn when he was 5 years old. “I still kid her about that when I see her,” he said.

buffalo springfield
Buffalo Springfield, a touring band, played the armory in the 60’s.

Still a recreation center in the 60s, the building was a lot less used after the high school moved to its current digs on Youngs Bay – with a new athletic building with plenty of seating – in 1957. The Scandinavian Festival, now at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, was held at the Armory during this time. “I went to my first Scandinavian Festival there. There were tarps on the floor and a small square stage where someone was telling great Ole and Lena jokes,” recounted Janet Bowler, who has been involved with the festival for decades. And there were some big rock bands that played the Armory, including “Buffalo Springfield and The Zombies in the late 60s, Deep Purple in the mid-70s, sometime after Smoke on the Water came out..  Canned Heat also played late 70s,” according to HIPFiSH editor and publisher and Astoria native Dinah Urell. Another Astoria native, Peter Huhtula, remembers a group called People! playing at the Armory in the 70s. Their cover of The Zombies’ “I Love You” peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1968. So, the Armory rocked through the 70s!

But by 1980, the county was looking to sell the Armory building, and finally, at the end of August 1981, four prominent local businessmen – Darrell Davis, George Brugh, Chuck Taggart and Rod Gramson – bought the Armory building at an auction, as the only bidder. Plans were for a convention center and office space, but instead, the Expo Center roller rink opened its doors at the site on Friday, November 27, 1981.

Lillian Baeten, a recently retired school bus driver and “fancy” skater, was the manager of the rink in the 80s. She remembers good times as the public – mostly kids – packed the building on Friday and Saturday nights, and came to free Christian skate night on the first Wednesday of the month. She was part of the congregation of the Clatsop (formerly Jireh) Christian Center, with her friend David Adams as pastor. The group bought the Armory building in 1994, and retained ownership until the current owner, the Columbia River Maritime Museum, bought it in 2002. According to Adams, “We had a congregation of about 140 people, and over 1000 young people came to

nixon and steinbock
Vice President Nixon and Mayor Steinbock outside the Armory. February 14, 1959. Photo courtesy of Heritage Museum library.

know Christ during our time there. We were the holy rollers!” Adams’ plan was for a church downstairs and a youth center on the main floor. The group did manage to completely redo the gym floor, add new windows, replace the aging roof and other small remodeling efforts while they owned the building.

Liisa Penner, Archivist at the Heritage Museum, recalls that, “In the 1980s, my younger daughter had her birthday parties each year in the small room on the north side of the Armory and after the party they skated in the rink.”

The CRMM maritime museum added climate control to the basement to help with storing their artifacts, including boats. With their purchase of the old Builders Supply store and warehouse, the museum is looking to sell the Armory building, and that gave Robert “Jake” Jacob an idea. Jacob, architect and owner of the Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa, spearheaded the effort to save the Liberty Theater and helped found the Astoria Waterfront Trolley. So he began to think of ways to save the Armory building for the community. “There’s nothing like this building in our entire region. It would be great if a group of interested local and regional citizens could come together to save this unique structure. The inside of the building is stunning and the kinds of events that could take place there are so varied that it could also be an economic driver for our region. Astoria just can’t afford to lose a building like this — with the kind of historic relevance and huge space it offers. From sporting events, home shows, large concerts with a great dance floor, this space can be anything the community needs,” Jacob started telling folks.

armory stage
Stage, floor and old Clatsop Christian Center sign. Photo by Bob Goldberg

At the open house – which was attended by City of Astoria staff and city council members, Clatsop Community College management and staff, Astoria Sunday Market chief Cyndi Mudge, members of the Shanghaied Roller Dolls roller derby team, Maurice Hendrickson (a former National Guardsman), City Lumber staff, carpenter Tim Kennedy (who was wowed by the lamella roof), Hauke, Baeten, Constance Waisanan of Partners for the PAC, other local businesspeople and this reporter – Jacob told the crowd of his vision, some of his experiences in the building, and invited others to reminisce about the glory days of the Armory. Others involved in the effort to look into community ownership of the building spoke next, including Hauke and Mitch Mitchum. “We have a real opportunity here to do something terrific. The Armory could be an economic driver for the region as well as a fun project for citizens to be involved with. The integrity of the building is excellent, the hardwood floors are in perfect condition – and with some good ideas, a little clean-up and paint, we can preserve this treasure!” Mitchum said.

lamella roof
Lamella roof structure in Armory. Roof is 41 ft. at highest point. Photo by Bob Goldberg

The leaders called on Robert Stang, a local green developer, to work on a plan to get the ball rolling, and he’s done just that. With a promise of a 90-day window from the maritime museum to allow the newly formed Friends of the Astoria Armory to investigate the Armory building’s physical integrity and assess funding possibilities, and the willingness of Craft3, a non-profit community development financial institution with offices in Astoria, to become fiscal agent for the Friends, the ball is definitely in the community’s court.

Everyone I spoke to about the Armory thinks it would be a great community resource, an economic driver, and a chance to save an important historical treasure. It remains to be seen if Jacob’s vision will come true. We should know in a few months.

To be informed of the Friends of the Astoria Armory’s progress on the possible purchase of the Armory building for the community, or if you want to help, call 503-325-8687 and leave your name, phone number and email address. Someone will get back to you promptly.

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