Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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Two river otter pups arrived Sunday at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast after spending a month at Think Wild in Bend.

Three river otter siblings were found orphaned at Cove Palisades State Park near Culver by a park ranger last month. One of the pups died before reaching Think Wild, while the two sister pups were uninjured but moving slowly.

Because river otters dig and chew, Think Wild needed to have wiring underneath the ground, as well as a pool, for the pups. Once the animals were stable, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife permitted a transfer to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, where they can be safely enclosed.

See the story by Audrey Saiz by clicking here.

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The Astoria City Council will move toward establishing licenses for vacation rentals, but was divided on whether to impose a cap.

In a work session Monday night, city staff gave a presentation on the landscape of vacation rentals in Astoria and potential policy options.

Astoria has taken steps to preserve housing stock for people who live and work in the city. In 2019, the City Council passed a homestay lodging ordinance, restricting homes used as long-term rentals from being turned into vacation rentals. Earlier this month, the council restricted vacation rentals from operating in downtown commercial storefronts.

City Councilor Elisabeth Adams has advocated for a cap on vacation rentals, a step taken by other communities worried about the impact to long-term housing.

According to Matt Brandmeyer, the city’s community development director, about 1.2% of the city’s housing stock consists of vacation rentals and homestay lodging — a much smaller percentage than in other tourist destinations along the coast. According to a city staff study, that number is 3.4% in Newport, 4.6% in Gearhart and 10.4% in Cannon Beach.

Read the story by Rebecca Norden-Bright by clicking here.

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Changes could be coming to local flood plain development policies in Clatsop County — and sooner than community leaders expected.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced new rules for development in special flood hazard areas along the Oregon Coast and the Columbia River drainage basin. While the measures are intended to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act, many leaders see them as a major roadblock for growth.

The announcement includes three options for regulating development, which communities will have until December to choose from.

The proposed changes stem from a yearslong process seeking to address endangered species-related concerns with FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.

The program provides standards for flood plain development, flood risk mapping and policy enforcement. In 2009, the Portland Audubon Society brought a lawsuit against FEMA, eventually resulting in a biological opinion issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The opinion found that continuing with the program would likely jeopardize 16 species of fish and southern resident killer whales, and would also impact critical habitat.

That was in 2016. Five years later, FEMA released a draft implementation plan outlining recommendations in response to the issues raised. The goal was to achieve no net loss for three key habitat functions: flood storage, water quality and riparian habitat. In other words, the impacts of development would need to be balanced or outweighed by efforts to avoid, minimize or mitigate those impacts.

“None of these are exactly cheap or easy when it comes to implementation and to property owners who are having to work with them,” Gail Henrikson, Clatsop County’s community development director, said in a presentation to elected officials on July 11.

FEMA still has a ways to go before the implementation plan is complete — it’s working through a National Environmental Policy Act process to assess impacts, and likely won’t put the final plan into action until early 2027. But under the new announcement, communities will have to put compliance measures in place before the plan is done.

The new rules, called pre-implementation compliance measures, would halt or limit new development in the flood plain, including adding fill and impervious surfaces and removing vegetation from areas near rivers and streams.

Communities have three options: prohibiting all new development in the flood plain, adopting a model flood plain ordinance requiring no net loss, or requiring individual permit applicants to conduct a habitat assessment and mitigation plan to show development will achieve no net loss. They’ll also need to report all new permits to FEMA once they decide on an option. If jurisdictions haven’t made a decision by December, they’ll default to option three.

Take a look at the report by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge