County approves funding for incorporation feasibility study
Residents from a small community in south Clatsop County are taking a first step toward exploring incorporation.
On Wednesday, Clatsop County commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with the Arch Cape Falcon Cove Beach Community Club to partially fund the development of an incorporation feasibility study. The group initially approached the county about incorporation late last year, and has since retained Portland-based consulting firm ECOnorthwest to carry out the project.
The club's 173-person membership includes homeowners in unincorporated areas between Hug Point and Oswald West State Park — a region known for its high concentration of short-term vacation rentals. For years, residents in the area have been vocal about topics like land-use policy and vacation rental caps. Bob Boehmer, the community club's president, said incorporation could provide citizens with more direct control over local issues.
The point of a feasibility study is to engage with residents to understand whether they want local control enough to take on the responsibility of self-governance. The study will also help determine whether the community could generate the revenues necessary to sustain itself as a city.
'We need to find out from the residents, you know, exactly what services do you want, and then will these revenues pay for that?' Boehmer said.
This first step, he said, is getting more information.
'A feasibility study is exactly what it says,' Boehmer said. 'It's not a decision to incorporate. It's a decision to do a data-based comprehensive analysis of whether incorporation is feasible.'
Establishing a baseline
The agreement could also provide a helpful baseline for the county. County Manager Don Bohn said he's seen the community request city-level services like community planning, design review and road and drainage maintenance on noncounty designated roads. Given the county's financial constraints, he said it will be important for the county to focus on providing county-level services moving forward.
'Since I've been here, this has been a constant topic of conversation about whether and how the county provides city-level services to this community,' Bohn told commissioners on Wednesday. 'I just think that in the long term, having a feasibility question asked and answered is very important for the community to have a choice on how they want to move forward.'
The cost associated with the study is roughly $110,000. Under the memorandum of understanding, the community club will dedicate a year's worth of membership dues, around $3,500, to the project. The county will contribute $106,500 from the discretionary portion of its 2.5% unincorporated transient lodging tax implemented in 2015 — a revenue source that has traditionally been used to support road and drainage projects in the area.
'It's not general fund,' Bohn said. 'It's money that was already being collected through the transient lodging tax, primarily from that area, that will continue to be spent in that area.'
Bohn added that contributions to the feasibility study will not disrupt or postpone road and drainage work in the area.
According to the scope of work outlined by ECOnorthwest, the feasibility study will include community engagement and education to discuss topics like governance, service providers and land use. ECOnorthwest will also work with an advisory committee to decide a study area and gather data to determine what public facilities and services a new city could provide. Bohn said the county will provide technical assistance as requested, but the study will be directed by the club.
Given the project's funding source, Commissioner Courtney Bangs said she was comfortable approving the agreement.
'I do feel satisfied that the money was going to be going to this community for other projects, and so it will therefore still be going to this community; it is just being reallocated in a different direction,' Bangs said.
Commissioner Lianne Thompson, whose district spans the southern half of the county, including Arch Cape, added that she sees the work as a necessary step toward addressing the longstanding question of incorporation.
'I think this is an essential step to reconcile perceptions of need with reality testing, and that it's a way for the community to have, I would say, a maturation of its capacity and interest in self-governance that really matches reality with responsibility, authority and money,' Thompson said.
If the community determines it wants to put incorporation on the ballot, either in fall 2025 or spring 2026, ECOnorthwest will also draft an economic feasibility statement. In the meantime, Boehmer hopes the initial process will help spur dialogue between residents.
In that regard, he sees the study as a positive step for the community.
'If you have a really robust community discussion, and you have it in a real collegial manner, you know, based on data, then you come out a better community regardless of whether you choose to go ahead with incorporation or not,' Boehmer said.
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