To the editor:
As this week’s article on the Yachats City Council/Planning Commission discussion of a city planner states, yes, I am the only commission member who believes Yachats deserves a full-time city planner.
Since I serve the community in this position, I feel the community deserves to understand at least some of my reasoning.
Yachats is growing. Whether the community wants to grow or not, growth has and will continue to happen.
Directing that growth, especially from the standpoint of the environment, social equity, and economic stability, is what good city planning does — and good planning comes from experience and an acceptance of change. As willing to do sometimes long and difficult work, the volunteers on the planning commission do not have a background planning. Understanding Oregon land use laws can be complicated and technical which we all saw first-hand through the current hazard mitigation updates to the city’s land-use planning.
In my opinion, this paragraph from Friday’s article outlines why the idea of a 16-hour a week planner is misplaced, “Dissatisfied with turnover of planners, the new City Council wants to try to find someone local to have regular office hours, work more closely with the Planning Commission, react to immediate issues, and be able to deal with the public.” That description is not of a 16-hour position.
The long list of work the Planning Commission has discussed: zoning and buildable lands survey, water conservation, updates to our municipal code, and the list of issues I believe we need to put front and center: the unofficial expansion of our urban growth boundary through a lack of housing choice, including revisiting ADUs, walkability and bicycle infrastructure, expanding the economy beyond tourism, are just some of the issues.
Buildings, parks, roads and streets are all interconnected elements, and if Yachats wants to continue handling them as separate issues then an experienced planner is needed to be the link in how our built environment develops. At the very least we need a person new to the profession who has the expertise of an experienced planner available to them through a partnership such as what we had with Oregon Cascade West Council of Governments.
And something not being discussed: the loss of the ability to share planning services is not only a technical loss but an equity one as well. The city’s decision to move to contract labor reflects one of today’s economic inequalities.
The ever-widening divide due to part-time employment with no benefits hinders people’s ability to be able to support their families and afford decent housing. When the planning position was shared it created a position that was almost full-time at 30 hours a week and had a benefit package included. The city of Yachats was only responsible for taking on 16 hours of the position.
If we wish to truly live our values then hiring people for jobs that give them a living wage and the ability to find decent housing needs to be part of that.
Yes, Yachats is unique but not with regards to planning and growth and honestly, professional help will pay benefits over the long term. Small cities throughout the country have faced and continue to face exactly the same problems around growth and development. Rural, urban and communities bridging the rural/urban divide all have housing, transportation, and economic issues, and through partnerships and cooperation Yachats can look to many of them to find ways to prosper while maintaining its unique appeal.
We moved here because of the community and the belief that our values of environmentalism and equity found a home. I love Yachats and believe it is a wonderful place to live. I believe that through good planning it will continue to be a wonderful place, a place that is environmentally and economically resilient as well as a place where people of all ages and economic standing can live, work and play.
— Jacqueline Danos, Yachats