Planning Commission and Drift Inn owner continue back-and-forth over parking issues

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

The Yachats Planning Commission is giving the owner of a popular downtown restaurant and hotel complex two months to come up with detailed drawings to determine if there is enough off-street parking to comply with city regulations.

The parking issue dates back almost two years when Drift Inn owner Linda Hetzler applied for a modification of a 2014 conditional use permit after buying an adjacent building to create more hotel rooms, an office and laundry.

With that expansion, the city in November 2017 said Hetzler needed to provide 27 off-street parking spaces. But with the later addition of a restaurant patio and changes to the laundry building the parking number rose to 34.

The Planning Commission and Hetzler have been going back-and-forth for months over the parking issue with little progress or agreement.

The issue was back on the commission’s agenda Tuesday.

To show she had at least 35 parking spaces, Hetzler submitted a parking plan sketched on draft paper for a 100-by-100 foot lot she owns on East Second Street and a Google-generated aerial photograph with blacked-out squares for other parking on her properties along U.S. Highway 101.

But because of a communication issue with city staff, Hetzler wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting to explain or defend them to the commission.

“I didn’t have any idea I was supposed to be there,” she told YachatsNews.com on Wednesday.

But the lack of detail in the drawings – and whether they came close to meeting standard dimensions for parking spaces – frustrated most of the commission.

“I have a big problem with what’s being provided here,” said commission member Loren Dickinson, a retired architect.

“All we’re asking for is a scaled drawing on a scaled map according to parking regulations,” said commissioner member Jacqueline Danos. “We need a detailed site plan that shows the length and width of spaces and that cars can maneuver in and out.”

Some commission members also questioned the size and number of spaces on the south side of the complex and, because of more changes, in front of the hotel office.

Commission chair Helen Anderson said Hetzler needs to show she can provide 34 off-street parking spaces “and if she can’t, she needs to come and ask for a variance.”

Commission member Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey said while Hetzler “has done great things for this community” the parking issues need to be resolved. She urged getting better drawings and having commissioners walk the property with Hetzler.

“I have great admiration for her,” OShaughnessey said. “But we’ve got to solve this.”

It directed city planner David Mattison to write a letter to Hetzler with specifics the commission wants and asking her to submit it by its October meeting.

Drift Inn owner feels she’s providing parking for all

Hetzler told YachatsNews.com on Wednesday that she feels she’s providing parking not only for her customers but for other downtown visitors, businesses and their employees. Hetzler said she bought the East Second Street lot 4-5 years ago for customer parking and to house employees in a manufactured home on it.

“I have more parking that anyone else downtown,” she said. “That’s why I made a concerted effort to buy a parking lot. Are others being held to the same standard? How many other variances for parking have they issued?

“I don’t want to be a bad neighbor,” Hetzler said. “But the city needs to decide what it is they want to do with parking downtown and I’m not willing to provide parking for other businesses who haven’t been asked to provide parking as well.

“I’m happy to be fair so long as everybody else does their part,” she said.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, John Deriberprey, who owns a small computer repair shop across Highway 101 and is a former planning commission member, contended that Hetzler’s continued expansion has created parking problems for other downtown business owners.

Because Hetzler has the Second Street property, Deriberprey urged the commission to ask her to remove the manufactured home – which he claimed was in very poor condition — to create more parking.

“There’s an option for her,” he said. “A lot of business owners don’t have that option.”

Problems will only get worse in early September when a city contractor starts a month-long project to rebuild East Second Street. That work will eliminate some diagonal public parking spaces on the north side of the hotel – spaces which don’t count as part of Hetzler’s 27 or 34 parking spots.