By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – With an independent timber appraisal in hand, the Yachats city council on Tuesday approved making offers totaling nearly $152,000 to stop an impending clearcut in the in the middle of one of Yachats’ post card views.
Based on the appraisal, the offer would pay the property owner $76,667 and the logging contractor who owns the trees another $75,150 to leave them for the next 25 years.
The 25-year lease or covenant land agreement would cover not just the 20 acres planned for cutting, but the entire 40 acre parcel owned by Clemente Rocha of San Jose, who has made clear he is not willing to sell the property.
The parcel is located near the base of the Yachats Ridge immediately south of the Yachats River bridge. It lies just outside the city limits and is zoned for forestry practices.
The council discussed whether to move forward with a lease offer for two hours during an executive (closed) session before voting 4-1 in a following public meeting to have city manager Bobbi Price present the offer and begin negotiations with Rocha and logging contractor Joshua Howard of Dallas, Ore.
Councilor Anthony Muirhead was the only dissenting vote.
“We have had considerable discussion in our executive session as to how to proceed with this,” Mayor Craig Berdie said prior to the vote. “I want to make clear that the city council understands that we have many projects and many needs within the city, including the Little Log Church Museum, the library, the delineators, our expected purchase of the O’Neil (Landmark) property, as well as additional projects. So we are taking this very seriously.”
The mayor then noted most of those needs can be planned and budgeted over time, while stopping the clearcut has become an urgent matter.
“The parties in this are ready to start logging and we need to act now if we are going to do anything at all,” Berdie said.
A community-organized online petition has gathered more than 800 signatures in favor of stopping the cut.
In approving the offer, council members expressed concerns about the safety of residents living below the proposed cut, as well as the importance of the view, but also expressed reservations about setting a precedent and spending tax money needed for other projects.
“I think it is appropriate to spend some city funds on maintaining the beauty of our surroundings and the safety of anybody effected by the consequences of clearcutting that piece of hillside,” Councilor Barry Collins said. “So there’s a value to that. How much value is very much debatable.”
Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey said councilors also have taken into consideration the fact that some people in the community live paycheck-to-paycheck and struggle to pay bills.
“And so anytime we make a decision like this, I think we need to realize that this is what’s best for the whole community,” she said.
Muirhead said he was voting against it because city funds should be used to secure city services and that with so many projects in the works, several of which are costing much more than anticipated, it is just not prudent.
“Spending this amount of money to postpone somebody from doing something with their land for 25 years, I don’t see as a good enough reason … I don’t see it as a solution for the city. They shouldn’t start a precedent of spending that kind of money for something they don’t really control, (it) just postpones the problem.”
While the council gave Price some room to negotiate the offer with Rocha and Howard, all those who voted in favor of it agreed there was very little room.
“…We’re starting at a point that seems fair from the appraised value…and we’ll see how they respond,” Berdie said. “And depending on how they respond, we’ll have to come back and decide what to do if the offer is something near to what we are offering them.”
Price emailed the offers to Rocha and Howard after the meeting. As of Wednesday afternoon, she had heard back from Howard with a higher counter offer but not from Rocha. The counter offer has not yet been made public.
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
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