The next Town Hall will May 20, 6:30 PM.
You can RSVP to the next Town Hall meeting either via Facebook or by emailing info@cityofestacada.org.
Questions for the Town Hall meeting can be submitted ahead of time. If your question may require additional research, this is recommended. Questions will be answered at the Town Hall meeting as time allows. Answers will be compiled into an Q&A after the event and displayed on this page.
Public Participation Guidelines
- One question per person until all attendees have had a chance to ask their question.
- Due to time constraints, comments will be limited, so please try to be succinct with your comments/questions.
- Address all remarks and questions to the Mayor. Other members of the Council may respond as appropriate.
- Please cite specific references or examples when describing an issue rather than speaking in generalities.
- Use language that is respectful and appropriate for all.
- If the Council did not get a chance to answer your question, please submit your question via the City webform to include it in the Q&As that will be published after the event.
- The Mayor may respectfully move on to the next question if any one topic is taking up too much time.
- If an answer is not known, the question may be added to the list of questions and a response will be provided when the Q&A’s are posted, or the Council may ask city staff for technical information.
- Council members are encouraged to speak on issues but can choose not to respond until they have more information about the issue.
The event will have a virtual viewing option. Questions and answers from this event will be used to develop a Q&A page following the event.
Town Hall Questions
Council Town Hall Q&A 2/5/2024
You can view the recording of the livestream here.
Q: When is the city going to address speeding of cars through residential areas?
A: Councilor Metcalf: As the liaison on the Traffic and Public Safety Committee, this issue is brought up regularly. The deputies know about the issues. There are traffic and speed studies being conducted. The issue will take time to address. Speed control devices are being investigated for the budget and the sheriff’s deputies are strategically placing themselves to address problems.
Don’t drive faster than you’re comfortable with, regardless of other traffic on the road.
Q: Why does the city adopt new zoning laws that would make growth easier in Estacada?
A: Councilor Tenbush: We adopted new zoning regulations because we had to. We had to comply with state statutes.
Councilor McElroy: I am assuming this is addressing the updates we made after the Housing Needs Analysis. ADUs and Duplexes were going to be required by the state and we adopted these changes because of this. If the person who asked this question is here, they could clarify exactly what zoning changes they meant.
Follow-up Q: There were several updates in the October 24, 2022 city council meeting which increased allowances for middle housing options in several zoning districts and decreased the number of required parking spaces and lot sizes.
A: Councilor McElroy: What would that look like? If someone has a piece of property which they own and what they want to do is allowed in that zone, what could the City Council do to prevent that? Councilor McElroy asked what changes specifically they would like to see to the code. The questioner could not outline specific changes, but Councilor McElroy offered to sit down later and review the code with the questioner to see if there are potential changes which could be introduced.
Q: Who set up the rules for the meeting tonight?
A: Councilor Hughes: There were emails between staff and council which they jointly developed the rules. Councilor Strobel: This is our first Town Hall so we welcome feedback.
Audience member response: This meeting is following Roberts Rules of Order. The last Parks and Recreation Meeting did not follow Roberts Rules and it was an issue.
Councilor Metcalf: This is your opportunity to ask us questions and have the council address your concerns.
Q: Why do you bend the rules for developers: Specifically addressing the code related to downtown and ground floor commercial development.
A: Councilor Tenbush: The changes to that ordinance were updated after the application for the Estacada Lake Apartments was submitted. In the past we have made allowances which we’ve regretted and since then we’ve been less likely to allow variances.
There was further discussion regarding the timing and wording of ground floor commercial spaces in the downtown code. Councilor McElroy was willing to meet to discuss the code specifics. We’re on the same page with the vision for the downtown.
Q: When these developments come in, if they meet the requirements by the law you cannot turn them down, correct? When the developers come in sometimes the Planning Commission will make rulings which the council does not follow. Specifically, the Wade Creek Commons was originally required to have two parking spaces for each apartment and council came back and gave them a variance of 1.5 parking spaces per apartment. I want the council to be more consistent following the Planning Commission rulings.
A: Yes, by state law they cannot refuse a development application if it meets requirements. The council thanked her for her feedback.
Q: Are we on time for the Main Street improvement project? And have any safety concerns been presented?
A: Staff: We are on time. They are working on water mains this week. We’ve not had any safety concerns reported.
Q: I’d like to see some restaurants, oil change place, larger grocery store, more options for different kinds of businesses. Can the council speak to this.
A: Councilor Hughes: We would like to see more businesses and more jobs. Councilor Metcalf: We want to bring more jobs into the community. One of our goals is to bring more businesses to the industrial park. You can support us by writing to your legislators. We’re working to develop an economic development committee to help with business development.
Councilor Strobel: Increasing economic development is a goal of the council. The council cannot decide what types of businesses come to the city. The market decides what types of businesses will come in and succeed. The best thing that we can do to attract businesses is to support our current business. Thriving busy restaurants will show that the market will support that and can attract more. Councilor Tenbush: We built a great community, which made people want to move here. We can do this by also supporting our local businesses.
Councilor McElroy: We might not have enough traffic or population to attract certain types of businesses. It’s a double-edged sword, in order to have some of those businesses you need to have a greater population but no one wants the population to grow.
Q: Can someone outside the city connect to water? If there are concerns about wastewater capacity, why do we continue to approve new subdivisions?
A: Staff: Someone outside the city but inside the UGB can connect to water service either by annexing their property or by requesting an exemption from annexation based on need but they will be charged twice the rate for water. This process is outlined in the code.
Councilor McElroy: A person can annex into the city without subdividing. They can keep their lot the same size when they annex. The properties when annexed into the city the capacity is determined based on the potential density for that property. So new subdivisions, or houses being built, are already included in that calculation. While annexing into the city does not cause people to subdivide, it could cause a domino effect where a neighbor can now annex in and they may develop.
City Engineer: A single home does not place much load on the wastewater or water infrastructure and shouldn’t be an issue for annexation. When you annex your property it increases the value because now it becomes able to be developed so property owners may see more interest from developers after annexing.
Regarding capacity for the wastewater plant, prior to 2018 we had low growth rate about 2.8%, in 2019, 20,& 21 we got hit really hard and one year had almost 20% growth. We started planning for the plant about 4 years ago, we expect to break ground this year. The issue with the plant is not related to growth. During the summer we have a flow of 350,000 gallons a day which is about 70% capacity. In the winter we have flows of 2-2.5 million gallons a day. Our problem is related to infiltration and inflow, the collection system leaks. We’re fighting that and budget and plan work every year to tackle this issue. We’ve already decreased the flow from a previous peak of about 4.5 million gallons a day. Adding new development has minor impact. The 1,000 new housing units which have already been approved through planning would have an impact of about 180,000 gallons a day. The problems are unrelated to domestic loads. We’re working on the water master plan and will expect to have to upgrade the water plant in the next few years.
Q: With all these new houses you will be collecting about $5,000,000 in park SDCs and you should consider how you will spend these park SDCs.
A: Council asked for further clarification on suggestions for parks. Suggestions included better river access and trails which would allow people to access parks without walking on major roads.
Q: The Planning Commission makes recommendations and if feels like the timing is too short for the amount of work needed to address these applications. Changes have been made which don’t seem to fit within the quality of life we want to see for the community.
A: Councilor Hughes: It does feel overwhelming when we have huge packets. We value and trust the Planning Commissions input and appreciate their service. We probably agree with the Planning Commission’s recommendations about 90-95% of the time. We can discuss with City Staff the timing for receiving packets.
Councilor Tenbush: It’s high on our list of priorities to make sure that new developments have greenspace.
Councilor Metcalf: When we’ve disagreed with the recommendations from the Planning Commission we want to meet and discuss these issues. I’ve called them in the past when we’ve disagreed.
Q: A lot of people don’t want to develop their property. The Governor has said that they will be supporting larger towns with funding for infrastructure. We should ask for assistance. Also we need a map on the current and future developments in town. Were we mandated to put in the amount of development which has occurred?
A: Councilor Hughes: There are maps on the website which show the city limits, urban growth boundary, and zoning districts.
Councilor McElroy mentioned a map which shows the approved subdivisions. It is on the website here.
Q: There are concerns about the mandates coming down from the state legislature. People living outside of the city limits cannot vote for council or run for council. There are staff who do not live inside city limits. The city’s attorney has said that we could get sued for certain decisions.
As there was no question in this comment, there was no answer to respond.
Q: Lakeshore Road looks different on state and county maps. When was this portion of Lakeshore Road which is missing on the county map sold?
A: The Lakeshore Road easement extends further than the developed Lakeshore Road. This may be the differences as shown on the two maps.
Q: How was the Town Hall announced to the community?
A: In addition to social media, the Town Hall was announced in the quarterly newsletter that went out with the end of January utility bill. It was mailed with the paper bill and if someone receives an e-bill it was attached. An email announcement was sent to the utility customers who stayed subscribed to the email newsletter list. It was on the City digital reader board on Main Street, on the website, and a special banner was added to the website to promote it. It was also promoted in the Estacada News. https://www.estacadanews.com/business/town-hall-scheduled-for-feb-5/article_53c81ce6-c085-11ee-b884-eb2f96a61a8f.html
Q: Is SE Main Street still going to be realigned as was recommended in the Estacada Downtown and Riverside Area Plan?
A: The realignment is not part of this Main Street project. The realignment is a major project which may be considered in the future in partnership with ODOT. The Infrastructure Committee recommended that Jeremy Loveless be converted to a one-way road as is noted in the Transportation System Plan. There may be a traffic study done to determine if making it one-way would be practical in the future.