News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A proposed code reform dealing with temporary, transient business in Sisters is getting more and more streamlined.
City staffer Lynn Fujita-Conrads has been tasked with an ongoing proposal for reform of policies that could ultimately end in a revision of the City of Sisters Development Code.
At a Thursday-morning workshop on September 18, the city council moved toward a single permit process for all transient merchant licenses. Under the proposal discussed at the workshop, an applicant could apply for a license for one day up to 45 consecutive days, paying a daily fee. That fee was not nailed down, but the consensus was that it should be "impact-based." In other words, the fee the city charges would be keyed to recapturing costs to the city: staff time to deal with the permit and any public-works requirements.
The theory was that there's no material increase in cost between one day or anything up to 45 days.
"I think the cost is really in the permit review and putting conditions on it, whether it's one or 45 days," Public Works Director Paul Bertagna told the council.
An impact-based fee would not set the bar prohibitively high for transient merchants.
"If the fee's impact-driven, it's not going to be that much," City Manager Andrew Gorayeb noted.
The council had kicked around the idea of tying permit fees to what an average brick-and-mortar establishment's costs are per diem, but the council appeared on Thursday to step away from that methodology.
The proposal as it exists now would limit the time-frame and thus the scope for a temporary business, and would not allow something like a food cart to be sited year-round.
"If you're going to add a food cart to a piece of property year-round, you should have to go through a planning review," said Community Development Director Pauline Hardie.
The council is also moving toward categorizing "public events" as events on either public or private property. Promoters of such an event would be charged an impact-based fee and would choose whether or not to pass that cost on to their vendors.
Councilor Chris Frye noted that Bend assesses a fee for such activities covering long-term impact to public facilities, much like a city amortizes replacement costs for equipment.
If the City moves to such a definition, attorney Steve Bryant has advised the council to clarify whether and how the city's 1880s Western theme is applied.
Councilor David Asson expressed some concerns about how that theme would be applied in a way that would satisfy citizen and merchant concerns about equity and aesthetics.
"I don't see how you're going to define 'nice' or 'tents' or '1880s'," he said.
Regarding aesthetics, Asson said that simple compliance with the 1880s theme does not guarantee a good appearance.
"The 1880s had some pretty schlocky-looking things," he said.
Of course, the same concern could be applied to a brick-and-mortar establishment, since aesthetics are inherently subjective.
Frye noted that many people are concerned with the impact of tented events or merchants on the freshly remodeled Cascade Avenue.
"A lot of people feel that that is not attractive for what we just did with town and is not in the spirit of what we want," Frye said. "I personally think that (the Cascade corridor) should be protected."
Gorayeb noted that banning transient or tented special events on Cascade Avenue would impact a number of businesses that allow such activities. It could also impact the farmers' market, which is set in Barclay Park, which has a frontage on Cascade Avenue.
Frye acknowledged that concern.
Gorayeb further noted that development of Cascade Avenue may eventually make the point moot by eliminating empty lots available for setting up tents.
"Cascade Avenue should be fully developed and occupied," he said, while acknowledging that for a variety of reasons that may not happen in the immediate future.
Hardie acknowledged some benefit to the proposed simplification.
"People come in with all (kinds of) ideas to the counter," she said. "And it's confusing the way the code is written now. These are getting simpler and simpler the way Lynn's writing it."
Confusion over code has been costly in terms of controversy. Last spring, Celia Hung and Richard Esterman approached the City to conduct events on leased property at the corner of Cascade Avenue and Oak Street. They were directed by staff to apply for a Temporary Use Permit. That application drew opposition and was appealed (and called up internally) to the planning commission and ultimately to the city council. In order to stage their Sisters Artists Marketplace during Quilt Show weekend, Hung/Esterman were required to have all their 90-odd vendors apply for a transient merchant license. The individual permit fees totaled $15,600, which Hung paid.
"We don't think it's right at the last minute to ask our vendors to come up with that kind of money," Hung told The Nugget.
The city declined Hung's request to waive and refund the $15,600, and she has filed for a writ of review in Deschutes County Circuit Court in an effort to compel the City to waive and refund the fees.
The City's position is that it would be inappropriate to waive those fees.
Such controversies surrounding the permitting process for transient merchants and temporary businesses have led the city to review their code. The council now seems poised to eliminate the Temporary Use Permit and also seems to be abandoning the idea of creating a temporary business license in favor of the single transient merchant license.
Gorayeb believes the City is getting closer to processes that will be "simpler and easier to apply."
He noted that "a lot of aspects of the municipal code ... were derived reactively. Fast forward 10 years, it doesn't make much sense."
The proposals being hashed out currently remain only proposals. Any revision of the code will require a formal process involving public hearings.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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