News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Richard Esterman was elected to a two-year term on the Sisters City Council in 2016. This November, he is seeking reelection to his seat. Like all three candidates for council, he is running unopposed.
Esterman told The Nugget that he would like to see the City address the question of housing affordability by creating guidelines and criteria for developers interested in creating such housing and offering breaks on permits and fees. He is opposed to the idea of a construction excise tax, which the council has considered in concept.
"I don't like the CET tax," he said. "I don't see how it's going to take care of the problem."
He also said that he would not have supported the $300,000 subsidy the City provided to build affordable apartments, which was agreed upon prior to his tenure.
"We're not in the banking business," he said. "I didn't agree with that; I wouldn't have been on board with that."
Like other councilors, Esterman is looking toward the 2020 expiration of the City's contract with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services. He is leery of moving to reconstitute an independent police department at this time.
"I'm willing to look at it," he said. "I can't say I'm 100 percent for it, because I've seen the (cost) numbers. Eventually, yeah, we're going to need it."
He said that he would be supportive of allocating funds to save for such a future eventuality and "gradually move into it" - as long as the funds were clearly dedicated to that purpose.
The councilor would like to test some small-scale efforts to smooth traffic flow through Sisters, including banning left turns off Cascade Avenue/Highway 20, except from dedicated left-turn bays, perhaps starting with just doing so on weekends. He would also like to test regulation of crosswalk traffic to smooth out the stop-start effect of unregulated foot traffic across Cascade Avenue.
"There would have to be some enforcement," he acknowledged.
Esterman is pleased that the City acted proactively to create time, place and manner regulations regarding cannabis production and distribution in Sisters. Voters will decide in this election whether they want to allow such activity in town.
Esterman supported sending that question to voters and says that regulations will be ready to go if they approve the activity - now or at some future date.
He does not have a strong sense of which way the vote will go.
"I think it's going to be close; I really do," he said.
He does not think there will be a major impact if voters do approve commercial marijuana activity.
"I really think if it's monitored that it will be fine," he said.
The councilor noted one issue upon which he's had a change of mind and heart: vacation rentals.
"I used to think if you owned a piece of property, you should be able to do what you want with it," he said.
Testimony from families who feel they have been negatively impacted by vacation rentals in their residential neighborhoods had an impact on him.
"It changed my mind,"
he said.
Esterman told The Nugget that he now supports imposing more restrictive zoning on vacation rentals in Sisters.
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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