Planning Department items:

Ace Hardware accessory structure (21-060 DR):  Final order for this accessory structure to provide additional materials storage at Ace Hardware was issued on November 30^th.

Parks Code Changes (21-032 DCA):  City staff, ESA, and the city attorney’s office continue to work on the code changes.

Senate Bill 458 (21-059 DCA):  Staff has started researching the requirements of Senate Bill 458 to determine what the City of Sandy will need to adopt. The deadline for adoption is June 2022. This senate bill allows for lots with a duplex to be partitioned.  

Mt. Hood Cleaners addition (21-057):  This Type I application for the construction of a storage addition to their existing building has been completed by staff.  Final order will be issued by the end of the first week in December.

Bornstedt Views Subdivision (21-021 SUB/TREE):  The application for this 42 lot subdivision between Bornstedt Rd and Averill Parkway south of Cascadia Village was deemed complete on August 17^th.  The Planning Commission has postponed this hearing from its original hearing date of October 25^th to the PC meeting on February 28^th, 2022.

Deer Meadows Subdivision (21-014 SUB/TREE & 21-061 AP):  The Planning Commission denied the Deer Meadows subdivision proposal with a vote of 5:0 on November 8.  The final order (i.e. written decision) was signed by Chairman Crosby and issued on November 18.  The applicant filed an appeal of the Planning Commission decision on November 30 within 12 days of the Planning Commission decision as required by Section 17.28.10 of the SMC.  The appeal will likely be heard by the City Council on January 18, 2022.

City of Sandy Comprehensive Plan Update:  City Council approved the plan update at their regular meeting on December 6^th.  Staff continues to work with 3J Consulting to develop the contract details for this report.

19555 SE Arletha Court annexation:  This property was just purchased, and the new owner would like to annex it into city limits.  Pre-application meeting scheduled for the 28^th of December.

OTSD tree removal (21-042 TREE):  This request by the Oregon Trail School District to remove trees at Cedar Ridge Middle School was deemed incomplete in September.  Staff is still waiting on additional information from applicant.Transportation System Plan update:  The results from the TSP survey (closed on November 19^th) will be shared at the work session on December 13^th.  Staff, ODOT and DKS continue to work on the revised TSP.

Kelly’s Kudos:

I want to recognize Emily Meharg’s efforts on numerous projects over the last few months.  Emily has taken on several larger projects, including the Sandy Woods II subdivision, The Bornstedt Views subdivision, Senate Bill 458, and recruitment of our next traffic engineer consultant.  These projects are time consuming and complex.  Her dedication to submission details, timelines, and code requirements is what makes these projects successful.  Thank you, Emily, for all your hard work!

Internal projects: 

• Permanent Outdoor Covered Structures grant program:  This status of this program is reviewed semi-monthly at the City of Sandy Ec Dev Advisory Board meeting – here is the status of the program as of the beginning of December 2021:
  
  • Ria’s/SFR – Construction is complete!
  • Le Happy – Construction is complete!
  • Sandlandia – Construction is complete!
  • Boring Brewing – Construction is complete! 
  • Red Shed Public House – Construction is complete!
  • No Place Saloon – Construction is essentially complete! – The basic structure has been completed for many weeks, electrical work is complete and the dry well was installed and passed inspection in the final week of November.  The only remaining item is the gutters – Neilson Construction is waiting on their gutter subcontractor to provide some specialty pieces for the gutter system and says they have 4 hours of work remaining on the project once those pieces arrive.  The No Place Saloon covered structure should pass final inspection by the next report.
  • Tollgate Inn – We are moving forward with a design concept from architect Blane Skowede from Keystone Architecture.  Mr. Skowede has experience with opaque building materials and is confident that he can design a structure to meet Mr. Lesowski’s design requirements for the structure.  An initial design meeting between the Ec Dev office, Mr. Skowede and the two principals at the restaurant went very well, and staff is .  We hope to have an engineered design for this structure completed and out to bid by the next report.

• Covered Structures Round 2:  We are now in the design stage of the second round of this grant program.  We have tentative designs for all eight qualifying projects and our design contractor is currently finalizing these designs for UR Board review.  We will also be asking for UR Board guidance on the one project that is outside the bounds of program requirements.  We hope to have designs ready for your review at the next urban renewal board meeting in January.
  
• Christmas Tree lighting ceremony: This event is now “owned” and operated by the staff at the Sandy Public Library.  This event occurred on Friday, December 3^rd and was once again a drive-thru event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/community/page/holiday-tree-lighting-1

Economic Development items:

Econ Devl – Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

• Façade project – Clackamas County’s Sandy Health Clinic:  Construction continues on this new health care clinic next to the Sandy PD, which is tentatively scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2023.
• Façade project – Les Schwab:  This project is now essentially complete.  Staff is currently waiting for Les Schwab project manager Jordan Hoffart to call for a final inspection.
• Public infrastructure project – Small library planter:  This project will remove the black bricks used as capstone for this planter (about 30 of which had already broken off) and replace with an appropriate capstone for a surface meant for seating.  Contractor is adding anti-skateboarding measures as well.  If the result is appealing, we will do the same with the larger planter in the spring of 2022 in addition to painting the planters and replacing plants as needed.
• Façade project – Fun Time RV fencing:  Work seems to have stopped on this project.  Reason unknown.
• Derelict building – Smith Building: Planning and Economic Development met with Chris Gunderson, the new owner of the Smith Building, on December 7th. Mr. Gunderson has already put a badly needed new roof on the building over the last few weeks, and will be pulling a demolition permit shortly to get started on removing some of the damage and unpermitted work that has accumulated inside over the years. There are currently several design options he is considering – the final design will depend on which one of the potential tenants he is talking to right now decides to take the space. As a courtesy to Mr. Gunderson, we are going to contract with our AntFarm maintenance crew to perform a once-over on the landscaping behind the Smith Building prior to construction work getting into full swing.

Econ Devl – Internal Projects:

Downtown maintenance:

• AF Downtown Maintenance:  The AntFarm crew will be performing some more minor maintenance work for us in December.  Tasks will focus on the Heritage Square parking lot – the crew will be removing moss from the east edge of the lot and trimming up the landscaping island at the center of the lot so that it can no longer be used as a mini homeless encampment.
• Future AF Downtown Maintenance:
• Flower basket program:  Holiday street tree lighting is now installed on Pioneer and Proctor.

Econ Devl – Economic Development Advisory Board:

During the last several weeks, staff was researching the possibility of having the contractor providing our comprehensive plan create our economic development strategic plan (EDSP) as well.  While there were positives and negatives to this possibility, it was ultimately decided that we would go with the original plan and put an RFP together for the EDSP. 

The December meeting of the EDAB was postponed until the first Wednesday in January (1/5/22) to give staff enough time to put the RFP together and to give our board members a break during the holiday season.  At our meeting in January, we will ask the board to review the RFP prior to making it public to see if they have any suggestions for improving the document.

Econ Devl – Conferences/training:

There were no training opportunities for Economic Development in the month of November.