The Dalles prohibits RV parks in residential areas

Other changes were made to RV parks as well, including that they must provide communal restroom and shower facilities, but they cannot provide sewer connections to individual RV spaces. This was related to preventing long-term residents at the parks. For similar reasons, RVs are limited to 30 days in one space, though it was pointed out that people could switch spaces and continue to stay.

Councilor Rod Runyon, the only city councilor to vote no to the proposal, had concerns about the notification of the change in ordinance, namely because those in residential areas who would be affected were notified, but those in industrial areas were not. Cook explained that was because the industrial areas were not losing any abilities they already had. Instead, they were being allowed to have RV parks.

Runyon argued that being allowed to have RV parks could affect industrial property owners, such as the Port of The Dalles, and that such owners hadn’t known about this ordinance. City Manager Matthew Klebes noted that the agenda packet was sent to all partner agencies in advance, giving them several weeks’ notice.

Runyon asked if it would be possible to push the decision back until someone from the port could attend the meeting, as they were unable to make it on Jan. 8. However, because the public hearing had already been closed, in order to allow feedback from external sources, the city would have had to restart the entire process, setting the ordinance back several months.

Following the discussion, the council voted 4-1 to approve the ordinance.

•••

In other business, Cook gave a presentation on the Historic Landmark Commission’s goals for 2024. Goals were split into two categories: Short-term goals and continuous goals.

There were many short-term goals, including updating historic ordinance and design standards, providing a historic restoration workshop and encouraging the addition of a student representative on the Historic Landmarks Commission. Cook also mentioned creating a concept design for historic building plaques, as well as encouraging the fabrication and installation of these plaques throughout the community.

Several goals also focused on landmarks or locations, specifically the Pioneer Cemetery. Goals for the cemetery included creating tours of historic properties including the cemetery, informational signage and maintenance for the cemetery and establishing an inventory of grave sites available on the City of The Dalles website. There were also goals related to the restoration of the Waldron-Gitchell building, including restoring the upstairs windows and installing a light capsule (also known as “ghost sign”) art project at the site.

For continuous goals, Cook mentioned collaborating with Main Street and The Dalles Art Center on downtown restoration projects. She also talked about encouraging historic preservation by making historic preservation education and funding resources available online, providing annual recognition of historic restorations, updating historic inventories and encouraging new nominations to local and national registries. One goal was advocating for the preservation and continued use of The Dalles High School and Colonel Wright Elementary School.

The council also voted to approve the purchase and installation of five emergency backup generators for the city water system, in an amount not to exceed $142,277, so long as the city is able to receive a hazard mitigation grant in the amount of $530,635 or greater. This grant has been applied for.

Also approved unanimously by the council was a resolution amending the city’s fee schedule. Under the resolution, the clerical fee for requesting body camera footage was raised from $50 to $100 per hour of video editing. These requests often take intensive editing to redact faces, which is required under Oregon law. Because of the intensity of editing, this is work the department has to pay a contractor for.

Other changes to fees include several $5 increases to various transaction, processing and resale license fees, as well as a new $30 fee for searching the city’s lien docket, which is also handled by a third party vendor.

The Public Works Department also requested a change for filling water directly from public works. It was previously a $78.95 access fee, plus an additional $3.61 for every 1,000 gallons.

According to Public Works Director Dave Anderson, people from out of state were taking advantage of this rate, which was incredibly low compared to other public works departments. The department instead wanted to remove the access fee and per 1,000 gallon rate, instead just charging 25 cents per gallon.

Following the approval of this resolution, Anderson gave a presentation about the recently completed Dog River Pipeline project. He showed many pictures from the project, which was 25 years in the making, and noted that though there’s a few more things to finish, they should only take about 60 days.

“We’ve increased the capacity of the pipeline from about 8 million gallons a day to 17 million gallons a day,” Anderson said, summarizing the major points of the project. “We installed fish passage systems, we will be installing the fish screening systems in the spring of 2024 and we installed the fish-friendly culvert on Brooks Meadow Creek.”