City Council Meeting
The Florence City Council will hold two public hearings this evening at City Hall. The first is concerning a proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment that, if approved, would allow for redevelopment of a long-vacant building on the West End of Bay Street. The owners of the former Lotus Seafood Restaurant can only use the vacant structure for uses allowable in the “Development Estuary” district. That would prohibit their current plans to redevelop the building for residential use. The second public hearing is on a proposed ordinance change to bring the city into compliance with National Flood Insurance Program requirements. The Council meets at 5:30 and will open the hearings after proclamations in support of Coast Guard City Day in August and the Power of Florence this weekend. In other business, Councilors will hear a report from Chamber of Commerce CEO Bettina Hannigan and the annual Economic Development Report from staffer Chantelle Meyer.
Planning Commission
The Florence Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on July 22nd to consider two land use requests. Teresa Stella and Jim James are petitioning to annex a 0.48-acre property at 4787 Oceana Drive, with a proposed zoning of Low Density Residential. Meanwhile, First Step is requesting a Conditional Use Permit to continue operating two RVs and add a foldable shelter for transitional housing at the Presbyterian Church on Highway 101. Final decisions will follow at the City Council’s August 4th meeting. Notices have been issued in compliance with state and local requirements.
LIFT Funding
The latest round of state-funded LIFT Homeownership grants will fund 239 new affordable homes across Oregon. Previous LIFT grants totaling over 100-million dollars have helped triple affordable home production. Kim Gammond from Habitat for Humanity in La Pine says the funding will support 10 new homes in the next two years but notes the program’s future is uncertain. In a tough budget year, LIFT was left as the only surviving program supporting affordable homeownership in the state.
“Through these grants, we’ve really built up across the state a network of affordable housing that was finally producing at the level that we needed to see, and we just took a giant step back.”
Other programs like the Homeownership Development Incubator Program and Down Payment Assistance were cut entirely from the state’s budget this year. Programs focused on building new affordable rental properties retained funding.
