Board of Clatsop County Commissioners action this week:

Flood Hazard ordinance adopted
The board held a public hearing but on an ordinance codifying new flood hazard maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency into the county’s land-use plan. The maps, developed by FEMA under a nation-wide review, increase the amount of land in the county deemed vulnerable to 100-year floods, flood events projected to occur once every 100 years. That designation in turn adds new building restrictions to many properties within the identified flood zones, such as increased minimum heights for new structures.
The hearing was continued to Sept. 8. The county is required to adopt the new maps by Sept. 17, if not, local property owners would be ineligible to participate in the national flood insurance program.
Jon Johnson, resident of Beerman Creek Lane south of Seaside, testified that one of the new FEMA maps placed his property within the flood plain, even though there had been no recorded flooding on the land since at least the 1920s.
County Planner Jennifer Bunch said a process exists for individual property owners to challenge FEMA maps, but that it can be costly.

Emergency Management transferred
The Board of Commissioners approved a plan to shift the county’s Emergency Management Division from the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s Office to the County Manager’s Office. The change is designed to improve communications, simplify the chain of command and include more county personnel in emergency training and planning.
Human Resources Director Dean Perez will become Emergency Management Division Director. Current Emergency Services Manager Gene Strong and Emergency Services Coordinator Tom Manning will retain their assignments.
Sheriff Tom Bergin told the board he endorsed the change and had “total faith” that the Emergency Management program would flourish under the County Manager.

Hazardous waste agreements okayed
The board approved two agreements, with the City of Seaside and Western Oregon Waste (WOW), providing for new tipping fees collected by WOW at the local waste transfer station to be given to the county to fund the new Household Hazardous Waste program. Fees were increased effective July 1 to fund the HHW program, which will fund periodic community collection events around the county to receive hazardous materials such as paint, motor oil, pesticides and other substances.

Land use study panelists appointed
The board appointed Commissioner John Raichl and county Planning Commission member Clarke Powers to the newly formed committee overseeing the Camp Rilea Joint Land Use Study. The JLUS, funded with a $ Defense Department grant, is intended to provide guidance for future land-use management around the 1,800-acre military facility and prevent conflicts with potentially incompatible development.
The committee will represent a variety of participating local, state, federal and tribal stakeholders.

Other Business
In other business the board:
-approved a zone change from Tourist-Commercial to Residential Agriculture 2 for a property on U.S. Highway 26 near the Jewell Junction.
-certified three local emergency shelter programs operated by Women’s Resource Center, Restoration House and Helping Hands in order to qualify them for $17,063 in federal funding through the Emergency Shelter Grant Program. The money will be evenly divided among the three organizations.