Seaside City Council takes action

Published 9:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

The council approved five resolutions and pushed back a vote 

SEASIDE — Seaside City Councilors approved five resolutions and moved to vote on one ordinance at a later date during Monday’s council meeting. The resolutions ranged from approving the new Avenue V homeless encampment camping policies, to vacating some city-owned property, to using city funds for local emergency services and more. The following is a recap of actions taken.

Floodplain Ordinance

In 2024, following lawsuits that had been filed against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA notified Seaside of mandatory measures they were required to implement as part of their floodplan: Pre-Implementation Compliance Measures were to be added to Seaside’s Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.

FEMA had given the city until the end of July 2025 to implement the measures. To meet FEMA’s requirement, the council conducted a first and second reading, which included the PICM guidelines, at the July 14 meeting. 

The council proceeded with the first and second readings thinking they would then be voting to implement the FEMA requirements, looking at three options. One, would be to adopt Oregon State’s model floodplain development code including the PICM language; two, to adopt the state’s model floodplain development code removing the PICM language until FEMA’s current litigation is decided; or three, to table the resolution until FEMA’s current litigation is decided.

However, FEMA pushed back its deadline to the end of August, said Jeff Flory, the city’s community development director.

After some back-and-forth between the councilors over concerns regarding the PICM guidelines, the council decided to move the vote of the ordinance to the Aug. 11 meeting. 

Camping Policy Resolution

Councilors unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 4073, which adopts the Temporary Camping Policy for the city’s newest Avenue V homeless encampment site. 

The updated policy, presented and adopted at Monday’s meeting, includes prohibiting illegal drugs, alcohol or drug paraphernalia on-site; prohibiting indoor-style mattresses, such as memory foam and innerspring mattresses; permitting the use of blue tarps; and permitting one pet per campsite.

Clatsop Community Action Resolution

The council unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 4076, an agreement with Clatsop Community Action for their services to manage the new Avenue V site. 

In May, the council discussed contracting CCA for camp management services. An agreement was approved between both parties, but it was not signed or implemented because CCA requested changes. All agreed to wait until the new campsite opened to finalize and adopt an updated agreement.

The updated policy includes new verbiage with an option to allow CCA the ability to terminate the agreement with the city if there would be a future need to do so. It also includes additional language that clearly states the roles and staffing details.

According to City Manager Spencer Kyle, the Avenue V campsite will open on Tuesday, Aug. 5. 

Vacating City Property 

The council also unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 4077, a request for the city to vacate the remainder of 3rd Avenue between N. Holladay Drive, which is west of the Necanicum River.

Restoration House, housing that serves adult men with significant co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, and Hughes Ransom Funeral Home are two businesses that utilize 3rd Avenue for access. 

According to Christian Zupancic, the attorney for Restoration House, the business has set plans to expand their building and housing opportunities. However, in order for this plan to work, Restoration House requested the city vacate the remainder of 3rd Avenue, Flory said. 

“There is development happening there to add 10 serious and persistent mental illness units to Restoration House,” Zupancic said. “That development is to vacate 3rd Avenue and a lot of this has to do with the reconfiguration of the building. … There are going to be a lot of benefits from a fire standpoint and safety standpoint.” 

Following the adopted resolution, city staff will begin the process to inform the public about the street.

Fire Department resolutions

The council unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 4078, a request to authorize the transfer of $276,575 to the Public Safety Fund. This transfer will help fund two firefighter positions and new equipment. 

Seaside Fire Department Chief Joey Daniels said that the two new positions will help decrease the call response time in the evenings. 

“We run so many calls (and) now we’re going to have people living there, so the response time should go down at night especially,” Daniels said. 

And, the council unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 4079, that allows for the implementation of a 24-hour shift schedule for the fire department. 

The new schedule will consist of a one/three/two/three shift schedule, according to Daniels. This means that fire crew will work one day on, three days off, then two days on, followed by another three days off. 

In order for this schedule to work, the city adopted a 28-day work period within the resolution. 

“This is just a new schedule that came out that the crew wanted to try, so I was in favor of it,” Daniels said.  

The next scheduled Seaside City Council meeting will take place on Monday, Aug. 11. The Aug. 25 meeting was canceled “to give everybody the chance, including (city) staff… time to take vacation and time to not have to worry too much about city business,” Wright said.