Decision Delayed On Mixed-Use Riverfront Project

ASTORIA, OR-The planning commission here is delaying its decision on a $4-million riverfront retail and residential project until Nov. 28. The River Park project at No. 1 Sixth St. is planned as a three-story 45-foot-high building with restaurants and tourist-oriented shops on the first and condominiums on the second and third floors. A 20-foot-wide boardwalk reaching out 210 feet over the Columbia River would surround the building. No. 10 Sixth Street Ltd. is the company under which Chester Trabucco is developing the project.

The project fulfills the city staff’s interpretation of the code requirements, says associate planner Beth La Fleur. Trabucco requested the decision be delayed to give his attorney’s time to respond to concerns raised by the attorney for a nearby property owner and Bond Street Neighborhood Group member Edmonde “Emmy” Roach, who are positioning themselves for a hearing in front of the state Land Use Board of Appeals if the planning approves the project.

Both the group and the property owner are concerned about traffic impacts, views and public access. Add to that the fact that approval by the commission is contingent on approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Division of State Lands–both of which now have to account for endangered salmon–and development is a long way out, if not out of the question.