October 12, 2007

New thoughts emerge over Broughton
Skamania chamber director shares woes of county economics

By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Chronicle

     As usual in recent gorge commission meetings, the highest turnout Tuesday was for the latest progress report on the proposed Management Plan amendment for recreation resorts.
     The amendment would allow the conversion of the currently abandoned Broughton Lumber Mill site four miles west of Bingen into a destination resort.
     Proponents and opponents showed up in force for yet another opportunity to testify for or against the project. Gorge Commission Planner Tom Asher summarized the previous testimony by outlining the issues raised by both sides.
Issues raised by opponents, he said, included:
     • protection of gorge resources,
     • precedent and inequity concerns,
     • scale not appropriate,
     • negative economic impacts on urban areas,
     • not shown to meet the Scenic Area Act criteria,
     • bad type of economic development,
     • recreation impacts,
     • mill is not a bad visual feature,
     Issues raised by those in favor of the amendment included:
     • positive economic impacts to urban areas,
     • county needs increase in tax base,
     • site conversion improves safety,
     • site conversion enhance sthe National Scenic Area,
     • number and size of units should be economically viable,
     • footprint of development too restrictive,
     • provide design flexibility for viable resort.
     Testimony from most of the participants at Tuesday’s meeting primarily echoed those same concerns, but there were several new elements.
     Jane Nichols [no relative this article’s author] of Hood River Bed & Breakfast testified on behalf of 12 bed and breakfast businesses in the area. She said the group has a joint roomfinder agreement and that the only time the bed and breakfasts are full are weekends in July and August. She said they had taken a number of calls for people looking for campsites and urged that the Broughton site be developed under existing standards, which allow for 175 campsites at the location.
     Michael Stewart of White Salmon said she was concerned that the development would take place in Skamania County, but the primary effects would be faced in nearby Klickitat County.
     “No mechanism of recourse exists for a citizen of Klickitat County to disagree with an administrative decision in Skamania County,” she noted.
     Tribal member Chief John Jackson of Underwood came out in favor of the plan. He said, after meeting with the developers, he is convinced they will help better protect his fishing site, add hydrants for fire protection, remove potentially hazardous old buildings, and provide better traffic control in the area.
     “I support the development and I think my fishermen friends do, too,” he said.
     Broughton and SDS Lumber Company CEO Jason Spadaro was careful not to single out any opposition organization or individual, but said he was frustrated that the lumber industry had been told to embrace the changing economy of the gorge.
     “Then when you go to try to embrace tourism and do resort development — something that could enhance the National Scenic Area — they come out against it.”
     He repeated his statement from the previous month that the current draft plan amendment doesn’t allow an economically viable project.
     “It’s all a balancing act,” he added. “If there are fewer units, then they need to be much larger units. If they are smaller, then we need a much larger number of them. It’s all give and take. There’s a critical volume and attractiveness that we need in order to make it work.”
     He also disagreed with opponents who say conditions in the gorge have not changed enough to warrant an amendment modifying the management plan.
     “To challenge the notion that there has been change is a very callous disregard for the people that live in Skamania County that have been through the pain of that change,” he said. “It has been significant; it has been severe. Skamania County has been the most heavily affected.”
     The most impassioned testimony of the day came from Peggy Bryan, director of the Skamania County Economic Development Council, who was ready with statistics on Skamania County’s economic woes.
     “1n 1986, when the act was passed, 850 people were employed in the timber industry in Skamania County,” she said. “Now there are less than 150 people.      That’s a significant change.”
     “In 1986, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest was cutting more than 350 million board feet annually. Now it’s down to nearly nothing.
     “In 1993. Stevenson Co-Ply closed and we lost 175 jobs. In 1997, Wind River Nursery closed and we lost 350 jobs. Those are significant changes.
     “We have 60 percent of our workforce leaving our area for employment. When the act was passed, that figure was 20 percent.
     “We have an all-volunteer fire department, where 90 percent of our firefighters work out of the area. If there’s a major fire, we have to scramble to cover it.
     “I guess I get a little confused when commissioners comment there has not been significant change. I don’t know how to identify significant change other than that.”
     The next step in the process is production of the executive director’s report on the proposed plan amendment, due before the end of November.
     The commission had been tentatively scheduled to vote on the amendment at its December meeting, but chair Jeff Condit said if the all sides didn’t have a full 30 days to study the director’s report before the December meeting, he would have no problem holding the vote over until January.