Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

So, Brandon, take it away.

Take it away, Brandon. You can start the meeting.

Okay. Let's call the meeting. Can you can the roll call be called?

Alright. Let's see. Commissioners Espy and Commissioner, LaSalle are excused. Chairs, Chair Dole? Here. Commissioner Stoll? Here. Commissioner Laws? Here. Commissioner Meinek?

Here. We have

a quorum. Right. So we rearranged everything. Right?

Yes. I'm busy looking at all

this stuff. Sorry.

So Chair Doyle, there was a request to rearrange the agenda to bring forward item six a as we have a quorum to open up the public hearing and and have a motion on that public hearing before we move forward with the rest of the agenda. Is that an acceptable request?

That is. That's fine. That's, five a

S l u a Agenda item six a. Six a. The public hearing item for Clackamas Community College.

Yes. Okay. Yeah. And the agenda, it shows it by the way.

Yes. I'm with you. Sorry. Yes.

No. You're good. Okay.

Alright. Do we have a motion to continue? Or what do we do? Sorry. I don't have my agenda up anymore. I don't know.

So the procedure would be for us to open the public hearing process and then have a motion for a planning commission request to continue the hearing to a date certain of January 26, as the item is not ready to be considered before the planning commission. And so we would

And I can tell you why that is. The engineering staff are still reviewing the project for their, public works, connections, findings, pub adequacy of public utilities. It's it should be pretty straightforward. And the planner who's reviewing this due today has informed me that by the twenty sixth, they will definitely have that all those findings from public works ready to make a recommendation. So it is a public hearing.

We could read the script at the next hearing and I would recommend that we do rather than try to get through that tonight. That's perfectly acceptable. Because it will be Yeah. So if we agree as if the Planning Commission agrees to read the, quasi judicial preamble at the next hearing, that should be, that should be adequate.

I have no concern with that.

Okay. In that case, the commission can move to move and vote on the continuance.

Anyone there like to make a motion?

A move to move for a continuance on GLUA 25 Dash00047 and m e s 2 5Dash00006, to a date certain of 01/26/2026.

I second.

Great. Let's get the vote.

We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Laws? Aye. Commissioner Stoll? Aye. Commissioner Dole? Aye. Commissioner Meinig? Aye. Motion carries. Hearings continue to the twenty sixth.

Thank you all.

Alright. Alright. Do we wanna move to presentation?

If you would like to move out of order, again in deference of our presenter who has been so patiently waiting for us, that is acceptable. Let's do it. K.

No objections. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for having me here. I'm Marcos Cubo, the water quality coordinator for City of Oregon City, and this is what we've learned from the COVE in regards to harmful algal blooms. Next slide, please. So what have we learned about the Clackamas Cove? We've learned what hydrodynamics affect water levels in the cove. We know the phosphorus is limiting factor for harmful algal blooms, and we'll discuss what we're doing with this information moving forward. Next slide.

Am I right here? Am I on the right slide?

Yes. We are now on the right side. Okay. Alright. So there's a lot going on in this slide.

Don't worry too much. We just wanna know the takeaway is there are multiple sites where we collected multiple different measurements, but we'll primarily focus on a and c. A is the the deepest part of the cove, and c is the entrance from the Clackamas Clackamas River. Next slide, please. This is a hydrograph that represents, what the cove experiences and elevation changes for the water.

And we can see, based on that little green bit that goes above the orange, it's kinda hard to see. But, essentially, what this graph tells us is that we see tidal influences from the Willamette and the Calacamas. But once we reach a certain period in the summer starting around June, there's no influence to the cove. It's essentially cut off and acts like a lake. Next slide, please.

And, the gravel bar is ultimately what, dictates this water level in the cove. It, most of the water in the Clackamas moves on that northern channel there. You see the arrow, and then, the the channel on the in Northeast, the first circle on the top right, that is, where it receives water from the Calacamas. But once once it gets down, below about 12 feet, we don't see any more influence. And, the more so the circle on the bottom left corner is the one that essentially determines how high the water level is gonna be.

It prevents any kind of influence from the Willamette. Next slide, please. So these graphs are sandy profiles that help us understand water column characteristics that impact the growth of algae. In 2024 is the dash line, and 25 is the solid. The biggest difference we see is that green line you see, on the top and bottom and is closer it's closer to the surface in '25 than it was in '24.

The green line shows us where most of the algae are and why. The example for example, the temperature, which is the red line, and oxygen level in the blue line dramatically change at the same depth, the green line spikes, which indicates where the greatest concentration of algae are. But this doesn't exactly mean that it's harmful algae. It's just a measurement of chlorophyll, but we do also see a spike in, harmful algae, which are also called cyanobacteria. Next slide, please.

So we've determined that, the algae's greatest source of phosphorus, which is its limiting factor, is leaching from the sediments when oxygen levels drop in the summer, which we saw on the previous slide. The green and brown segments of the bars represent the fraction of phosphorus that easily leach into low oxygen environments. Most importantly, the available phosphorus of the available phosphorus is right at the sediment surface. If you look at, the top two lines on each graph, those are the top two centimeters of sediment. So you see the brown and green take over the majority of the of the bar.

Next slide, please. So, phosphorus near the cove bottom remains low until the cove becomes isolated in July when stratification leads to internal phosphorus release. Excuse me. So one thing to note is at the surface, we have a different scale of the concentrations than on the bottom graph. So they may look similar to the naked eye, but if you observe the x axis, we see that the concentrations are different.

So in reality, the surface is very low, rarely going above 0.03. When we look at the bottom during the summer, it goes all the way up to 1.4. And the blue is 2,005 25, and the orange is 2,024. So we did see more phosphorus release, this year, and we also saw a greater volume of, chlorophyll in the water. Next slide, please.

Temperature influences the release of phosphorus by stratifying the cove with hot water on top and cooler water stabilizing at depth approximately six meters. The lack of mixing prevents the two layers from moving oxygen into the water from the top to the bottom, causing a chemical reaction that releases phosphorus from the sediment surface. This is where the algae get their nutrients, and then they move up to where they can convert sunlight to food, which is what we saw, in the previous slide where the green line was showing at about three meters. Next slide, please. We can also see it there at the bottom with the red circle.

You see how the dash line is not as peaked and slightly lower in-depth. And the solid line is the twenty twenty five where we see the jump. Cyanobacteria, aka harmful algae, have the greatest population of all species during the summer months, which we see in the top graph, most prevalent in 2025. The, dark green segment of the bar symbolizes those cyanobacteria.

This

is still well below potential contact to pets and humans, but we know it's present every year. Next slide, please. While temperature stratification is a key driver for phosphorus release in the summer, which feeds the algae, aquatic vegetation can further limit the mixing of the two layers by trapping heat in its canopy. We see multiple different species of invasive aquatic plants in there such as Eurasian the milfoil, which is that long stringy stuff that, swimmers always get trapped in. So it might be good to remove that, and it could also improve the water quality.

Next slide, please. Removal of these prevalent invasive aquatic plants will not only improve circulation and water quality, it also improves aesthetics and recreation opportunities. Next slide, please. So this is a busy slide here, but I'll try to make it more concise. The cove is cut off from the river in the summer.

Hydrodynamics are governed by the river and the gravel bar, but mostly the gravel bar. The cove mixes poorly in the summer and fall aquatic all aquatic vegetation plays a role in mixing. Now we need to model need a model to tell us how much inflow is needed to sustain mixing, which is what the the consultants are doing for us now. We have successfully calibrated the model this month, and we will be receiving results in the near future. Next slide, please.

So summer thermal stratification creates low oxygen conditions near the bottom triggering internal phosphorus release from sediment. Reactive sediment phosphorus provides reoccurring nutrient source supporting cyanobacteria growth during warm and stagnant periods, which is why we want that mixing to happen. Aquatic vegetation traps the heat and intensifies the stratification. Phosphorus buildup and cyanobacteria response can vary year to year, indicating sensitivity to hydraulic and climatic conditions. Cyanobacteria dominance by anabina planktonica reflects the adaptation to low mixing.

The species can move vertically to access the light and nutrients, so that's why you see them at the the three meter mark. They're going down to the bottom where the phosphorus is rich, and then they're ballasting back up to that three meter mark where they get enough sunlight to, produce food. Overall, summer conditions reinforce a feedback loop between stratification and internal loading and algal response. Next slide, please. So the way we see it, there's two ways to manage the cove.

We can continue to treat it as a lake in the summer and, work on things like invasive plant removal and things like that. And then or we can enhance the exchange and treat it like a an addition to the river, which would require substantial permits and work to be done in the river. So we are utilizing the model to look at six different scenarios as to how which how much inflow will be necessary and, whether it's feasible, to do so with, the tools we have. And that's all I got.

Thanks a lot, Marcos. Does the commission have any questions?

None on my end. They're in the chambers. Greg, Carla, Victoria online.

No. I'm just I'm curious to see what happens or what the final outcome is.

Haven't been both. Gravel bar at the entrance to the cove has been seemingly getting bigger and bigger and bigger over a year because of the deposits from the channel. Is that a correct assessment?

We haven't been monitoring it from year to year, but we do have a twenty year look back from 2024 to, I believe, it's 2005. So we have noticed a substantial aggregation of rocks. And even this past storm, we had the big one. There was a lot of rocks that were deposited and shifted. One of one of our consultants' data loggers ended up getting pretty messed up and shipped off down downstream.

So it was it was a big storm, and, that is one thing I can say with confidence about, streams in general is that it will it will never stay the same. So any kind of dredging is is a temporary solution, but that may be all we have for for the COVID is temporary solutions because harmful algal blooms are a bigger scale problem than just the COVID.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Yes.

Long term, what would be more of a sustainable solution in terms of cost? Treating it like a lake or making it to where it contributes to the Glaukumis River?

This is all based on preliminary data, but in my personal opinion, I would say starting with the low hanging fruit, like removing the invasive species and potentially, like, looking at that for a summer or two, seeing if it affects a die off of or not. And then if not, potentially treating the water with an algaecide. It's not my my it's not ideal to use pesticide, but when it comes to harmful algae, it there's not a whole lot you can do to remove it. You could try filtering it, but, there's also options of bubblers, aerators that can help that mixing issue that that we see at the bottom. So there are a number of mechanical options that we can try before we use any kind of pesticide.

Thank you. Do we do we see recreation in the lake during the summer?

Is there a lot of use? I've seen a few swimmers out there. I know sometimes people will use it as a launching pad for, for paddle boarding. I see, on occasion, fisher fishermen, or what is the correct term, angler. But, yeah, I I haven't seen a lot of swimming, and my guess would be because of all of the Eurasian milfoil.

It just kind of floats up at the surface, and it just makes the whole whole cove kind of unpleasant looking, in my opinion. And, from my experience in swimming in open water, it's never pleasant to, swim through. It kinda feels like you're swimming through a a pile of daddy long legs, all the stringy little fibers touching you. So I would I would start with removing of invasive species and see where that gets us. Maybe it'll increase recreation and potentially cause more of a public interest in the solution.

Yeah. K. And then I think if I understood correct or at least what I would presume from your presentation, over time, we we would anticipate an increase in the algae bloom. So its quantity in the lake would continue to grow.

Is that a correct assumption? Well, they they're, an annual species, so they they don't really survive the the winter. I mean, they there are trace amounts that will exist at all times of year, but there's definitely a die off that occurs in the winter, and you see a change in the the speciation of the the the algae in the water. So it usually shifts over to diatoms, which is a totally natural species and doesn't really harm you. It's actually where we get diatomaceous earth from, if you've ever used that.

But it really depends on the the seasonality. Like, for example, 2025 was a much hotter, drier year than 2024, which is my belief why we saw an increase in the algal blooms. And so I would need to see at least three years to know if it was a trend or not based on other environmental conditions. But, yeah, it's easy to think that it's potentially trending upwards because we are seeing from the first to the second year an increase. But I would I would say it's it's more dependent on the on the temperature and the precipitation because once that water level drops below 12 feet, I believe it is, from its winter level, it's cut off from the from the stream.

And then if it's hot enough, you keep getting evaporation. And, the more intense the heat, the more intense the stratification and, the more phosphorus that's released from the sediment. Thank you. Very interesting. Absolutely. You're welcome.

Carla, felt like I might have heard you. Wanna make sure I didn't cut you off.

No. No. That's okay. Okay. So the active maintenance of it all, like to get it under control. Right? Would it be like it would take someone some time, you know, active involvement and maintenance, like, it'd be like someone maintaining a little gigantic pool or pond. Right? Right. What would that look like in terms of cost of investment in terms of maintaining it?

What would

it look like in a five year plan?

That's a great question. I discussed this a little bit with the consultants and they mentioned that the removal of the invasive species could be pretty well permanent as long as it's not reintroduced, which is a possibility. But it would at very least have a three to five year period that was clear of these invasive species. And whether or not that prevents the growth of harmful algal blooms is another question. Like you've seen in the past two years, we do have them existing in the water and somewhat prevalent at certain depths, but they're still not coming up to the surface where they get stressed and release toxins, which is when they become harmful to us.

So they they are currently coexisting without releasing much of any toxins. So at the moment, it's it's a bit of a a sleeping dog. So the sooner we start taking chances and seeing, excuse me, seeing what we can throw at it, then still getting over cold. So, yeah, things like the bubbler and and and, removal of the invasive species should make a difference. Thanks.

Did that answer your question?

Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how it it sounds like the way to manage it would be more like a lake rather than adding the river in terms of cost cost and seeing long term how to maintain it and then tackle the invasives initially. Thank you.

Absolutely. That would be my vote.

Okay. Great. Pete, does that conclude the presentation?

Yes, it does. This is all part of our reporting requirements for our is this part of our reporting requirements or is Yes. This a separate our pollutant discharge permit that the city holds. So it's also very important data for the redevelopment potential for the Klackman Cove.

So thank you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Okay. There you are. Sorry, I'm one screen. We do have a quorum, we can potentially tackle the legislative file. I would recommend perhaps, Brandon, if you are willing to let one of the other commissioners read the preamble because you don't have a copy in front of you.

And I definitely do not have it memorized, Pete. So I think so I think, Commissioner Stowell's there to take the reign for us, so I give him full privilege.

If I may as well just to fully interrupt, I apologize.

You're good. Thank you.

We do have, the other order of the agenda for, the election of officers. Mhmm. If we wanna go back to the order of the agenda and do that first or if we wanna do the public hearing, I will leave it up to you, chair, how you want to fill out the rest of this, lovely mess of an agenda we have tonight.

Well, I was gonna ask, would would it be appropriate? I know, Commissioner Meining's hanging on here. Wanna make sure she's doing okay, to stay with us. Would it be appropriate to do the election when we've got all commissioners or in a chair chair SB and, would be with us, or is it appropriate to go ahead and move forward with an an election?

So it is as part of the bylaws that we do have it on the agenda to have it on the first meeting, but it is absolutely appropriate for you all to make a motion to postpone it to the next meeting. So that that is that is at your discretion.

Would anybody go ahead,

Mr. Stoll. I'd like to move, to postpone the election of officers to the meeting of January 26.

I second.

Let's call the vote.

Alright. Commissioner SP oh, sorry. Commissioner Dole. Aye. Commissioner Stoll? Aye. Commissioner Meinig?

Aye. Commissioner Laws? Aye.

Okay. We'll tackle the election of officers on the twenty sixth. Thank you.

Perfect. Commissioner Meining, are you still okay to stay with us, or how are you doing?

I'm I'm hanging in there. You're good.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay. Well, then let's go into the the second public hearing. Correct?

Alright. That's really loud.

I'll hand the reins to commissioner Stoll if you're, still willing. Appreciate you being there and taking the lead.

No problem. I'll start the, legislative hearing script. A public hearing on a legislative application is scheduled for tonight. Our role is to conduct the public hearing and to make decisions about the matter before us. In making those decisions, we must apply the applicable codes and laws and cannot vary for a more change to those laws or codes.

Excuse me. Legislative actions involve the adoption of city's land use regulations, comprehensive plan maps, inventories, and other Maps, inventories, and other public policy documents that affect the entire city or large portions of it. Legislative actions which affect land use shall begin with a public hearing before the Planning Commission. A staff report has been prepared for each application and has been made available to the public seven days before the first public hearing. The staff report identifies the approval criteria that apply to each applicant's proposal.

Staff has analyzed the criteria which are contained in the staff report. Upon the recommendation from the Planning Commission on legislative action, the City Commission should hold at least one public hearing on the proposal. Any interested person may provide written or oral testimony on the proposal at or prior to the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the City may adopt, modify, or reject the legislative proposal, or it may remand the matter to the Planning Commission for further consideration. If the decision is to adopt at least some form of the proposal and thereby amend the City's land use regulations, comprehensive plan, official zoning maps or some component of any of these documents, the city commission decision shall be enacted as an ordinance.

Public testimony will be called on in the order it was requested. If you wish to testify in person, please fill out a speaker card available at the back of the room. If you wish to testify virtually, you will be called either from a request to speak email to city staff at planning@orcity.org in advance of this meeting or by raising your virtual or physical hand when I ask if there are others in the audience who would like to participate. For the public record, please begin all testimony stating your name and city of residence. If you would like to receive a copy of the notice of decision, please state your mailing address or email address.

Testimony and evidence should be directed toward the applicable approval criteria. If you believe other criteria apply in addition to those addressed in the staff report, identify and discuss those criteria and explain how and why you believe they apply to the application under consideration. Any person may submit written material while the public record is open on each application. Many written materials received by the city staff during the time period in which the record is open will be placed in the record. Written materials submitted during the public hearing must be presented to the city staff in order to become part of the record.

If a person intends for PowerPoint presentations, reports, pictures, or other exhibits used in their oral testimony to be placed in the record, copies must be submitted to the city staff while the record is open. If they are not given to staff, they will not be included in the record. Any person wishing a continuance to present additional evidence and testimony or to keep the record open to respond to new evidence must make that request before the public testimony portion of the initial hearing is closed.

That's it. Well done. That was fast. Thank you. Great. So Pete Walter, Planning Manager. Tonight, We were going to have Josh Wheeler talk about this, but it's a very straightforward amendment. I can speak to it. We have a chapter of our development code, Chapter 16.12, which is our public improvements and requirements chapter. And it covers everything from the requirement for adequate sewer, adequate water, adequate roads, adequate public services, and everything.

And as you know, the legislature has passed a lot of new rules intended to incentivize housing production throughout the state. And as part of House Bill 2,658, there is a requirement that municipalities may not require public street frontage improvements, which includes sidewalks, curb, gutter, pavement, those sorts of things for smaller projects, building permits that are under $150,000 We also may not require public improvements, street frontage improvements for accessory dwelling units. And any project where the building square footage is not increasing are specifically exempt now under state law. And we have to adopt those locally into our code. It's not a choice.

It's a must. So in your packet, there is a one page with the red line code in it with those items that I just mentioned. And we've discussed this with Public Works and have not received any public comment in response to this legislative proposal as yet. Staff is recommending approval and we would be asking the Planning Commission to recommend approval to the City Commission of these amendments. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

No question on my end, in the room. Commissioner Laws, Commissioner Stoll, or Commissioner Mainink online. Questions, comments?

Nothing from me.

No, doesn't look like it.

Great.

In the staff report and recommendation, we have included findings for compliance and consistency with the applicable goals, policies, and strategies of the city's comprehensive plan that pertain to these. And so that's part of the staff report. But other than that, we do not have anything further to recommend with respect to these other than for adoption. Thanks.

I'm assuming no one's there to make comment in the chambers?

No. There is no one.

Okay. Commissioner Stoll, you want to close the hearing so we get a I believe. Is that correct?

Yeah. Yep. Hearing's closed. Right.

Entertain a motion. Alright.

I move to forward to the city commission for approval legislative file LHG2503 and GLUA25Dash054.

Oh. It's not working. I second.

Great. Moved by Commissioner Stowell, second by Commissioner Laws.

Let's call the vote.

Commissioner Stoehl. Aye. Commissioner Dole. Aye. Commissioner Laws. Aye. Commissioner Meinek.

Aye.

Thank you. The motion carries. Great.

Thanks, Pete.

I don't have a date yet for City Commission. We do have to prepare an ordinance. And then there would be two readings of the ordinance.

Thank you. Thank you. I believe we can move into the discussion or communications. Is there anything? Any questions, comments from the room?

Nope. Not seeing any. It's great meeting some of you all in person for the first time. Thanks for a fun first meeting of a roller coaster of an agenda. I appreciate it.

You know what this means? The next one is just gonna be like butter.

That's right. That's right. Gonna give you more, Pete. Yeah.

Obviously, we will be having another meeting on January 26?

Yeah. So on the twenty sixth, we have we'll be busy.

Great.

Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Happy New Year. Look forward to seeing you guys on, the end of the month.

Thank you.

Thank you. Brandon, you just need to adjourn it.

Let's adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned. I have a big gavel here. I

got

it here

for you.