Dear Neighbors,

The following is a note from Kathie Hightower containing new information on the Summit Manzanita development. It includes notes from Rich Felley, General Manager of the Neahkahnie Water District, and Marc Johnson, a community member.

Dave Williams
Neahkahnie Community Club Secretary

Hi all-

Here’s a note and attached documents from Rich Felley, General Manager of the Neahkahnie Water District, along with notes from Marc Johnson, a community member who attended the budget meeting. Marc Johnson has stepped up to coordinate a community meeting in future, that would be open to not just Neahkahnie residents but others, to look at the wider issues here, i.e. traffic, landslide risks, others, with input from the Oregon Coast Alliance. We’ll send an announcement when we have a date/time/location. Kathie

From Rich Felley:

Here is an update since NWD last board meeting May 9th. The developer, Phil Weber, asked his surveyor to attend as Pete Adamson was unable. Attached is an image of the map Jerry Maris offered at the meeting. I am attaching an updated NOAP of the logging operation which came in on Tuesday.

Our hydrogeologist began work on April 26th. Click the link bl

NOAP for logging for Summit Manzanita

From Marc Johnson:

I attended the Water District board meeting last night (May 9) and wanted to offer a couple of observations.

Major news, I think, was the appearance before the board of Jerry Maris, a consulting surveyor from Hillsboro who has been retained by the developer to do work to determine the configuration of lots in the proposed Summit development. (Pete Adamson had been listed on the agenda as attending, but it was said he was ill and he did not attend.) Jason Morgan, a geotechnical guy, was also in attendance as part of the developer’s team.

Maris shared with the board – and all the members were there – a document showing “clusters” of the proposed homesites in a more confined area of the 70 acre site. His pitch was that this can help move development away from springs and may allow two or three individual lots to share one drain field or septic system. Maris said he had presented this concept earlier in the day to the county’s chief planner and he represented that she was “on board.” After some questioning from board members, Maris said the individual lots – still 30 or 31 sites – could range in size from 12,000 square feet to two acres. Maris emphasized several times that he was sharing an internal working document that was still a work in progress. He was reminded by the district’s director that since it was presented at a public meeting it was now part of the public record.

The other thing that seemed significant to me was that the district’s attorney, Sarah Smyth McIntosh, gently pressed Maris for an answer about whether the developer(s) would eventually be a bit more public about their plans. Maris responded that they had been “very transparent” with the water district, the county, ODOT, state parks, etc. Sarah said the district was continuing to get many questions about the proposed development and many questions outside their scope of jurisdiction and she made a bit of plea for the developer to address the community interest/concern. Maris said he would deliver the message.

I was afforded the opportunity to ask a couple of questions. No other members of the public attended. I asked about the timeline for a formal submission to Tillamook County. Maris did not offer a real answer other than to say they had hoped to have the various studies they are working on done this month, but that was not going to happen, so as soon as they could they would be making a formal submission. I also asked, I hope respectfully, if the developer was going to “show up in the community?” Maris repeated the “we are being transparent” answer and I said, with all respect, there were lots of questions/concerns/rumors and it would be wise, in my opinion, if the developer found a way sooner rather than later to present the overall concept to the community and stand for questions. He said he would deliver the message.

Dear Club Members,

The Board of Directors writes to alert you to the recent sale of approximately 180 acres of timberland east of, and adjacent to, highway 101 between Neahkahnie Meadow and Nehalem Road.

There is discussion not only of logging but also development of home sites that would rely on septic fields. The potential impact of this development on our watershed and the livability of our area is obvious.

We know you may have received this information elsewhere, notably from fellow Neahkahnie residents Kathie Hightower and Mark Roberts who are leading efforts to disseminate information in hopes the Water District’s part-time staff is not overwhelmed. (Updates will also be included with water bills.)

The perils of the situation are too serious not to spread the best information we are privy to through multiple channels. We are including here Kathie’s message along with Mark’s reporting from the 14 and 22 February Water District Board meetings… just click on the blue link below Kathie’s message.  (Above you see the very preliminary plotting of the home sites with their septic fields.)

Your Neah-kah-nie Club Board of Directors

___________________________________________________
From Kathie Hightower:

Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 10:42:59 AM

Subject: Important info about a new development and our water safety in Neahkahnie

This is important information about a new development above 101 that might impact our water safety in Neahkahnie, and could have impact on the whole Manzanita community. We want to do what we can as a Water District and Board, and community, to make sure the development only moves forward if water safety and other concerns are addressed.

There have been two meetings with the Neahkahnie Water District and board, and flurries of emails of concerned citizens trying to make sure of the best way to move forward and to get information out. We’ve consolidated info from the two meetings, had a number of eyes on this to make sure we aren’t spreading rumors/incorrect info. This is a lot of reading, but important, and hoped to answer the questions you might have.

If any of you have additional specific questions, please send them to me (kathiejhightower@gmail.com) rather than calling or emailing the Water District. Mark Roberts and I are trying to be the conduit to the Water District and Board so they can focus their time on forward movement and not on fielding a lot of the same questions from many people. Thank you. Kathie Hightower

Read the notes from the two meetings by clicking here.