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Wheeler council advances planning and grant steps: DLCD grant resolution, short-term rental survey, and urban renewal study
Summary
Council approved a DLCD technical-assistance resolution to update the comprehensive plan's economic-development goal, agreed to circulate a short-term-rental survey, discussed an urban renewal district feasibility study and accepted a motion to donate an unused park backstop to the high school.
The Wheeler City Council approved a resolution authorizing application for a Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) technical-assistance grant to support an update of Goal 9 (economic development) in the city’s comprehensive plan.
At the meeting staff presented Resolution 2025-17, which the council moved and approved by voice/roll-call. Councilors noted that police citation data and other local metrics could be used to bolster related requests to ODOT and to inform the DLCD application.
Separately, the council’s economic development committee will circulate a short-term rental survey to solicit community input on whether and how to allow or regulate short-term rentals. The committee emphasized the survey should run through a full year if changes are implemented, rather than a six-month window, to capture seasonal variation.
Council members opened discussion on an urban renewal district as a conservative, long-term financing option to support downtown infrastructure and building rehabilitation. Staff said the process is complex, requires a detailed feasibility and tax-impact analysis and would likely take more than a year of advisory-committee work before an application could be finalized. Councilors agreed to seek example materials from nearby Garibaldi to avoid duplicating work.
Other business: council approved a motion to donate an unused upper-park backstop to Nantucket High School (staff will help remove and transport it), discussed boat-launch fee revenue and whether administrative costs offset receipts, and heard progress on city-code codification and waterfront restroom and water-distribution projects.
Next steps: staff to submit the DLCD technical-assistance resolution as authorized, publish the short-term-rental survey in the city newsletter, obtain Garibaldi urban-renewal materials for December discussion, and confirm the logistics of the backstop donation.
