💧 Rezone Denied, Water Running Short - Stevenson September '26 Round-up

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🕯️ Cabinet of Curiosities: The Man with the Lantern

It's our Halloween month, so every round-up opens with something from the Gorge's cabinet of curiosities.

P.S.C. Wills ran Stevenson's first telephone line in 1904, piped the town's first water from Skaar Springs, opened the Stevenson Hot Springs, and hoarded old newspapers. Neighbors remembered him setting out in the evening, after a full day's work, "with his sack of tools and fittings and carrying a lantern to work on the water lines." In 1928 a fire in his house all but destroyed his newspapers. In 1937, at 78, in the old Doumitt store building, "it was there in another fire that he died."

If you ask some of the longtime locals in Stevenson, late at night you can still see his lantern drifting through the streets, dutifully making his way to the next job...

Source: Daphne Ramsay, "Stories the Tombstones Do Not Tell" (1979), in Heritage, December 1981; Columbia Gorge Museum file "Wills, Peter Samuel Corwine".

🏛 Stevenson September 2026 Round-Up

Agencies Covered: Stevenson City Council (Sept. 17). The Planning Commission's Sept. 14 meeting was cancelled, and the Board of Adjustment has not met since June 10.

The Bottom Line: The half-acre rezone on Attwell Road that ran through two Planning Commission meetings ended at Council in a single vote: denied. The same night, the mayor laid out a plan to keep buying planning from the county, now possibly shared with North Bonneville too.

The Vibe: Neighbors came out, all on one side. The rest of the meeting was a city taking stock of what it can actually do: how many planners, how many water hookups, how many pumps that start when they should.

🔎 What Changed

• Council denied ZON-26-001, the rezone of 201 SW Attwell Road from Suburban Residential to R-3 multi-family.
• The 2027 Skamania EDC contract was approved at $31,662.50, with a typo in its payment clause to be fixed.
• The Rock Creek pump station recoating is finished.

⚠ What Escalated

• On the last day of the pump station job, a temporary pump failed and sewage overflowed into the county parking lot.
• The water system has about 40 connections left under its current plan, the public works director said.

🧭 What's Next

• City administrator interviews on Oct. 13, and possibly a special meeting in October to choose.
• A joint Council and Planning Commission discussion of 2027 planning priorities in October.
• The critical areas update is expected at Council in October or November.

Stevenson City Council

🏘 The Attwell rezone: denied

Back in August, the Planning Commission recommended approving the Attwell Road rezone, but only under the R-3 Overlay, a set of design rules along Rock Creek Drive that require space between buildings and shared open space. The typed August 10 minutes, now in the council packet, give the count: 4 to 1, with Chair Anne Keesee voting no.

On Sept. 17 the Council said no to all of it.

• The request: rezone about half an acre at 201 SW Attwell Road from SR Suburban Residential to R-3 Multi-Family Residential. The owners, Roger Ducloo and Traci Boyle-Galastiantz, proposed 5 to 7 units, including their own retirement home. R-3 would allow up to 10.
• The motion on the agenda was not the Commission's. The printed motion was to approve plain R-3, the applicant's original request, without the overlay. Neighbor Bernie Bacon's letter caught the difference: the overlay's "safeguards such as parking, open space, and building separation" were missing from what was before Council.
• The testimony: every speaker opposed it. Elizabeth Galloway, who has lived on the street for about 16 years, said that turning onto it "your blood pressure goes down," and that a denser lot "would be jarring." Mary Repar pointed to the staff report's own finding that the city "has not even remotely approached its potential build out for parcels zoned R3." Michael Perry noted more than 20 empty R-3 lots already in town. Doug Lovelace and Tony Bacon said they agreed with the opposition. Written opposition came from Bernie Bacon, Andrea Wilbanks, and Kevin and Rose Lucas, who asked, if the Council did approve it, that it at least include the overlay.
• Nobody spoke in favor, and the owners did not appear. A councilmember asked whether the landowners had ever come before Council or the Commission. The answer: only their architect and consultant had.
• The decision: a councilmember moved to deny, citing no demonstrated need, the character of the neighborhood, the fact that an ADU is already allowed under the current zoning, and a comprehensive plan that dates to 2013. The motion carried on a voice vote. How each councilmember voted is not yet public; the minutes are due in the October packet.

One correction from staff, on the record. The staff report said a SEPA environmental "Determination of non-significance" had been issued, with comments closing Sept. 23. The county's lead land use planner, Josh Neblock, told Council that line was an error. No determination had been made, because the Commission's overlay version differed from what the applicant applied for. Neblock said the determination would follow Council's decision, and agreed that if the rezone were denied, "there's no need for SEPA."

Repar argued the environmental review should come before any rezone decision, and state rules lean her way: they call for SEPA review "at the earliest possible time" (WAC 197-11-055) and say environmental documents should go with a proposal "so that agency officials use them in making decisions" (WAC 197-11-655). The planner's view was that a denial needs no review, and since the Council said no, the question never came to a head.

This was never really a fight about one half-acre. The city's Future Land Use Map marks the Attwell area high-density residential. The zoning on the ground is Suburban Residential, the city's lowest-density residential zone. Staff named that gap plainly on the tape: it is "where the conflict is arising." The Commission tried to split the difference with the overlay. The Council declined to move the line at all, and a councilmember said what the Commission said in August: a 2013 comprehensive plan is due for a look. That is the job the mayor's October joint session is meant to start. Next for the rezone: staff will write findings of fact for a council member's signature and send them to the applicant, which starts the appeal period.

🗺 Who plans Stevenson in 2027?

In August we asked who actually plans Stevenson. The mayor's written report for the Sept. 17 meeting gives the city's answer, for now.

• The City Planner job "has remained vacant." Skamania County's lead land use planner is the city's main planning contact, and the arrangement costs about $3,000 a month.
• The mayor is exploring a one-year 2027 shared-services agreement with Skamania County and North Bonneville, with a fresh look before 2028. Nothing is agreed; staffing, scope and cost sharing are still under discussion.
• The pitch: Stevenson sets its own policy and keeps its Planning Commission, while county staff supply the capacity. Stevenson and North Bonneville shared a planner 50/50 about 20 years ago.
• The report puts Stevenson at just over 1,600 residents and about 779 housing units.
• On the list of current work: removing off-street parking minimums downtown, ADU reform, workforce housing, and code cleanup. The critical areas update, which the city and county are doing together, should reach Council in October or November.
• Next: a joint Council and Planning Commission discussion in October to build a 2027 work plan. A proposal could come back with the budget.

👔 City administrator: interviews Oct. 13

The mayor said Council screened candidates the day before the meeting and has "some great candidates." Interviews are set for Oct. 13, followed by a community meet and greet. There may be a special meeting in October to make the pick. The first search ended when the chosen candidate turned the job down.

🤝 The EDC contract, and a typo worth fixing

Council approved the city's 2027 contract with the Skamania Economic Development Council for $31,662.50, up from $29,731 this year. The breakdown, from the contract:

• $15,728.00: $9.83 per resident on a population of 1,600
• $2,360: the Skamania County Small Business Development Center position
• $13,574.50: CFM Advocates, a Portland lobbying firm whose contract the EDC administers

The payment section, though, reads "Twenty-Nine Thousand, Seven Hundred Thirty-One Dollars ($29,388.50)," which is three different numbers in one sentence. The mayor thanked councilmembers who read their packets and caught it, and Council approved the contract with that line to be corrected before Kevin Waters, the EDC's executive director and the 17th District's state representative, signs it.

🚧 Public Works

• Pump station done, with one bad night. The Rock Creek pump station recoating is complete. On the last day of the bypass, the public works director said, a rented pump failed on a weak battery, its alarm went with it, and a backup pump the city had paid for did not start. Sewage backed up for several hours and overflowed "a little bit into the county parking lot." Crews found it the next morning, treated it with lime, hauled it away and put down fresh gravel. The report to the Department of Ecology is filed. The director said the pump and battery cost has been negotiated down from about $14,000 to about $6,500, and wants the record to show the city supplied an adequate system.
• Rock Creek. The state Fish and Wildlife permit is in hand, and crews started cutting up logs the week of the meeting to move them downstream before winter. That is surface debris only, no dredging. The Army Corps review for the riprap is still 6 to 12 months out, so the rest waits for next August.
• Road striping. The city lost the Clark County contractor that usually stripes its roads and hired a private one, at a higher price, for most main roads. Crews were painting crosswalks as of the meeting.
• Lasher Street. New federal HUD compliance steps are being worked through with subcontractors.

💧 A water hookup outside town, and 40 left inside it

Doug Lovelace and Gudrun Stoffelmayr, whose home on East Loop Road is on city water, asked for a meter for a 1924 house they bought across the road, about 300 yards outside city limits. It runs on Nelson Creek water, which isn't safe to drink. They offered to pay every cost.

The public works director walked Council through why that's hard. Under Stevenson's code, section 13.16.040 (dating to 1981), an outside hookup requires, among other things, a filed petition to annex the property (or one that was denied), a house that existed when the rule was adopted, a lot touching a city main, and a sworn statement that no other drinkable water is available. The director reads it as a hardship path, has been asked 10 to 12 times in the last year and a half, and gives the same answer.

The bigger number: the city has about 40 connections left under its current water system plan, last done in 2016 to 2018, according to the director. A new plan starts in early 2027. The director guessed the city has added fewer than 10 homes this year. The director floated, as a question for Council and not a recommendation, whether a few paid outside connections could help cover the cost of the long-term water work. Councilmembers leaned toward annexation instead. Lovelace said later they would look into it, though some neighbors oppose annexing.

The long-term water presentation is expected at Council in December.

🍺 Backwoods Brewing moves to a state permit

Repar asked about a notice in the Pioneer that Backwoods Brewing had applied for a discharge permit, and whether it could strain the new $15 million sewer plant. The public works director said the move was the director's own call. For four or five years the brewery held a permit directly with the city. Its wastewater kept flowing into the sewer, but it wasn't being tested, and the city's sampling point was shared with other flows. So, the director said, "we have no idea what Backwoods has been sending us." A Department of Ecology permit brings state testing and enforcement. The brewery's wastewater will keep going to the city plant, but the city will know what's in it.

🚔 Sheriff's report

The sheriff's office counted 158 incidents in Stevenson in August: 64 calls, 25 medical, 69 traffic and no fires, over 531 hours of service. Most traffic stops ended in a warning. In person, the report was that patrols and stops on SR-14 were up.

🏪 Downtown Association: what 163 people said

Kelly O'Malley-McKee of the Stevenson Downtown Association shared early results of its 2027-2030 strategic planning. The survey drew 163 responses; 92 percent visit downtown daily or weekly, and 95 percent feel welcome and safe there. What people want more of: businesses suited to them, public restrooms, steadier hours and fewer empty storefronts. Placemaking topped the priorities. Truck traffic on SR-14 came up in written comments. Parking, O'Malley-McKee said, "was shockingly absent." Many also asked, unprompted, about the Courthouse Park Plaza. Repar later reminded Council that the comprehensive plan lists the plaza among the city's "spiritual places."

⚡ Cascade transmission: a view from the siting council

Councilmember Jeff Breckel sits on the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council as Stevenson's member for the Cascade Renewable Transmission Project, the line proposed for the bed of the Columbia. Breckel reported on EFSEC's Sept. 16 meeting. Local governments, Breckel said, have been reluctant to call the project "consistent" with their land use rules when it might be allowed only with conditions. EFSEC's attorneys clarified that it only needs to know whether a local rule prohibits this kind of facility, which Breckel called "a tremendously different question." And EFSEC's decision does not reach National Scenic Area lands, which need their own approval. In Stevenson, that leaves only the urban area. The latest public comment period on the land use question ran July 27 to Aug. 26.

🗣 Also in public comment

Repar said the Gorge Commission plans an in-person meeting at Skamania Lodge in November as part of the National Scenic Area Act's 40th anniversary, and that the Chamber has pledged $200 toward refreshments. Repar also asked the city to repaint a fading fire lane where people have started to park.

Stevenson Planning Commission

The Sept. 14 meeting was cancelled. The Commission's August 10 minutes, now typed, record the Attwell recommendation as 4 to 1: Commissioners Lawson, Hales, Zettler and Gratto in favor, Chair Keesee opposed. It next meets Oct. 12.

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⚠️ Editor's Note: Broader Context

• A land use map is not a zoning map. Stevenson's comprehensive plan says so in as many words: the Future Land Use Map "is a guidance document," while the zoning map is the regulation. When the two disagree, each rezone request becomes a referendum on the gap.
• The city is short on more than planners. An open planner job, about 40 water hookups left under the current plan, by the public works director's count, and a critical areas update due by state law at year's end all point at the same thing: a small city with a lot of required planning.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• R-3 / R-3 Overlay: Stevenson's multi-family zone. The overlay keeps the same density but adds design rules, like minimum space between buildings and shared open space for each unit.
• SEPA: the State Environmental Policy Act. A "Determination of Non-Significance" (DNS) is a finding that a proposal won't have significant environmental impacts.
• Findings of fact: the written decision that explains the Council's reasons. The appeal period runs from it.
• Annexation: bringing land outside city limits into the city.
• ERU: Equivalent Residential Unit, a way of measuring water demand. One house can count as more than one.

📅 How to Join & Learn More

• City Council: third Thursday, 6 p.m., City Hall and on Zoom. October meeting: Oct. 15.
• Planning Commission: second Monday, 6 p.m. October meeting: Oct. 12.
• Agendas, packets and video: ci.stevenson.wa.us/meetings. September 17 packet and video.