In May, Gearhart voters rejected a $14.5 million bond measure for a new firehouse, a stinging message to city leaders who had argued that the project was critical to replace the aging fire station on Pacific Way.

The proposal was defeated by a two-thirds vote.

But the city may still pursue a land swap plan to bring land originally intended for the station into the city’s urban growth boundary.

“I thought it was a great-looking property myself,” Mayor Kerry Smith said at a council work session Aug. 18. “I don’t see a downside. A nice park adjacent to the butterfly habitat is a great thing. And the upper lot, the one that was at one time going to be for the fire station — I think that’s a great location for a lot of things the city could do.”

No property rights would be changed and no land would be given up, City Attorney Peter Watts said.

“The developers will be able to develop it in R-1 residential designation and we would receive approximately 5 acres, approximately half for a public park and then the other half could be used for a public purpose,” he said.

While there are no new plans for a fire or police station at the site, councilors weighed options in pursuing the land swap with developers. “This is vacant land up here until you have another opportunity,” City Administrator Chad Sweet said.

Potential benefits would include added buildable land stock and redundancy of the water system. The site could serve as a helicopter landing area or dunes passageway in the event of a Cascadia Subduction Zone event.

According to terms of the August 2021 contingent land transfer agreement signed by the city and developers of Cottages at Gearhart LLC, two parcels would be turned over to the city, a 3-acre park parcel on the south side and a 1-acre parcel on top of the dune site.

The agreement calls for owners, a group of local builders and developers, to exchange the two lots outside Gearhart’s urban growth boundary for use as a park and a new firehouse and resiliency station. In exchange the city would give 34 acres west of the city’s no-build zone into the county, most of it unsuitable for development.

The developers could get about 22 to 25 houses into the property under county 1-acre zoning as opposed to the city’s zoning of 10,000 square feet per lot. Under city zoning, the property could have up to 48 houses.

“The developers will be able to develop it in R-1 residential designation, and we would receive approximately five acres – approximately half for a public park and then the other half could be used for a public purpose,” Watts said. “The city’s not getting into the development game. We’re getting property in order to benefit members of the public.”

In addition, the land exchange would allow the city to loop pipes and add redundancy to the city’s water system.

“It’s a public health benefit,” Watts said. “It would allow us to provide water outside of the city.”

If the city is unable to bring the property into the urban growth boundary within one year from the signing on Aug. 23, the agreement would terminate unless both parties agree to an extension, Watts said.

The cons of that would be fewer houses, Watts said, with a potential loss of property tax income to the city of about $80,000.

If councilors move forward with an extension of the agreement at the next meeting on Sept. 7, the state’s Department of Land Conservation and Development would need to approve the deal.

“You, as the City Council, do not have final say on whether this happens because it has to be approved by the Department of Land Conservation Development,” Watts said. “They have the final say regarding this and it’s a technical decision that is made by them.”

Whether the city decides to make the deal, developers will proceed with a minimum of 21 lots, Cottages at Gearhart investor Ryan Osburn said. With or without a deal with the city, he said, “We’re going to develop it. There’s no doubt.”