In January, the City Council set its goals: housing, the new school, vacation rentals and tsunami resiliency took the stage as Seaside’s upcoming concerns.

And by year’s end they hit upon a number of those themes, with receipt of the countywide housing plan, a new water tank for the campus in the Southeast Hills, new vacation rental permit fees and enforcement plans, and the formation of a Citizen’s Emergency Response team.

With the relocation of Seaside High School, Gearhart Elementary School and Broadway Middle School out of the tsunami zone to a new site in the Southeast Hills, the city sought to dovetail efforts for a new water tank, roadwork and infrastructure for completion by the campus opening in the fall of 2020.

Alongside the city, the retail and visitor industries continued to hum.

Convention Center, The Lodge

In June 2018, kicked off its $15 million renovation and expansion project with a groundbreaking ceremony. Fifteen months later, the center’s general manager Russ Vandenberg welcomed residents, visitors and dignitaries to a ribbon-cutting and reopening celebration.

The expansion, geared to meeting the needs of larger clients, brings renovations and upgrades to ballrooms, offices, the lobby, lighting, storage and more are among the major changes unveiled, as the facility grew from 46,000 square feet to 55,000 square feet, an increase of nearly 19 percent.

The renovation and expansion is to be paid for by an increase in the city’s transient room tax, from 8 percent to 10 percent, which went into effect last summer.

Across the street, groundbreaking began at The Lodge at Seaside, a 65-room luxury hotel at 250 First Ave., formerly the City Center Motel.

For hospitality workers, construction team members, city and county officials, putting shovels to the ground was a way of marking the launch of the $11 million construction project.

The upscale hotel aims for a new market in Seaside, Seaside Lodging co-owner and managing director Masudur Khan said, calling it a “dream come true,” 10 years in the making.

Supermarket sweep

With a Grocery Outlet in the construction phase at U.S. 101 near Avenue N, consumers will find more options to get their daily bread.

In March, the Seaside Planning Commission gave its unanimous OK for the new 18,000-square-foot Grocery Outlet.

A 175-foot-long “turn pocket” along U.S. Highway 101 southbound into Avenue N will satisfy the state Department of Transportation and the Planning Commission’s requirement for a left-turn lane. The turn pocket will be developed before the new store opens.

Meanwhile, down the street on Avenue U, Ken and Sons Market traded hands and reopened as the Hamilton Market.

The grocery had been in the hands of Ken Smith and his family since 1967. During the past 52 years, each of his five children, along with other in-laws and grandchildren, have worked at the neighborhood grocery store at one time or another.

The Smiths turned over management of the market to Natasha Montero and Mike Hamilton.

Between them, they have worked for Whole Foods Market for a combined 35 years, with experience in management, purchasing and dry goods.

Raised in Seattle, the couple moved to Seaside about six months before making the decision to purchase the new market with family member William S. Montero.

Health care at the fore

CODA, Oregon’s oldest opioid treatment program, offering treatment for substance abuse disorders including alcohol, crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other amphetamines, as well as opioids and prescription medication, will open in Seaside in 2020.

With treatment centers in Portland, Hillsboro, Clackamas, Gresham, and Tigard, in a few weeks the organization expects to open their newest location in Seaside in January, co-project manager Jennifer Worth said at an open house at the new location at 2367 S. Roosevelt Drive.

The project is a collaboration between Columbia Pacific CCO, Care Oregon and CODA Inc. CODA conducts and supports substance use research to inform evidence- based care and to improve patient health and treatment outcomes.

The facility expects 80 to 100 patients living in the Seaside area who currently have to go to Portland for treatment. That number is expected to double as it gains recognition.

Along with the reception area, the clinic will have four dispensary windows, multiple medical exam rooms, group rooms for counseling, a records room, DEA-approved safes for medication security, and a staff break room. Fifteen health care professionals will be working at the location every day.

Columbia Memorial Hospital CEO Erik Thorsen came before the City Council to announce the winter 2020 opening date of a new primary care and urgent care clinic at the Seaside Outlet Mall.

The clinic will follow the model of CMH’s Warrenton clinic, offering primary care, urgent care, X-ray and labs. Twenty-five to 30 new “full-time family-wage jobs” will open through the new Seaside clinic.

Urgent care will be open seven days a week, and other services available five days a week.

Extended hours will come as more providers come to the community. A pharmacy will make home deliveries as well as retail sales. Pharmacy services will be available seven days a week. A women’s services provider will be at the site three days a week, along with a nurse practitioner for primary care. A primary care physician will be added in August.

Don Lemmon, chief executive of Providence Seaside, and Kimberly Ward, executive director of the Providence Hospital foundation, welcomed supporters, staff and community members to the hospital for a “peek behind the curtain” of the new Providence Seaside emergency room.

In December 2017, the foundation board launched the beyond 911 to expand emergency care at Providence Seaside Hospital, to raise $1.5 million toward a $5 million rebuild. The campaign was successful by December 2018 and announced at the Festival of Trees gala.

The department is now in phase one of construction, building out the triage room, reception area, security office, waiting space and a portion of the nurse’s station.

Construction will end with completion of a treatment room, is expected mid-June 2020.

Vacation rental rules

For property owners renting their homes on a short-term basis, the cost of entry will go up in January. Fees for all short-term vacation rentals will jump to $500 to pay for a new code enforcement officer who would conduct inspections and enforcement.

There are about 275 vacation rental dwellings in Seaside, the majority designated small or medium. Current rates for from one-to-five occupants is $75; medium, six-to-10 occupants, $100; and 11-plus, $150.

This fall, the City Council and Planning Commission convened a workshop to develop new guidelines to help promote affordable long-term rentals and workforce housing and reduce complaints relating to noise, litter and parking.

While vacation rentals are not supported east of Neawanna Street, North and South Holladay Drive and South Roosevelt, areas west of U.S. Highway 101 could see further limits on density, including a neighborhood cap.

Parking limits and the elimination of “stacked” parking in long driveways could also be added to the list of restrictions.

Other changes could be a limit of one vacation rental permit per property owner, a requirement for a local emergency contact and annual compliance inspections.