ASTORIA, Ore. — After 20 years of serving Latinx communities on Oregon’s North Coast, Consejo Hispano is poised to close on a former church in Astoria next month, a move that would give them a permanent home downtown and enough space to expand operations and services.
There’s just one unexpected — and expensive — snag.
During their due diligence period for the purchase of the former Peace Lutheran Church on 12th and Exchange Streets, Consejo Hispano discovered the sale would represent a change in use, triggering a system development charge of around $72,000 from the city of Astoria.
Astoria adopted a system development charge program in 2023. The charge is a one time fee assessed on new development and certain types of redevelopment. The intent of the fee is to share and spread out the costs associated with expanding public infrastructure to accommodate growth.
Now, in this case, Consejo Hispano is asking for the city to intervene.
At an Astoria City Council meeting Tuesday, City Manager Scott Spence proposed a solution where the city covers the cost of the system development charge for Consejo Hispano. He said the city has some flexibility in its budget. Also, he added, it is a unique opportunity to help a group that is planning to repurpose a large building that might otherwise not be a vital structure in the downtown area again.
“The reason I’m making this recommendation is I believe that Consejo Hispano provides a critical service, not only to Astoria, but really to the entire county,” Spence said. “The city of Astoria relies on Consejo Hispano as a key partner in our community. Consejo Hispano provides vital services to our underserved communities.”
And, he added, there is a real danger that if the city does not help the nonprofit with the system development charge, the sale may not go through.
Norma Hernandez, deputy director for Consejo Hispano, acknowledged Spence’s proposal was a hard decision and people could be against it for many reasons.
“But,” she told the City Council on Tuesday, “we will really be honored in honoring the building, honoring the place, honoring our city. We are Astorians, even if we were born some other place. We are Oregonians. So we belong, and we want to belong even more.”
She noted that Consejo Hispano serves many people in Clatsop County, not just the Latino community. The nonprofit runs the only free volunteer income tax assistance program in the county.
Mayor Sean Fitzpatrick and City Councilors Andrea Mazzarella, Elisabeth Adams and Vance Lump all agreed they were interested in discussing the matter further. They plan to hold a special meeting on Thursday and will make a decision then. City Councilor Andy Davis was not at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I feel really comfortable in knowing that this council is incredibly dedicated to this organization and their mission and their message and the way that they serve our community,” Adams said. “I’m honored that we have an opportunity to discuss this and vote on it.”
Afterwards, Jenny Pool Radway, Consejo Hispano’s executive director, told KMUN she was relieved that the City Council understood the urgency of the matter and seemed supportive of Spence’s proposal. The nonprofit expects to close on the building in early March and had only recently learned of the systems development charge.
While she is hopeful the city could help with this immediate and significant cost, Pool Radway said there will be other large costs the nonprofit will need to tackle if they buy the church. The building is old and will require major electrical work as well as a water filtration system.
Still, Consejo Hispano outgrew its current offices several years ago. After 20 years, it’s time the nonprofit had a permanent home, Pool Radway said.
“We’ve always rented,” she said, “and so this also helps our organization have some stability and some economic empowerment and just really cements that we are part of the community.”