Clarity of Place: A Question of Balance

Cannon Beach residents, business owners and city officials gathered at the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce Community Hall for a discussion about the issues facing Cannon Beach.

The two-day series of meetings, held on April 17th and 18th, were divided into several different sessions for restaurant, lodging, retail, and gallery owners, residents and city officials to voice their concerns about the issues currently confronting the Cannon Beach community. Designed to gather input from a variety of divergent viewpoints, the recurring concerns voiced by participants were the chronic lack of workforce/affordable housing, parking problems and traffic congestion during the busy summer months, protecting the local environment, and concerns about the division and lack of communication between business owners and the city. The impacts to the city from day visitors compared to overnight visitors were discussed; with concerns for public safety, the quality of the experience for visitors and the negative impact on residents.

The discussions were led and facilitated by David Holder, co-founder of “Clarity of Place”. With a Masters Degree in tourism, Holder travels the country leading discussions and seeking solutions to the variety of problems confronting tourist communities; with Cannon Beach facing the same types of problems as many other destinations. Holder said that “without addressing the availability and affordability of housing, it’s difficult to recruit and retain a workforce.” Holder explained how the Covid pandemic fundamentally changed the nature of how people work and travel, with major impacts landing squarely on tourist destinations. The wave of change is coming, whether you’re prepared for it or not, advised Holder, adding that with the increasing population of the Portland metro area, visitors will keep coming no matter what the city of Cannon Beach does. Holder said that there needs to be a sense of urgency to find solutions, and that “when tourist destinations are clear on where tourism and community goals come together, they can optimize the potential of tourism.”

Holder added that “80% of the city budget comes from tourists, so there needs to be an understanding of how important guests are for Cannon Beach. We need our tourists and need to treat them well. The city, residents and business owners need to solve these issues together with proactive communication and community engagement”, with Holder describing the need to move forward and not backward.

Jim Paino, Executive Director of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce explained that “the Chamber is embarking on a destination stewardship initiative to ensure that our community can effectively balance the needs of local businesses with the impacts of visitors to help preserve the quality of life for residents.” After meeting David Holder at a tourist destination event, Paino invited Holder to Cannon Beach to conduct the 2-day listening session.

Jim Kingwell of Icefire Glassworks asked “how do we maintain the quality of the environment as a place to be?” Referring to residents of Venice being driven out by tourism, Kingwell wondered how we can prevent being swallowed, how to deal with the costs of servicing all of the people, and how to bring people together in a common direction.

Greg Swedenborg of The Waves hotel asked “how do we manage change and educate visitors on stewardship and better behavior?” Swedenborg believes there needs to be affordable housing at the city-owned Southwind property or RV park, and is an advocate of using existing technology for paid parking during the busy summer months.

Cannon Beach Mayor Barb Knop would like “to educate visitors to be as responsible as the residents who live here.”

Theresa Plummer, owner of Suzy’s Scoops restaurant in downtown, voiced concerns about the lack of parking and making sure that visitors feel welcome in our town.

Lila Wickham, coordinator of the 32-member Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corp, asked; “What if there is a tsunami or an earthquake, how will we deal with 1,500 residents and 20,000 visitors?” Wickham also brought up concerns about the division in Cannon Beach, expressing a desire to move forward with a sense of grace and inclusion.

The Chamber will be sending out a survey in May soliciting additional comments from residents and local businesses. The results of this survey will be combined with comments from the two-day Chamber event into a final report which will be available in June.