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Gorge Commission Set to Allow Greater Commercial Uses

STEVENSON, WA-In an effort to preserve the structures, commissioners appear ready to allow adaptive commercial uses in dozens of potentially historic buildings in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

By Brian K. Miller | Updated on October 13, 2005

STEVENSON, WA-The Columbia River Gorge Commission appears ready to allow additional commercial uses in historic and potentially historic buildings in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. In an effort to provide greater economic incentive to preserve the structures, commissioners on Tuesday asked staff to bring back as soon as possible an amendment to the scenic area management plan that would allow owners to operate historic structures as restaurants, gift shops, hotels and artist studios, among other things.

The bistate gorge commission governs development on most of the land within the 85-mile national scenic area that stretches on both sides of the Columbia from Troutdale to the Deschutes River. The commission’s executive director Martha Bennett tells GlobeSt.com that the quickest she will be able to bring the amendment back for a vote is 30 days from Friday. “That’s the soonest we can get a notice in the paper,” she says.

The time sensitive nature of the effort is due to the fact that the need for the change was shepherded by the owners of the Viewpoint Inn, an 80-year-old roadhouse in Corbett, WA, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The owners applied in January for the right to operate the property as a restaurant, five-room hotel and visitor center and hoped this week that the commission would finally approve their application, thereby allowing them to raise the necessary funds to make critical repairs before winter.

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