Sean C. Morgan
New Sweet Home Planning Commission Chairman Lance Gatchell thinks Sweet Home has room to improve.
“Sweet Home’s a great place to live,” said Gatchell, an eight-plus-year resident. “I hope to be able to make this a better place to live into the future. It could be a lot better.”
He’s not sure how to achieve it, but when the Planning Commission is making decisions, he would like to see more input from the public.
The Planning Commission unanimously elected Gatchell as chairman during its regular meeting on Jan. 9. He succeeds Edie Wilcox, who remains a member of the commission.
Gatchell has served longer than anyone else on the commission except for former Chairman Henry Wolthuis.
Gatchell moved to Sweet Home with his wife, Stefanie, in 2007 to take a position as hydrologist with the Sweet Home Ranger District. Currently, his duties include hydrology, fish biology, engineering and, sometimes, geology. Prior to taking the position in Sweet Home, he was a planner in Newport. Stefanie Gatchell also works at the Sweet Home Ranger District.
“I saw there was an opening on the Planning Commission, so I applied,” Gatchell said. “I liked dipping into planning when we moved here.”
Gatchell grew up in Cottage Grove, graduating from Oregon State University in 1996 with a master’s degree in bio-resource engineering. Upon graduation, he went to work for the U.S. Department of the Interior, working in Micronesia and Indonesia. He and his wife also spent time in Morocco, working in the Peace Corps, and Gatchell went to Rwanda on a detail with the Forest Service after moving to Sweet Home.
He also has worked on salmon restoration projects on the coast with a water and soil conservation district and watershed council.
After briefly working as a temporary employee, Gatchell said he had two options when he went to work for the Forest Service: Sweet Home or the remote Diamond Lake Ranger District.
Sweet Home had affordable housing and is close to everything throughout the Willamette Valley, where he and his wife have been when they not working in a foreign country.
“It’s a small town, and we’re close to outdoor recreation,” Gatchell said. Sweet Home is close to the Portland airport, Eugene, the coast, the mountains and more. Everything is within a two-hour range. “It’s an amazing location.”
The Planning Commission primarily holds public hearings and makes land use decisions based on the city’s Comprehensive Plan and ordinances. The commission also reviews and updates zoning ordinances and the Comprehensive Plan.
“Really, what we’re doing for planning, we’re doing anticipatory problem solving, dealing with the future and changes we expect in the future, how to best protect land resources for future generations,” Gatchell said. “The Planning Commission is responsible for developing and maintaining the Comprehensive Plan.”
The commission protects the integrity of the planning process for the community, he said. “And it can help develop and protect our long-term interests.”
The community has put in a lot of work figuring out how to protect its interests, Gatchell said. Among them have been the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort, the Sweet Home Economic Development Group, the Oregon Jamboree and the Livability Initiative.
Their efforts have highlighted Sweet Home’s potential as a recreation destination, Gatchell said. He points to the massive amount of land bordering the South Santiam River.
“This is a huge resource,” he said, but it has few places where the public can get down to the river. It’s something people could see “as a place that’s part of this town.”
The commission can work with developers to help provide public access, Gatchell said, and it has in the past when developers have come in with land use applications.
Gatchell doesn’t have any particular personal goals about developing Sweet Home, he said.
“It’s going to happen how it happens. There’s been a lot of work to push Sweet Home in the direction of diversifying.”
Foster Lake is a big destination already, he said. “I really like some of the visions I’ve seen, like the River Development group.”
It features shopping, healthcare, residential development and unique ideas based on valuing nature, Gatchell said.
“Sweet Home is really well-prepared,” Gatchell said, with some of the things the city and community have done. It has sufficient water, clean air and open spaces.
Sweet Home also needs to make some improvements, he said. Among them, it needs fewer buildings that are falling down, fewer burned-out buildings left standing, more bike paths and more alternate transportation.
Alternate transportation is another key piece identified in the Livability Initiative, he said. It has some, but it’s underdeveloped, and it could make Sweet Home more livable for more diverse people.
On the commission itself, “I would like to see the Planning Commission become a little bit more efficient and able to include more opinions in our decision-making process,” Gatchell said. The commission gets some opinions from the community, but he would like to hear more. “I don’t like the idea of just basing our opinions on whatever our opinions are.”
The chairman’s role is to facilitate a meeting, he said, and a facilitator tries to get everyone involved talking about it. While he isn’t sure how to expand the amount of public opinion entering the conversation, he intends to get those conversations going among those who are involved in the process.
The Planning Commission meets regularly at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of the month. Its members are appointed by the City Council. Up to two of the seven-member commission may live outside the city limits but within the Sweet Home School District boundaries.
It currently has one vacancy. For more information about the commission or the vacancy, call the city manager’s office at (541) 367-8969 or stop by City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.