Sherwood City Council Recap | September 1

SHERWOOD, Ore. — The Sherwood City Council met Tuesday, September 1 for its regularly scheduled meeting following a work session.

Council President Kim Young and Councilors Keith Mays, Doug Scott, Taylor Giles, and Dan Standke were present. Mayor Tim Rosener and Councilor Renee Brouse were absent.

In the work session, council discussed the Washington County Climate Action Plan, Oregon Homes Program, and League of Oregon Cities Legislative Priorities, and had a roundtable with the Sherwood Cultural Arts Commission.

Council voted to postpone the second public hearing on a new commercial public safety fee.

"One particular property owner within a shopping center explained ... an anchor tenant, a larger store, potentially in their lease has that they pay a maximum amount of property fees ... and some of those anchor tenants might already be at that max," Young said. "So this might get spread out to the small businesses and not even hit the larger businesses, so I want to explore that a little bit more. I would want to get more information on this."

The next council session is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15.

Consent Agenda

Council voted unanimously to reappoint Barbara Leitzinger to the Sherwood Parks & Recreation Advisory Board. 

They also authorized the city manager to sign the broadband equity access and deployment program grant agreement, enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Clean Water Services regarding cooperative management, and execute a private access easement agreement with Sherwood Group, LLC for the Rock Point multi-family development nearing completion in Old Town.

Public Comment

In public comment, Dave Murray, executive director of the Sherwood Area Chamber of Commerce, thanked council members for their support of the Chamber’s annual Cruisin’ Sherwood car show.

“It was a tremendous success, we feel,” Murray said. “The feedback that we’ve gotten has energized the entire committee for having an even bigger and better event next year, especially paying more attention to family events. We’ve got some great ideas that will bring families and involve the community a lot more.”

Transient Lodging Tax

Council voted to increase the city’s transient lodging tax.

The city’s local lodging tax applies to visitors to local hotels or transient lodging like Airbnbs. In 2019, Sherwood adopted a transient lodging tax of 3%. This amendment would increase this tax to 5% on January 1, 2027, and to 6% on January 1, 2028.

Since the first reading, these dates have changed.

“In discussions with the county … they did bring up some good points … that there are some folks that may have already booked stays, and for an Airbnb rental, they would have to go back to their future customer and try to collect more funds,” said David Bodway, city finance director. “(The county) said you’ll want to give folks lead time.”

The lodging tax increase is expected to generate about $107,000 in additional revenue the first year, and $160,000 in the following years. According to ORS 320, the funds may be used for city services, tourism promotion or tourism-related facilities, and related administration costs. There was no public comment.

Youth Advisory Board

Council voted in favor of making changes to the city's youth advisory board.

Formerly, there were seven fixed members of this board, but the amendment increases membership to a range up to 12 members. It also clarifies quorum to half of membership plus one, and adjusts terms from one or two years up to three years or two months after the member completed high school.

Since the first reading, city staff added a reserved spot for homeschooled or charter school students in grades 9-12 who live in Sherwood. There was no public comment.

Council appointed eight members to the youth advisory board, with Cosette Duckett, Akwasi Cobbinah, and Prachi Ranabhat as returning members.