A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022
IN BRIEF
State reports 38th virus death
for Clatsop County
SUNSET STROLL
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
A man walks by the wreck of
the Peter Iredale at sunset.
The Oregon Health Authority reported a 38th coro-
navirus death for Clatsop County.
The health authority said a 57-year-old woman
tested positive on July 30 and died of the virus on Aug.
7 at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria.
Clatsop County said the woman was vaccinated
against the virus and had underlying health conditions.
The health authority, meanwhile, reported 53 new
virus cases for the county on Thursday and 37 new
cases on Wednesday.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
4,206 virus cases as of Thursday.
State adjusts virus case count in
hospital, care home outbreaks
The Oregon Health Authority disclosed new coro-
navirus cases at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Asto-
ria on Wednesday.
The new total at the hospital is 22, according to the
health authority’s weekly outbreak report. This number
is up from the 18 cases mentioned in last week’s report.
Nancee Long, the hospital’s communications director,
said the new total includes cases from the previous week.
“We continue to have COVID-positive employ-
ees,” Long said. “There has not yet been a COVID
exposure within the organization. They are all being
exposed outside the organization and then calling in
and saying, ‘We’re sick,’ and staying home.”
In addition, Suzanne Elise Assisted Living Com-
munity in Seaside was listed in the report as having
an outbreak of 11 virus cases, up from 10 cases, dat-
ing to Jan. 11.
State discloses virus case
at local school
The Oregon Health Authority has disclosed one
new coronavirus case at a school in Clatsop County.
The case involved a student from Warrenton Grade
School, according to the health authority’s weekly out-
break report.
Oregon’s land use rules bump
up against crowded shorelines
Gearhart puts fi rehouse bond
on May ballot
By KRISTIAN
FODEN-VENCIL
Oregon Public Broadcasting
GEARHART — The City Council voted Wednes-
day to put a $14.5 million fi re and police station bond
measure on the ballot for the May 17 election.
The vote will come after a similar measure was
postponed by a legal challenge last year . I f approved
by voters, the bond measure would fi nance a new fi re-
house on 2 acres off Highlands Lane along U.S. High-
way 101.
— The Astorian
Back in 2016, Michael
Ellis, a former president
of the Fred Meyer grocery
chain, bought a lot in the
Pine Beach development
along Tillamook County’s
Rockaway Beach.
He built a house, but
never really considered it
oceanfront property. That’s
because a stretch of dunes
lay between his home and
the beach. The dunes were
common ground, accessible
to everyone.
“It was all trees, some
spruce trees, some shore
pines. It was like you’re in
a mountain cabin, versus a
beach cabin,” Ellis said. “But
you still had the ability to
walk down a little pathway
and go down to the beach.”
Over the last few years,
however, the ocean has
eroded just about all that
common ground. So Ellis
and his neighbors banded
together to fi nd a way to pro-
tect their properties.
Their options included
trucking in more sand, plant-
ing more trees or mov-
ing their homes upward or
inland. But none of those
seemed as viable as using
riprap – piles of boulders
that break up wave energy
and prevent erosion.
“If we do nothing, the
oceanfront homes would be
gone,” Ellis said. “And then
the next set of homes behind
those would be the next to
go.”
This fall, Tillamook
County
commissioners
allowed 10 homeowners in
the Pine Beach development
to use riprap. Over the last
few months, each has spent
$100,000 or more to build a
barrier. It’s one long pile of
rocks, each the size of about
a third of a car, buried deep in
their backyards and topped
with sand and vegetation.
Without this reinforce-
ment, Ellis said, the Pacifi c
Ocean would destroy his
house and much of the neigh-
borhood — leaving behind a
mess of ruined homes.
To county commissioners
who approved the plan, these
erosion prevention eff orts
sound logical. But there’s a
problem: Oregon land -use
rules largely ban shore-
line armoring, under what’s
known as Goal 18. The pol-
icy, adopted back in 1977,
banned the use of riprap to
protect new development,
unless the site qualifi ed for
an exception.
State regulators back then
DEATHS
Feb. 3, 2022
In BOLDT,
Brief
Jo Anne,
85, of Seaside, died
in Seaside. Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
KENT,
Samuel
Eugene, 88, of Asto-
ria, died in Warrenton.
Caldwell’s
Luce-Lay-
ton Mortuary of Asto-
ria is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Encouraging child
at Mill Pond Lane and
On
the
sexual
abuse Record
23rd Street in Astoria
• Gabriel Burton
Walker, 34, of Seaside,
was arrested on Wednes-
day for two counts of
encouraging child sex-
ual abuse in the fi rst
degree and two counts of
online sexual corruption
of a child in the second
degree. The crimes are
alleged to have occurred
in June.
Assault
• James Edward Hahn,
45, of Warrenton, was
arrested on Thursday
for assault in the fourth
degree. The crime is
alleged to have occurred
on Marine Drive.
Theft
• Eugene Burt Korno-
ely, 42, of Ocean Park,
Washington, was indicted
on Thursday for theft
in the fi rst degree, two
counts of theft in the sec-
ond degree and escape
in the third degree. The
crimes are alleged to
have occurred in Clatsop
County in January.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
SATURDAY
Warrenton City Commission, 9 a.m., goal setting meet-
ing, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave.
MONDAY
Astoria City Council, 6 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Jewell School District Board, 6 p.m., special session,
83874 Oregon Highway 103.
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., (elec-
tronic meeting).
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., work session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Lewis & Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fi re
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Clatsop Community College Board, 6:30 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Many homes along the Oregon Coast are threatened by ocean
erosion. Goal 18 bans shoreline armoring such as riprap
unless the home was developed before 1977.
hoped Goal 18 would keep
the Oregon Coast from com-
ing to resemble California’s
coastline, where in certain
spots you can fi nd mile after
mile of rip rapped beaches.
“People were starting to
build out on the beach and
there was a feeling that that
wasn’t something that they
wanted,” said Meg Reed,
a coastal specialist with
the Oregon Department
of Land Conservation and
Development.
Natural friction
At the time Goal 18 was
adopted, scientists were also
realizing that riprap changes
the wave action on a beach,
scouring away sand and
potentially leaving no beach
for the public to enjoy.
So there’s a natural fric-
tion between the hundreds
of thousands of Oregonians
who live on the coast and
want their properties pro-
tected from the ocean, and
environmentalists and visi-
tors, who vacation here and
want to protect the beautiful
vistas.
These kinds of neigh-
borhood spats go on all
the time, and all over Ore-
gon and Washington state,
whether they’re about new
fences or parking rights or
riprap. What makes this dis-
agreement so important is
that, after decades of largely
sticking to Goal 18 rip rap
rules, Tillamook County has
decided to toss them out,
said Phillip Johnson, exec-
utive director of the Ore-
gon Shores Conservation
Coalition.
“It’s not new that we’re
getting more and more
attempts to riprap the shore-
line due to increased ero-
sion,” he said. “But this is
like an order of magnitude
more, where they’re just try-
ing to suspend Goal 18. And
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that’s what makes this partic-
ular case so important.”
Johnson said it’s clear
Pine Beach wasn’t around
back in 1977, so it should not
be allowed to be rip rapped.
He’s also upset that home-
owners went straight for an
industrial-scale erosion mea-
sure such as riprap, instead
of trying other less intense
solutions, like adding sand
or vegetation.
The Oregon Shores Con-
servation Coalition is fi ght-
ing Tillamook County’s
decision and taking the Pine
Beach case to Oregon’s
Land Use Board of Appeals,
or LUBA. They’re joined in
their case by the Surfrider
Foundation and the state
Department of Land Conser-
vation and Development.
LUBA was established by
the state Legislature in 1979,
and its members rule on
appeals of land use decisions
made by local governments.
Tillamook
County
commissioners told Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting
they can’t comment on the
case because it is headed
for appeal.
But Wendie Kellington,
the lawyer for the home-
owners, is happy to talk.
She points out that Goal 18
has a clause that allows cer-
tain government agencies to
grant exceptions to the rip-
rap rules. And in this case,
she said, an exception is jus-
tifi ed, because when Tilla-
mook County approved the
Pine Beach development in
the 1990s, independent sur-
veyors said the ocean had
been adding sand to the
beach for 70 years. They
also said the area was rela-
tively safe from the threat of
erosion.
“These
(homeowners)
did everything right. This
is not a situation where you
have people who are tempt-
ing fate,” Kellington said.
But now, that common
ground of trees and sand
dunes has been washed
away.
The Pine Beach develop-
ment is also located between
two jetties, about 5 miles
apart, built 70 years ago, and
Kellington said those have
contributed to the erosion.
“The natural processes
were forever and irrevocably
altered by these two man-
made jetty systems that exist
nowhere else in the entire
state of Oregon,” she said.
Environmentalists dis-
agree with Kellington’s sug-
gestion that the jetties had
a major impact on erosion.
And they worry about the
precedent Tillamook County
is setting by allowing riprap
here.
To secure the exception
to Goal 18, Kellington had
to convince commission-
ers that the situation was
unique and exceptional, so
it doesn’t create a precedent.
Kellington expects LUBA to
side with homeowners. She
thinks 90% of owners in the
area between the jetties are
entitled to riprap and it’s just
a matter of time before this
segment of the coast can be
rip rapped without Goal 18
exceptions.
Back at the beach, the
eff ect of Goal 18 is clearly
visible. The Shorewood
RV Resort was developed
before 1977, so it’s protected
on three sides by riprap. As
the beach has eroded, the RV
resort now juts out onto the
beach. The public can’t walk
past the site at high tide.
It’s a vivid illustration of
how, over time, a mixture of
erosion and land use rules
are reshaping of Oregon’s
coastline.
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