Rockaway Riprap Hearing

The threatened house in question.\Photo by Shalom

More than ten requests for a hearing were received, so the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) will hold a hearing on the controversial proposal to install a shoreline protection structure (i.e., riprap) along a segment of the Rockaway Beach shoreline.  The hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 6 p.m. in the Rockaway Beach City Hall Civic Facility (276 Hwy 101).  Members of the public will be able to testify.  Be sure to sign in to speak when you arrive.

Developer Tai Dang’s proposed riprap project is located on the shore fronting 211 S. 6^th St. in Rockaway.  He was granted an emergency permit in January, as the house he built at that location was severely threatened by erosion.  Now he wants to make the structure—81 feet long, 25.4 feet wide, and 10 feet high—a permanent intrusion onto the public shoreline.

Oregon Shores contends that the structure should never have been allowed at that location, in clear violation of the city’s land use plan, and that the public shoreline should not be sacrificed because the house was erroneously permitted by the city of Rockaway Beach.

To view the application, go here.

Oregon Shores has already submitted detailed comments, urging that OPRD turn down the application.