I tried to forward this email just now, got error message so am trying again.
Land use issues at the Oregon Coast are abundant and of course affect wildlife.
https://oregoncoastalliance.org/
Ulbricht Project Returns to Wheeler
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Wheeler Docks and Nehalem Bay. Courtesy City of Wheeler
Ken Ulbricht, who owns a large vacant property at the north end of Wheeler
bordering Nehalem Bay, has returned to town with a very similar project to the
one before. Last year, Ulbricht proposed a project consisting of a fish
processing plant and restaurant, and a hotel. City Council approved it, but the
Land Use Board of Appeals remanded the approval to the city, pointing out that
the city had not adequately justified the project under the its mandatory
Vision Plan, which requires all proposed development to meet goals for
maintaining livability and small town character. At a remand hearing in May,
Council declined to reinstate the project.
But that was not the end of it. Ulbricht appealed Council decision back to
LUBA, where his lawsuit is now underway. At the same time, he submitted another
application to the City of Wheeler, this time for a fish processing warehouse
and shellfish retail outlet. This new proposal has had one hearing before
Wheeler Planning Commission. The final vote will be October 7th.
There are many problems with the application, ranging from failure to provide
accurate site plans to failure to include any accurate information on key
issues such as water use, wastewater management, stormwater management and
water treatment facilities. All are highly pertinent to a fish processing
operation. But the most glaring issue is that the application is being
processed as an outright use, in an effort to avoid having to justify the
project under much stricter conditional use standards, the Vision Plan or
ordinances relating to geological stability — important in this instance
because the land is old fill. Thus, the only items being considered are the
minor issues that arise under the design review process.
It is a travesty to hurry a major project through that would greatly impact
Nehalem Bay waterfront and Wheeler’s livability, as many residents of the town
have testified. However, ORCA continues to press for a more thorough review,
especially as the environmental effects of this project would be major but have
not been laid out, much less considered by decision-makers.
The Facebook Cable in Tierra del Mar Causes More Sinkholes on the Beach
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New Sinkhole on the Beach in Front of the Facebook Project, September 28, 2021.
Photo courtesy of Ed Ruttledge
The Facebook submarine cable project has been a nightmare and a disaster from
the beginning to the present. The emerging problem? New sinkholes appearing on
the beach just in front of the Facebook drilling lot.
This summer Facebook wrote soothing emails to the Tierra del Mar community,
assuring them that the undersea cable that has bedeviled the community for more
than two years was on the road to completion. Finally, on September 27,
Facebook wrote, "During the week of September 13th, the crew successfully
pulled the Jupiter Subsea Cable through to the beach manhole and connected it
to the network. With the final phase of work completed, the construction crew
has demobilized from Lot 3200. The landscapers have returned to restore the
site. In September, they will replant the native plants that were temporarily
relocated and add irrigation to cover the newly landscaped areas.”
State and county decision-makers uniformly supported the project from the
beginning, except for Tillamook County Commissioner Mary Faith Bell, who voted
against such an industrial project in a residential neighborhood. Undoubtedly
all the agency personnel from Tillamook County, the Department of State Lands
and Parks Department drew a great breath of relief that the project was over at
last that had problem after problem, culminating in a drill accident that left
a large pile of industrial trash entombed forever under the seafloor.
But not so fast. Just in the last couple of days new sinkholes have developed
on the beach directly west of the Facebook drilling site in Tierra del Mar. The
most westward is (at the moment) quite small, measuring about 12 x 12 inches.
But then further east, closer to the Facebook lot, another deeper sinkhole
opened up, this one about 32 inches deep. It made its presence known when a
local resident sank into sand which appeared to be a normal beach. The Parks
Department quickly filled both sinkholes in. Clearly this is a serious and
unpredictable problem. Sinkholes that appeared in April were measured, probed,
studied, and pronounced solved. But the new sinkholes prove that something is
very wrong with the cable, its conduit and the beach. Apparently the problem is
longterm, and nobody knows what will happen next. This should be a warning for
all future submarine cable projects in Oregon. When will decision-makers learn
to get serious about regulating these proposals?
The Roberts in Cannon Beach Get A Small Permit
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Roberts House, as Rendered by Applicant. October 2020. Courtesy City of Cannon
Beach
The Roberts have desired to build a house in Cannon Beach on their lot, but
have refused to follow the oceanfront setback requirements. Denied by the city
and turned down by LUBA, they appealed to the Court of Appeals, where the case
awaits a ruling. But meantime, they also applied to the city for a driveway, a
small house and a stabilization beam, each via a separate application. Recently
the city granted an administrative permit for the stabilization beam and
micropiles.
The approval is very narrowly structured, making it clear that this is not an
early-stage approval for a house or any other building — neither the denial for
a house the Roberts have on appeal, nor any other proposal, whether for a
driveway or smaller structure. The permit states, “This approval does not
affect any other pending or future permits for other development…As it is the
applicant’s decision to seek these permits separately, each permit application
will be reviewed and decided on its own merits."
