Many of you have asked if for a summary of the September 8th, Manzanita City Council Meeting.
Members of TAC spoke at the beginning of the meeting about Cherry Trail and were active on the chat during the meeting. As the meeting wrapped up, TAC was able to send off one final comment regarding an error found on the Manzanita Trails map with the intention of bringing the council back to what they stated as the purpose for the Master Trail Plan.
The new City Manager, Leila Aman, ended the meeting answering TAC's questions that were submitted prior to the City Council meeting, since they would not put us on the agenda for the 4th month in a row.
Aman follows the book on what needs to be done. However we suspect that a lot of the demands/hurdles she expects for the trail reflect what the property owner's lawyers threw at us. In essence: there are more demands being placed on this trail than any other beach access trail that we know of along the Oregon coast.
It is worth noting that this summer when we asked Aman if TAC was able to meet all the demands would the city be willing to approve it, she said, “Maybe. Maybe not.” Though we had the right of way surveyed during summer of 2020, Aman also said we need a new geotech study, a dune over lay plan, an erosion plan, an engineering plan and many other things. Aman also said she needs 6-months to get ahead of all the things her new job is throwing at her: the new city hall, covid protocols, etc. Finally, let's recall that a number of TAC members participated in the Manzanita Master Plan Initial Committee in late January 2021. During this process, members made it clear we would be representing TAC’s interest in making sure we had direct beach access off of Classic Ridge. At this time, other new routes were identified through the Classic Ridge area as well.
They now have the trail map, which resulted from that initial group, up on the city website. The city has failed to follow through with their own plan, to provide forms to join the subsequent trail committee, or to begin a selection process for that permanent trail committee. We were told that would happen in June 2021. It has not moved forward, yet it is a featured part of the city webpage now. Members of TAC have put in many hours just to make sure the Cherry Trail is on that plan.
In Conclusion and Calls to Action
1) We are still stalled on the Cherry Street beach access! Which means there is not official beach access from Classic ridge other than by the street.
2) If any of you don’t have a sign supporting the Cherry Street Trail Access we encourage you to get one. It is very impactful to see signs all along Classic Ridge supporting the efforts. Write us here if you are interested in supporting TAC.
3) Showing up at council meetings, continue writing, emailing - all of this is helpful. The Council needs to keep hearing other folks up here that are waiting for a reasonable solution. We have asked many times for an outline of things we need to do to check off boxes. The more voices advocating for this the better.
4) Thank you to all who participated during the Wednesday evening City Council Meeting, and members of TAC who have put time and energy into this work (Stan Myers, Pat Murphy, Rob Jordan, Chris Robinson, Dereen DeSchryver, and others).
What happened with the plan to sue to resume access on the original trail that started all of this? It seems like money spent on engineering studies for the new trail would be better spent legally demonstrating that the original trail easement must be honored, no?