Fundamental Principles

The City of Ocean Shores Coastal Erosion Management Strategy is based on two fundamental principles. They are:

1. Recognition that coastal erosion affects everyone and management efforts must focus on the common good. Erosion impacts the natural environment, the built environment and the economy. It affects the City, the State of Washington and all of the people who live near and visit the Pacific Ocean shoreline and beaches.

2. The environment is the economy in Ocean Shores. Proactive and responsible management of our environment means our tourism and development industries remain healthy.

Strategy Goals

1. Minimize loss of life and public/private property resulting from storms and long-term erosion.

2. Protect the Pacific Ocean shoreline for people and fish and wildlife habitat.

3. Protect and enhance public recreational opportunities associated with coastal beaches.

4. Prevent threat to public and private investment in the future by eliminating the potential for erosion/development collisions to occur.

5. Enhance the economic viability of Ocean Shores as a tourist destination and environmentally responsible development community.

6. Reduce public and private costs of relocating and/or abandoning development on shorelines.

7. Ensure sound investment opportunities in Ocean Shores through stable and reliable land use policies and development standards.

8. Educate the public. Educate local, state and federal government officials and staff and potential funding sources on the issues of coastal erosion management on the Pacific Ocean shoreline.

9. Take the High Road! Do not get caught up in the negative. Listen to concerns. Realize that managing Mother Nature's impacts on public and private property is a highly emotional issue, however, we must keep a community -wide focus on determining a future course.

1. Jetty Rehabilitation and Re-construction

Work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to:

a) In the very near future, rehabilitate the portion of the North Jetty that adjoins the uplands;

b) Develop a long-term management strategy for North Jetty rehabilitation and financing that incorporates all parties served by the jetty and its navigational responsibilities. Include Congressional delegation staff, Port of Grays Harbor, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Grays Harbor County, the Quinault Indian Nation and other agencies and organizations.

c) Recognize that Deeper Draft has significantly altered wave action and sand transport affecting uplands in both Ocean Shores and Westport.

d) Establish accountable entities and their responsibilities for specific needs such as monitoring the condition of the jetty, financing repair and rehabilitation, upland management. public advantages and disadvantages and more.

e) Conduct a public process to develop strategy.

f) Immediately begin working with Congress to add storm damage reduction as part of the North Jetty's purpose and modifying the North Jetty accordingly.

g) Develop a comprehensive project that remedies the wave overwashing and the Pacific Ocean shoreline breach potential.

2. Implementation Plan for Management Area 1

Work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, other responsible agencies, and the public to develop a detailed implementation plan to manage the immediate coastal erosion and ocean storm surge flooding problem affecting Management Area 1. Determine the feasibility of the DEIS Alternative 2.1 Retreat with Dune Construction, including addressing specific detail on:

a) The possibility of a process to purchase proper-

ties with the potential of leasing those properties back to the owners creating a fund for further erosion management needs;

b) The possibility of a phased purchase and/or relocation of structures in a portion of Management Area 1 that are immediately threatened by erosion;

c) The possibility of reconstructing the dune in an upland position;

d) The possibility of the reconstructed dune having some type of internal structure that would act as a first line of defense against storm action if sand is washed away;

e) All environmental impacts of structure relocation and dune reconstruction;

f) All economic impacts of structure relocation and dune reconstruction;

g) Protection of the investment that has been made in Ocean Shores by the public and by private property owners; and

h) All legal aspects of property purchases, relocations and phasing.

Establish clear and reasonable policies for management of development on accreted shorelines within City limits.

Establish Accretion/Erosion Zones. Develop policies for management of "erosion zones" that clearly spell out the State, City and Property Owner responsibilities in management of development on accreted shorelines. These zones would work similarly to shoreline environment designations established through the Shoreline Master Program (urban, conservancy, natural, etc.)

Incorporate the City's Ocean Dunes Act into the City's Shoreline Master Program in a much more comprehensive and useable manner citing reference to protection from flooding, tsunami, and beginning the establishment of a wetland mitigation banking program

Immediately develop a flood hazard reduction plan to incorporate into the City's development standards, shoreline management policies and storm drain policies that results in comprehensive management of runoff. This will also result in lowering property owner's flood insurance rates by as much as 40%.

Update the City's Critical Areas Ordinance that designates and manages development of geologically hazardous areas, frequently flooded areas, aquifer recharge and wetland areas and fish and wildlife habitat areas.

4. Create Financing Mechanisms for Coastal Erosion Management

Establish financing and accountability mechanisms for future erosion management needs that

recognize that:

People will always want to build their dream home on the coastal shoreline; and,

Building on a coastal shoreline has responsibilities associated with it such as financing erosion management and/or potential relocation or abandonment of structures on private property;

Public money is low for shoreline protection and/or to reimburse or finance rebuilding, relocate, and/or abandonment; and

Government at all levels is looking for more sustainable solutions to coastal erosion management that combine environmentally and economically sound practices and policies.

City Council:

On behalf of the Ocean Shores City Council, the City Manager has notified appropriate agencies and interested parties that the City will be extending the date of issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as allowed by WAC 197-11-460(6), due to the unusually large scope, complexity of the economic and environmental impacts, and extensive modification to the Draft EIS required to respond to public comment. The estimated date of Final EIS availability is November 7, 1999.

As the Final EIS is being prepared, the City Council will be asking for substantial supplementary information concerning alternatives and their impacts before any decisions are made. The City Council has begun the task of reviewing all the alternatives and the recommendations given to them by the Interdisciplinary Team and consider this a serious and deliberate process. The additional time taken at this stage in the process will allow the Council to complete their task successfully and in the best in terests of the City of Ocean Shores.

Once the Final EIS is issued, the City Council will make a final decision on the Coastal Erosion Management Strategy.

City Staff:

City staff will slow their aggressive schedule for issuing the Final Environmental Impact Statement in order to fully answer all questions and address all comments received during the Draft EIS public comment period.

We will be working on a Responsiveness Summary for Draft EIS comments which will be included in the Final EIS. This Responsiveness Summary will be sent to those who commented and will be available to other interested parties by request.

Also, City Staff will be working to provide additional information to the City Council as they deliberate on the contents of the Draft EIS and the recommendation of the Interdisciplinary Team.

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