Maybe it just might happen. Maybe.
On Wednesday, Lincoln County commissioners – after a public hearing that lasted no more than two minutes – asked its attorney to bring an order to its April 16 meeting to officially transfer portions of Marine Drive and Ocean View Drive to the city of Yachats.
It’s a process that’s been talked about – and fumbled – for decades, stymied by staffing changes at both Yachats city hall and county offices and ironing out differences in the road’s old surveys, legal descriptions and years of paving that encroached on a handful of properties. The county also spent about $250,000 in improvements to stretches of Ocean View Drive.
It’s a process that officially got underway seven years ago, but has been discussed for decades as part of the county’s vacating of County Road 804, now a popular trail stretching from the beach north of Yachats through the city along Ocean View Drive and then connecting to U.S. Highway 101.
After April 16, the two roads will be Yachats’ responsibility, which it has been pressing the county to pass along.
Yachats needs to own the road in order to build a boardwalk overlooking the Yachats estuary. With the transfer it also gains access to $308,000 in 804 Trail mitigation funds to help pay for its recent purchase of the former Landmark property at the corner of Ocean View Drive and U.S. Highway 101.
“I think we’re ready to go,” commissioner Casey Miller said after Wednesday’s brief hearing. “Everything is in place.”
Finally. Maybe.
