The city of Coos Bay recently received some good news regarding its concerns about state land claims in the area.

However, the word was less encouraging for North Bend.

A recently completed draft survey conducted by the Department of State Lands claimed 15 acres of land in Coos Bay between Coalbank Slough and the city limit with North Bend.

Coos Bay officials had previously thought as many as 150 acres within the city limits might be claimed because they once were under water. Based on Oregon Revised Statutes, submerged lands are owned by the state — even if  subsequently filled — unless they are deeded away.

“I was kind of encouraged by the maps,” said Mayor Jeff McKeown. “I thought it was a big improvement.”

Although the extent of the claims was less than originally thought, some well-known properties were found to be owned by the state. These include parts of the Coos Bay Boardwalk, the Edgewater Inn property and Central Dock property, proposed site of a new historical museum.

But in North Bend, significant portions of the city — about 38 acres — which hadn’t been involved in discussions up to this point, also were claimed. These included parts of the property housing the Oregon Chip Terminal, Willamette Graystone and Industrial Steel & Supply.

Coos Bay City Manager Chuck Freeman said the city plans to meet with DSL officials later this month to discuss resolving the land disputes. Solutions may include involvement by the Legislature in 2009, though DSL officials have said the issue could be resolved without taking this step. McKeown said the city has requested a survey of the Empire waterfront, as well as the remainder of North Bend.

“My suspicion is there may be something in Empire that will be impacted, too. Perhaps the Hollering Place property,” he said.

North Bend Mayor Rick Wetherell said he was contacted by McKeown about the issue and plans to join Coos Bay in dealing with the state.

“We feel that united, we have a much better chance of stating our case,” he said.

The issue of state land claims was first broached when Anne Donnelly, the director of the Coos Historical & Maritime Museum, learned property designated for a new museum might be owned by the state.

The land, about 4 acres at the north end of Front Street, was sold to the Coos Bay Urban Renewal Agency for $495,000 by Coos County in 2003. The county had acquired the land after its previous owner had failed to pay property taxes.  

The agency was planning to donate the land to the Coos County Historical Society when Donnelly contacted the Department of State Lands about leasing property underneath an existing dock. When the agency responded to her, it said the state also owned the property destined for the museum.

In October, the city formally requested a survey to verify the ownership of the contested property, as well as the rest of Coos Bay.

The survey maintained that the Front Street property was owned by the state.

In a letter to the city of Coos Bay, DSL Director Louise Solliday said the state had been contacted in 1987 to approve the filling of approximately six acres of submerged/submersible lands at the Central Dock. An additional 13.9 acres of filled land in the area were found to be owned by the state.

“(The Land Board) authorized the Department to negotiate a settlement to clear title for the previously filled lands,” Solliday wrote. “However it appears the fill never occurred and the cloud on title was not resolved.”

Aside from the Central Dock issue, McKeown thought the state was accommodating to the city in its survey.

He noted that DSL used the low waterline from 1904, where previously it had used a marker established in 1872 to determine what lands were submerged.

“I thought it was kind of significant,” he said.

Freeman agreed, suggesting it might be viewed as a concession on the state’s part.

Both men expressed some dismay that the maps were stamped with notices indicating they are draft surveys and are subject to change.

“We will see if we can get something more definitive,” McKeown said.

Solliday said staff are completing maps of the remainder of North Bend and Empire. In the letter to Coos Bay, she said the mapping was based on studies from the 1970s, though it is not exact.

“Please note that this mapping information is our best effort to represent where we believe state ownership to be,” she wrote. “Exact location information may need to be confirmed through surveys.”

Most of the claimed acreage is within 500 feet of the existing shoreline. The exception is in North Bend, where the state determined it owns a strip of filled land that nominally parallels U.S. Highway 101 from Washington Avenue to Florida Avenue.

The land crosses property owned by Willamette Graystone and Industrial Steel & Supply. Representatives from both businesses expressed surprise that their property might be claimed by the state. A spokeswoman for Willamette Graystone said the company purchased its property from the Union Pacific railroad about five years ago. The subject of state land claims was never discussed.

Gordon Joelson, owner of the Edgewater Inn in Coos Bay, also was surprised to learn he may not be the owner of the land under his business. He said he purchased his property in the mid-1980s from a bank after it foreclosed on the previous owner. He said he had never been contacted by the Department of State Lands and wasn’t happy to think he has been paying as much as $47,000 a year in property taxes.

McKeown said he wanted to resolve this issue because the Department of State Lands seems reluctant to resolve land disputes.

“We have more clout as a public entity than an individual landowner does,” he said. “We are, in essence, fighting the battle for them.”