Campaign to Restore Access to the Doris Davis Trail: Tale of a “Community” Trail on Private Property – GoFundMe to Support Securing Public Use of Trail

(Manzanita, Ore.), September 1, 2020 – Classic Ridge Trail Access Campaign (TAC), a group of volunteers from the 200 plus home owners of the Classic Ridge and surrounding neighborhoods of Manzanita are moving forward with asking the court for relief in order to restore trail access to the beach community. The group has made numerous efforts over the past months to reach out to property owners who built a fence earlier this summer across Doris Davis Trail. The response from the owners has been more fortification of the fencing and unfriendly communication with various residents of the Classic Ridge community.

The trail is shown here as the green dotted line and has provided access west for the neighborhood for over 40 years.

The group details their plans to ask the court for relief in their latest blog post. Their first step is to file a quiet title action in Tillamook County Court seeking a declaration that the public has a right to continue using the trail. According to the Oregon Supreme Court, if the public openly uses a trail for more than 10 years, without permission of the owners, then the public can acquire a prescriptive easement across private land. The trail has been used for well over 40 years by hundreds if not thousands of people, well before the present owners acquired the land. The goal of the action is to ensure the public has access to the trail they have utilized for over four decades and provide safe passage in the occurrence of a tsunami.

Portions of the trail are part of the Nehalem Bay Wastewater Agency easement and access for the sewer from the 1980’s.

The group is also seeking to raise $15,000 from community members to support the legal effort. This fundraising effort is being initiated by a long-time trail user passionate about securing the right for everyone to continue to use the trail. Any funds not used for the litigation will be applied to other efforts to improve beach access from the neighborhood or donated to Trailkeepers of Oregon’s work on the coast. Donations to support the efforts of the Classic Ridge Trail Access Campaign can be made online (https://www.gofundme.com/f/doris-davis-reopening)
Classic Ridge Trail Access Campaign is a group of volunteers from the 200 plus home owners of the Classic Ridge and surrounding neighborhoods of Manzanita, Oregon. They are dedicated to ensuring trail access to the beach community and are open to all interested supporters. Learn more at https://trailaccess5.wixsite.com/manzanita.