Two of the back decks (to the left) on the home have lost their structural stability, and are in the process of collapsing, in this March 2018 photo. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)





By AIMEE GREEN

The Oregonian | OregonLive



Winter storms haven't been kind to the small bluff buffering Tai Dang's beachfront house from the ocean.



The back decks of the $1 million vacation home in Rockaway Beach are collapsing.



The northwest corner of the house is now just a few feet from bluff's edge. It was at least 15 feet from the edge in 2016 when The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported Dang's struggle to save the home.



One of the staircases leading from the back of the house also has tumbled down the bluff.



Dang has stopped renting the six-bedroom Tuscan-style villa to vacationers because of its now-precarious perch.



But he hasn't abandoned his fight to convince government officials to allow him to put down a wall of boulders to protect what's left.



On a recent spring day, the home's deterioration drew beachcombers, some who stopped to snap photos or marvel at the slow decline.

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In January 2018, these two back decks began the process of collapsing, according to the home owners' attorneys. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)





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The bluff that this foundational support for the decks once rested on has eroded away in the past several months. It's seen here in March 2018. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)







The Portland resident built the place in 2009 for his immediate and extended families as a weekend getaway. Dang said he and two friends who became co-owners painstakingly selected its staircases, chandeliers, wainscoting and granite.



Before construction, Dang hired a geologist who studied the dune next to the home and noted its gradual retreat from the ocean. When the geologist returned to Dang's property after the home was finished, he said erosion had rapidly sped up and the dune was disappearing at a rate of up to 15 feet a year.



The riprap would run along the 81 feet of his property, pile 8 feet high and be 23 feet wide at its base, according to one of Dang's applications.

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Front of the house. (Photo courtesy of Tai Dang)





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Foyer. (Photo courtesy of Tai Dang)





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(Courtesy of Tai Dang)





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(Courtesy of Tai Dang)







But riprap can cause erosion elsewhere as it changes how waves hit nearby beaches and it can scrape away the beach in front of it. Many people call it an eyesore.



In 1973, state lawmakers set out to limit the use of riprap by allowing only landowners on beachfront properties developed with homes, businesses or utility lines before Jan. 1, 1977, to install riprap if no other viable alternative exists.



Owners of land developed after then generally are out of luck.



Dang's land was developed decades earlier: A house built in the 1930s once stood on the property, according to a geologist's report.

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Riprap is typically large boulders or concrete chunks laid in piles on the oceanfront, as seen here in Neskowin in 1999. (Benjamin Brink/File photo)





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The hot tub out back is a few feet from the bluff's edge.







City Attorney John Putman told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week that Dang isn't complying with city land-use rules because his house was built too close to the ocean.



Although Dang didn't respond to a request for an interview for this story, he and his attorney said previously that he built his house where it is because a private licensed surveyor told him it was behind the city's required ocean shore setback line. The city agreed -- even stating in a letter that Dang had complied with "all city standards and regulations."



The city in January 2015 approved of the riprap but then reversed its position a few months later, state records show. The city denied the application under the belief that Dang had built too close to the ocean.



Dang last applied to lay down riprap in front of his property this past Jan. 18, the same day a massive winter storm hit the Oregon coast. Around that time, the home's back decks began to collapse, Dang's attorneys said.



The state denied the permission. The ultimate decision rests with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, but the agency won't approve Dang's application if the city says he isn't following its land-use laws, said Chris Havel, a department spokesman.

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Posts and rope along the line of the property have tumbled down the eroding bluff, next to the hot tub. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)







Putman said Dang could do one of two things to meet the city rules: Dig up his house and its foundation and move them back about 15 feet or more so they rest behind the ocean shore setback line. Or Dang could cut off the back 15 feet or more of his house, so the remainder is behind the setback line.



"The size of the house would have to shrink significantly," Putman said.



It's unclear if either one of those options would be economically feasible or structurally possible.



In 2016, Dang had gone to court to ask a Tillamook County Circuit Court judge to allow him to install riprap. The judge declined to intervene, saying he didn't have the authority.

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Watch a video taken from outside the beach house on a recent spring day. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)







Last month, Dang and his attorneys sent the city a notice, saying he intends to sue Rockaway Beach. Co-owners Hue Le and Tue Nguyen would join him in the suit.



The letter said they plan "to hold the city responsible for all damages" to the decks and the house, and those losses "may well be increasing every day."



-- Aimee Green



agreen@oregonian.com



o_aimee

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This 2016 photo shows a back stair case, which since has tumbled down the short bluff onto the beach below and been removed from the property. When this photo was taken, the edge of the bluff was about eight feet from the corner of the decks and 15 feet from the northwest corner of the house. (Submitted photo)





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The Stowger House in Bayocean, as seen in 1954. The community's last home was washed into the ocean in 1960s. (Courtesy of Tillamook County Pioneer Museum)



Beachfront property owners in Oregon have a precarious relationship with the ocean -- with owners sometimes caught by surprise by the advancing waves and shrinking beaches.



Among the examples: The entire town of Bayocean was washed into the ocean a few decades after it was founded in 1906. The vacation town had been built on Tillamook Spit and quickly grew to a population of 2,000 before the waves took their toll.

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After massive dune erosion in the late 1990s and the 2000s, most of Neskowin's beachfront was lined with riprap. Seen here are waves crashing in 1999. (By Bob Ellis/The Oregonian/File photo)





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Sand is constantly moving -- building dunes in one place, and tearing them apart in others. Pictured here is an eroding bluff in Tillamook County in 1997. (Photo by Bob Ellis/The Oregonian/File photo)





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Homes in The Capes development in Oceanside in 1998. (Roger Jensen/File photo)



Another well-known example of coastal erosion: In 1998, owners at The Capes in Oceanside grew alarmed when the giant bluff their homes sat upon quickly receded in a matter of months.



Residents pleaded with the state to allow them to protect their homes with riprap, but then-Gov. John Kitzhaber rejected the idea because the homes and land weren't developed before 1977.