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The City of Portland has given Oaks Park Amusement Park permission to go ahead and install a new drop-tower ride on its midway, despite an appeal by neighborhood and wildlife organizations that argued that the attraction would harm migrating birds.
The Bird Alliance of Oregon, Urban Greenspaces Institute and Friends of Oaks Bottom had appealed to the city to not allow the zoning changes required for the ride. The ride will require the city to increase the maximum structure height at Oaks Park from 30 to 135 feet and to allow new exterior lighting, as first reported by KOIN.
Hearings officer David Doughman approved those changes with one modification to appease the birders who led the charge against the ride: when the new lights are illuminated after sunset during the month of October, the lights must be limited to red and orange hues.
Oaks Amusement Park is located on the banks of the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, a 160-acre urban wetland in Sellwood. Marianne Nelson of Friends of Oaks Bottom is “terribly disappointed” with Doughman’s decision.
“Why go to the bother of making a code if you’re not going to uphold it?” Nelson says. “And you’re not going to uphold it next to a bird sanctuary, of all places?”
Nelson says that migrating birds navigate with the help of stars and the bright lights on the drop tower will disorient them. In Doughman’s decision, he writes that the most compelling evidence submitted by Oaks Park is that 500 feet is the lowest elevation used by migrating birds. That’s higher than the maximum vertical light impact from the lighting plan (322 feet.)
Mary Coolidge, campaign coordinator of Bird Alliance of Oregon, says the advocate groups are considering their next steps, including potentially appealing to the state. Emily MacKay, Oaks Park Association’s marketing and events director, says that the park is open to continuing conversations with Bird Alliance about the lighting.
The ride will open in 2027, MacKay says.
