Oaks Park wants to add 147-foot Tower Drop, neighbors not thrilled

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- For 120 years, Oaks Amusement Park has provided thrills, chills and fun to kids of all ages at its 44-acre park in Southeast Portland. Now they want to add a new 147-foot ride, the Tower Drop, that will require zoning changes, drawing the wrath of some neighbors and environmentalists.

In December, park officials filed a permit review as part of a long-planned renovation to the facility on the banks of the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. The permit wants the zoning changed to increase the maximum structure height at the park from 30 feet to 147 feet -- the height of the Tower Drop.

Riders would be taken 120 feet in the air before being suddenly dropped -- and then slowing to a stop with a magnetic braking system.

"You'd get up there, have beautiful views of our area and then freefall back to the ground," spokesperson Emily MacKay said.

Additionally, they want to add some new outside lighting. That would require a second zoning change.

While the permit review is winding its way through city agencies, the nonprofit Friends of Oak Bottom has publicly blasted the plan as an "eyesore for much of the Sellwood Neighborhood."

The group notes the Sellwood Bluff provides scenic views of Portland, Mt. St. Helens and the Willamette River. A tower that large would detract from the scenery and "on summer nights, the proposed tower would blast a wave of light into the residences surrounding Oaks Bottom."

The brighter lights "would negatively impact all manner of wildlife from birds to beavers," the group also said.

"I think this particular ride is not very conducive to protecting wildlife," said Ezra Cohen, the co-founder of Friends of Oak Bottom. "Light from cities gets into the sky and disorients birds when they're migrating and then they crash into lighted structures like windows that they cannot see."

It is worth noting Oaks Amusement Park already has rides taller than the 30-foot limit. MacKay said it's because the park predates the city's current rules.

"When it was opened it was us," she said, "and then the city grew up around us."

MacKay said the Tower Drop and lights will be far enough from the refuge to protect the birds, with lights on mostly during the day.

Oaks Amusement Park is owned and operated by the non-profit Oaks Park Association "whose mission is the preservation and perpetuation of the historic amusement park as an affordable, safe, and family-friendly recreation attraction open to the general public," according to their website, and will also "provide stewardship of the real estate" where the park is located.

It's a balancing act, keeping the urban feel while respecting nature next door. In the end, both sides said they want to work together.

"We take it really seriously to be a good neighbor," Mackay told KOIN 6 News.

"If it does become a reality," Cohen said, "I think we want to work with Oaks Park to make it as good as it can be for wildlife."

Public comment on the proposed plan and re-zoning is open through January 16. A decision on the permit review will follow within 120 days.

If it is approved, the Tower Drop wouldn't open until 2026.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.