Offshore wind community meetings are coming up

The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development is hosting a series of community meetings regarding proposed offshore wind leases off Oregon’s southern coast.

The proposed leases (through the Office of Ocean Energy Management) would authorize companies to explore two areas off the Oregon coast for potential offshore wind development projects.

The proposed lease sale in Oregon includes two tracts totaling 194,995 acres – one in the Coos Bay Wind Energy Area and the other in the Brookings Wind Energy Area.

BOEM says these areas have the potential to power more than one million homes with clean, renewable energy.

Several local groups and agencies have expressed concerns about the projects, including the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, as well as commercial fishing groups.

During community meetings, staff will provide information on the proposed actions being reviewed and applicable state and government policies related to the consistency review.

Community members are encouraged to submit comments on the Consistency Review during the 45-day comment period, which ends on June 15, 2024.

As part of the state’s federal consistency review authority under the Coastal Zone Management Act, DLCD’s Oregon Coastal Zone Management Program staff will review proposed BOEM activities for compliance with current, enforceable Oregon coastal zone policies.

The outcome of this review would be approval of BOEM’s proposed leasing actions, agreement to terms, or opposition to BOEM’s proposed leasing actions.

In-person Community meetings will be held as follows:

There will be a meeting on Monday, June 3 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Brookings-Harbor High School. The address is 625 Pioneer Rd., Brookings, OR 97415.

There will be a meeting on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 from 5:30-8:00 PM at Sunset Middle School in Coos Bay. The address is 245 S Cammann St., Coos Bay, OR 97420.

There will be a meeting on Thursday, June 6, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Junior High School. Siuslawa in Florence. The address is 2525 Oak St., Florence, OR 97439.

There will be a meeting on Friday, June 7 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Newport High School. The address is 322 NE Eads St., Newport, OR 97365.

The schedule for each of these meetings is as follows:

• Open Day at 5:30 p.m

• Presentations at 18:00

• Public comment at 6:30 p.m

• Next steps and break at 8 p.m

Community members wishing to express their concerns in person should plan to limit comments to three minutes per person, according to the press release. If many people want to express their opinion, comment times may need to be further limited as agencies say they want to hear from as many community members as possible.