Mission Profile

Can a drone and a lawyer save a house?

- Patrick Sherman

PILOT REPORT: Clear skies and light winds met me at Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast. That’s hardly the usual forecast for late October in this part of the world, but this break in the weather provided me with the opportunity to complete my mission. I had been tasked with documenting the location and condition of a private home.

Damaged in a severe winter storm the previous year, the owner had applied to the city for permission to make repairs and install protective riprap to prevent further erosion—and had been denied. He subsequently hired my client, ace land-use attorney Wendie Kellington, to represent him in a lawsuit against the city.

The city's stated reason for denying him the right to repair and protect his home was that, when it was built 10 years earlier, it had been improperly sited. Never mind that he had permission from the city to build the home in that location and had followed the approved plan precisely. He was now expected, I suppose, to stand by and watch as subsequent storms slowly dismantled his property because—a decade after the fact—the city had changed its mind.

I’m not an attorney, so I’m not qualified to judge the merits of this case from a legal perspective, but it seemed to me that I was on the side of right as I pulled up alongside the home and unpacked my gear. After just a few minutes, a neighbor approached and made polite inquiries about the reason for my visit.

Watching over each other’s property is second nature in a small, seasonal community like Rockaway Beach, and this neighbor wanted to make sure I didn’t have any untoward designs on the property. I’m sure the fact that I was wearing a uniform with my name stitched on the chest, knew the name of the homeowner, and could speak intelligently about drones helped allay any suspicions he had.

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