Cannon Beach hopes to make seismic upgrades to help protect drinking water.

CANNON BEACH — The city will take ownership of a piece of land from the Cannon Beach Conference Center in order to replace a water tank.

At a City Council meeting on Feb. 6, city councilors agreed to utilize eminent domain, which enables the government to take private property and convert it to public use.

The water tank, located above the city’s public works yard, is not seismically updated.

Karen La Bonte, the city’s public works director, said installing a new, seismically resilient water reservoir is a critical move to ensure vital drinking water is not lost in an earthquake. To do so, the city had reportedly been trying for over a year and a half to revise the land easement with conference center staff.

“Despite numerous attempts and a significant amount of time passing, the city is still waiting on a revised easement from CBCC,” she said. “At this point, the city cannot delay the project any longer and must move forward with obtaining easements by eminent domain.”

The land is not connected to the main compound utilized by the conference center, which hosts Christian retreats and conferences.

“They own a lot of raw land in the city,” City Manager Bruce St. Denis said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the layout of their operations down at First or Second (streets).”

A representative for the conference center could not be reached for comment.