Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Old Orchard Beach, Maine

The January 2024 Storm: Why Ocean Park Flooded

The event driving Old Orchard Beach's entire current coastal-defense story is the storm sequence of January 9-13, 2024. Per WGME's reporting, storm surge breached already-eroded dunes near Goosefare Brook, and the resulting floodwater reached more than 75 homes in the Ocean Park neighborhood, with some residences taking on four feet of water. Town Manager Diana Asanza has been explicit that the existing dune system, even in its eroded state, kept the damage from being worse: "Those dunes protected hundreds of homes and businesses from more severe flooding."

That storm led President Biden to issue Major Disaster Declaration ME-4764-DR on March 20, 2024, covering eight Maine counties including York County and authorizing FEMA's Individuals and Households Program and related federal recovery assistance, per the town's own website (oobmaine.com). Applications were processed through DisasterAssistance.gov and York County Disaster Recovery Centers. Ocean Park's low dune line at Goosefare Brook is the specific site of the breach — a detail worth knowing if you are evaluating a property in or near that neighborhood specifically, rather than Old Orchard Beach generally.

The 2025-2026 Dune Rebuild: Two Phases, Not a Permanent Fix

In response, a dune-restoration effort of more than $1 million is underway, funded primarily through federal and state disaster assistance, and structured in two phases. Phase 1 targeted the Goosefare Brook area itself, beginning the week of January 13, 2026: roughly 1,400 cubic yards of sand were placed across 400 feet of beach to rebuild the dunes that failed in the January 2024 storm.

Phase 2 moved to the town's northern beach section, more than half a mile north of the Pier, the following week. That phase placed a larger volume of sand — 4,500 cubic yards, sourced from a quarry in Dayton, Maine — and included sea-grass planting specifically for dune stabilization. Both phases are soft-engineering work: sand and vegetation, not concrete, steel, or stone.

Town officials have been direct that this is not a one-time or permanent solution. As reported, the expectation is that "much more sand will need to be brought in or dredged" as sea levels continue to rise, and the town is preparing for the possibility of a 100-year flood event. Treat the 2025-2026 project as the first documented round of an ongoing maintenance commitment, not a finished piece of infrastructure.

No Confirmed Seawall or Bulkhead Record for Old Orchard Beach

It is worth stating plainly rather than implying: this research found no confirmed information about a hard seawall, bulkhead, or riprap structure specific to Old Orchard Beach, whether municipal or on a private parcel. Old Orchard Beach's documented coastal-defense strategy, based on available sources, is dune-based soft engineering — not hard armor.

That is a genuine difference from some other coastal towns in this region. Saco's Camp Ellis, immediately south of Old Orchard Beach and sharing the same Saco Bay sediment system, has its own long-documented hard-engineering story built around a 19th-century Army Corps jetty and a more recent jetty-rehabilitation project. That is Saco's own infrastructure and its own erosion history, not Old Orchard Beach's — do not treat Camp Ellis's jetty as evidence of a seawall program in Old Orchard Beach itself. If you have encountered a specific private seawall or bulkhead on an Old Orchard Beach property, that would need to be verified directly against Town of Old Orchard Beach code-enforcement and permitting records; nothing in this research confirms one.

Maine's Shoreland Zoning Act and the Old Orchard Beach Permitting Gap

Any coastal construction in Old Orchard Beach, hard or soft, sits under Maine's statewide Mandatory Shoreland Zoning Act, administered by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (maine.gov/dep/land/slz/). That law governs setbacks, vegetation clearing, and development activity within shoreland zones for every Maine coastal municipality, Old Orchard Beach included — its general applicability here is confirmed.

What this research did not confirm is the specific detail a homeowner would actually need: Old Orchard Beach's own local shoreland-zoning ordinance text, its exact setback distances from the water, or the town's particular permitting process and requirements for any private seawall, bulkhead, or other hard shoreline structure. That gap is disclosed rather than filled with a guess. Anyone evaluating shoreline work on an Old Orchard Beach parcel should contact the town's own code enforcement office directly, alongside Maine DEP, before assuming any setback distance, permit category, or approval timeline.

What This Research Could Not Confirm

This page does not identify any hard-armor seawall or bulkhead construction, public or private, for Old Orchard Beach — none surfaced in this research, and the honest read is that this town's coastal-defense story to date is dune restoration, not seawall or bulkhead building. It also does not give a confirmed dollar figure for what a private homeowner in Old Orchard Beach has historically paid, or could expect to pay, to build or repair a seawall or bulkhead on their own property — no such figure was found, and none is invented here.

It also does not extract Old Orchard Beach's own local shoreland-ordinance setback distances or permitting steps, and it does not confirm a parcel-level FEMA flood-zone (Zone VE versus Zone AE) breakdown for the town. A build agent or a property owner should independently verify current status directly with the Town of Old Orchard Beach's code enforcement office, Maine DEP, and, for storm-damage or dune-project specifics, the town's own emergency-management contacts before treating any figure on this page as this year's final word.

Practical Takeaways for an Old Orchard Beach Buyer or Owner

If you are evaluating a property in or near Ocean Park, or anywhere along Old Orchard Beach's roughly seven-mile stretch of the Saco Bay shoreline, do not assume the 2025-2026 dune project functions as permanent seawall-grade protection for a specific parcel. It is sand and sea grass, placed in two documented phases totaling 5,900 cubic yards across two sites, and town officials themselves describe it as an ongoing effort rather than a finished fix.

If you are specifically looking for a hard seawall or bulkhead precedent in Old Orchard Beach, be aware that none is confirmed in this research — do not assume one exists on a given property, and do not confuse Saco's Camp Ellis jetty, a few miles south, with Old Orchard Beach's own infrastructure. Before buying, building, or repairing anything along this shoreline, confirm directly with the Town of Old Orchard Beach's code enforcement office and Maine DEP which segments were covered by the 2025-2026 dune work, what shoreland-zoning setback applies to your specific parcel, and what maintenance or replenishment schedule the town expects to follow as sea levels continue to rise.