Marina Dock Age

When the Washington state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) halted work in early February on the new Olympic View Marina in Seabeck, Wash., after a lease to build on the state-owned land had expired, developers saw little hope for the project’s future. However, only three days later, a Feb. 12 agreement between DNR and private developers, allowed work to continue on the water, according to (Wash.) Kitsap Sun reports.

Olympic View Marina developers and Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown met with legislators and DNR representatives on Feb. 11. Those meetings resulted in an agreement providing developers with a month-to-month lease option through mid-August, said developer Boyer Halvorsen.

Work began on the project Feb. 2. Equipment and barges were staged along the waterfront, and crews planned to take advantage of a two-week window during which pile driving is allowed by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The next window for this type of work won’t open until July.

State officials originally indicated that it could take up to a year to resolve the lease issue, and developers weren’t sure they could continue to sustain the project, which they are financing in part with personal savings, for that long. Additionally, developers were concerned that if the review process took too long, permits could expire and send them back to square one.

It had been a long road already for developers. After a two-year permitting process, the four private investors financing the project weren’t sure they had the capital to continue, as banks weren’t lending. In fact, one investor withdrew because of financial burden. With permits set to expire in a year, the three remaining investors decided they couldn’t walk away from the project and would dip into their own pocket to fund the project.

The original lease began in 2004, when the development group bought the marina property, which included an existing lease to use state-owned land below the low-tide mark. One of the developers, Wil Clark, said because the marina was inactive, the lease was placed into an inactive status, and developers paid only interest on the lease in 2007.

In late 2007, developers inquired about reactivating the lease. Clark said state officials told them that they would have to adhere to a new policy requiring all lease holders to complete a habitat review before a lease is approved. However, when they asked about what that entailed, the state said that information wasn’t available yet because the policy hadn’t been finalized.

At the end of 2009, Clark said again they attempted to reactivate the lease and hired a land-use attorney to help them understand how to complete the new requirements.

The state sent the developers’ attorney e-mail on Feb. 8 ordering the marina to not proceed with demolition work and pile driving. Fortunately, it took DNR representatives and the developers only days to reach an agreement, not months, which was a possibility as indicated by the original DNR e-mail.

Clark said he underestimated how well the public voice is heard. “I think without the folks in Seabeck, we would probably be haggling over this for a long time,” he said.

DNR said that because the marina was designed in a way that will promote and protect underwater and shoreline habitats, it agreed to a month-to-month option on Feb. 12.

Between now and July, DNR representatives will meet with marina developers to negotiate a long-term lease.

“They assured us we would have the new lease in place and executed by the middle of July, when the next fish window opens,” said Halvorsen.

The long-term lease will include details about management practices for the marina, including the control of night lighting, how the marina handles pressure washing of machinery and vessels, washing boats out of water, limiting boat wakes in near shore areas, and other practices meant to contribute to the recovery of Hood Canal, according to “Ear to the Ground,” a DNR blog posted on Feb. 12.