Publicly owned John Wayne Marina, which lies within the Sequim city limits, cannot be sold by the Port of Port Angeles to Ron Cole, Jeff Pence or any other private developer, the port Marina Advisory Committee was told on April 12.
City shoreline regulations prohibit such a move, said David Garlington, a committee member and the city’s public works director.
“The code does not allow privately owned marinas along the shoreline,” he said.
“I would encourage the port to take that one nugget, to take seriously before you embark on a lengthy process.”
Committee members and commenters from the public criticized the prospect of selling the facility to a private buyer before the committee recommended, in a 7-1 vote, that port commissioners “do not consider any sale to a private party of John Wayne Marina.”
Port Angeles-area port Commissioner Steve Burke said a private-ownership code restriction could have an impact on evaluating the marina’s future.
“That might shorten this process by a lot, I just don’t know,” he said.
City Manager Charlie Bush and Community Development Manager Barry Berezowsky confirmed Garlington’s assessment in later interviews last week.
They said the code was drafted to protect the nature of the marina.
“We believe the intent is for a public marina and not for a privately owned marina and to protect the port’s interest in already having a public marina on our waterfront,” Bush said.
Port officials are engaging in what they term a fact-gathering process.
It will include as-yet unscheduled countywide public meetings on the marina’s future in light of purchase inquiries by Cole of Bend, Ore., who asked about it in October, and Pence of Newport Beach, Ore., who made his inquiry in March after Cole’s interest became public.
Port commissioners are seeking “every kind of input we can possibly come up with,” Burke told committee members.
In answer to why the port is “even talking about this,” he said it’s not unusual for the port to sell its public property as it has in Port Angeles, Carlsborg and Neah Bay.
“Our mission is to create jobs,” he said.
Committee members questioned how selling the marina would create jobs.
The land was given to the port by the family of the late actor John Wayne for public use, committee member Thomas O’Laughlin said.
“I don’t see where we are taking the public trust into consideration here,” he said.
“All of a sudden, a news article comes out and says we are looking at the marina being sold,” committee member Steve Speidel said. “What’s that about?”
Speidel, as a land use planner, said he questioned the “due diligence” of the port.
“We are wasting our time,” he said.
Due diligence, Burke countered, is “part of the evaluation process.”
Tom Paschal of Sequim, a former Kitsap schools superintendent, said the port should gather all the information it can on the property before going to the public for input.
“I get the feeling that this whole conversation across the county at least in Sequim is beginning to look a bit like a circus with everyone going around in circles and no one really leading the parade,” he said.
The port risks causing “tremendous discord and the withering of your credibility,” Paschal added.
Burke said after the meeting that he and other port officials saw the “Shoreline Uses/Activities Matrix” chart on Page 50 of the Shoreline Master Program on April 11, which Garlington referred to in an interview, for the first time.
It shows that private boating facilities and marinas are marked with an “X” for “prohibited.”
“I don’t know what it says,” Burke said, explaining that all he received was the matrix with references to capital letters P, C, and X.
A key to the letters is on Page 49 of the Shoreline Master Plan.
“We need to get that evaluated,” Burke said.
Port board President Connie Beauvais said in an interview that she did not see in Section 6.3 of the Shoreline Master Program “that John Wayne Marina can’t be sold.”
Section 6.3 refers to planning for new marina development.
“I would put it on the city of Sequim that they should have told us that from the beginning” if the city is going solely by the chart, Beauvais said.
Bush said he would like to know where port officials believe there is “wiggle room” in the Shoreline Master Program on the prohibition on private marinas.
Goschen proposed the ongoing fact-gathering process to port commissioners.
“There’s not been a reason for me to sit down and read the Sequim Municipal Code,” she said.
“There can be multiple interpretations of what is written.
“When it comes to the Sequim Municipal Code, it’s really appropriate that the City of Sequim or their attorney puts forward the analysis of their code,” Goschen said.
Said Bush: “This is something we just started talking about a day or two ago.”
John Wayne Marina in Sequim cannot be sold by the Port of Port Angeles to private developers because it would violate Sequim shoreline regulations, the port’s marina advisory committe was told Thursday. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
