HomeMy WebLinkAbout047Robert and Robin Scott - P.O. Box 546 - Brinnon, Wa 98320
April 3, 2012
David Wayne Johnson
Jefferson County Community Development Department
621 Sheridan Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368
RE: Pleasant Harbor Marina: Proposed elimination of vehicle access and parking
Dear Mr. Johnson,
We are residents of Brinnon and have rented a slip for our boat at Pleasant Harbor Marina for the past six
Years. It has come to our attention that changes proposed for the marina by the Statesman Group would
reconfigure the present traffic circulation system, eliminating vehicle access to the tops of the three dock
ramps for moorage tenants, slip owners and visitors. In addition, parking at the marina would be reduced
from 77 spaces to 24 spaces. Loading and unloading of vehicles would be allowed only from the upper
area of the marina, far from the dock ramps. Vehicles would be required to be parked in an area up on
Highway 101 about one-third of a mile away, using an uncertain shuttle service.
We are concerned these proposals would create serious obstacles to the functioning of the marina, and to
our practical ability to keep and use our boat there. There is a reasonable need for vehicle access near the
top of the ramps in order to take gear, supplies, tools and other material to and from boats. To relocate
the loading/unloading area up a steep route to an upper part of the marina would make the task very
difficult at best. Not having parking available at a relatively convenient walking distance as it is now
would make it impractical to access our boat and the marina facilities in many of the normal ways boaters
use a marina. Repair and maintenance vendors who service boats in the marina would find it frustrating,
and perhaps impossible, to do their work in a timely and effective way.
Our understanding is that the current Pleasant Marbor Marina road circulation system and parking plan
are in conformance with the binding site plan originally approved by Jefferson County, and that these
proposed changes to traffic circulation, access to docks, store and office, and parking are not specific
requirements set out by the County. We further understand that the changes proposed by the Statesman
group would require new discretionary approval by Jefferson County.
We would like to see Jefferson County discourage or disallow this element of Statesman's planning. No
valid justification for such a dysfunctional change has been given by the representative for Statesman, Mr.
Garth Mann, except an aesthetic vision of promenades and shuttle service. Mr. Mann is neither a boater
nor familiar with marinas, and seems to be misjudging the planning for Pleasant Harbor Marina to remain
a functional and convenient operation serving its tenants, slip owners and visiting Puget Sound boaters.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources issued a new lease for Pleasant Harbor waters to
Statesman, with slip owners as licensees, based in part on the viability of the existing marina. It would
not seem to be in the public interest to diminish the functional utility of this resource.
Finally, we offer our perspective on the backwardness of this change: If the marina operated now with
the awkward traffic flow and parking plan being proposed, it would seem a very intelligent and practical
thing to propose instead an operational configuration much like the one which actually does exist now.
Sincerely,
Robert Scott and Robin Scott "If' Dock, Slip 19 (360) 796-0103