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12/07/2006: "Barge Landings at LaFarge Beach"

( LaFarge Beach on San Juan Island after a winter storm -file photo)

Now that the County owns the former gravel pit and the waterfront that was used to load barges with the mined sand and gravel, what is to happen to the waterfront?

The current man-made beach was constructed over the years by the filling in of the sound with sand and gravel removed from the pit behind the beach, and the created land was then used by FHS&G (Friday Harbor Sand & Gravel), the parent company was LaFarge, a French owned corporation- to store and sort the material prior to exporting it to Canada. FHS&G also sold small amounts of material to local contractors, concrete ready-mix companies; and SJ County Public Works purchased their gravel to use for the chip-sealing of county roads.

Now that all of the gravel has been shipped off island, the County, and the public, are paying to ship gravel back to the island. Long range planning by the County did not address the possible financial impacts of allowing all of the material to be removed in the first place, but in any case, the defunct pit and the man-made "beach" have been purchased by the County.

The current plan is to use the waterfront as a commercial barge landing site for San Juan County and for private commercial use as well. Problem is, the Comprehensive Plan and the regulations that enforce the Plan and protect the shorelines of the county do not allow such a use, and in the mean time the loose sand and gravel used to make the beach is slowly, but clearly being washed away by wave action.

When the pit was still active, the gravel was loaded by overhead conveyors onto barges tied to a pier, and from time-to-time when there was room on the beach, some private barges would touch up on the beach and unload or load various materials and items. After the passage of the Comp Plan, this use was allowed to continue, but was limited and controlled by a local Non-Conforming Use provision in the code, and was further limited by the State Department of Ecology (DOE) that found only three barge landings on the beach were to be allowed per year.

There are now regulations in place that state "San Juan County reserves to itself the use of any and all available barge landings in a given year" but then goes on to state that if the County does not need all of the landings, then it "shall solicit applications from those who may be interested in using the barge landing.". So does that solve the problem meeting the local and state regulations?

Depends on who you talk to The County will typically use one or two of the landing for hauling in gravel for the county roads, and while that solve their problem, it also means others have to use other barge landings, which can be more expensive to use. Patricia McKay, owner of a ready-mix company, and Mike Carlson, owner of a Logging and Excavating business, have asked the County Council to allow 60 barge landings a year, not the 3 that are now allowed.

The other side of the issue is given voice by home owners in the area, who have for decades been told that once the pit was exhausted, the beach would revert back to what it was prior to the mining operation: namely a natural -and now protected- beach, and neighborhood that is not subjected to heavy truck use. The regulations state the hours of operation, but according to some home owners near, and next to the access road to the beach, the rules are not be followed or enforced

The home owners feel betrayed by the County stating they want to turn the property into a commercial use, and as a result have become organized against the on-going attempts by the County to now allow commercial use of a shoreline the Comp Plan lists as protected from any development, let alone commercial development. Home owners say that the recent use of the beach to load trucks resulted in violations of regulations intended to mitigate some of the problems of trucks running non-stop hour after hours, and related operations that occurred as early as three in the morning; and this, they say, shows what the future will bring if the County converts the land to a commercial use.

The plot thickens. The Port of Friday Harbor has been keeping a low profile, but are on record as stating they may step in and purchase the property, then allow commercial use. While this may seem a bit odd on the face of it, but port districts were created in Washington years ago while few people were concerned about the environment, but many were concerned about increasing wealth by becoming players in both intra and inter-state commercial development growth. Port districts are still required by law to get out there and make money and develop commercial enterprises. That includes the Port of Friday Harbor.

So what is the plan? The County appears to be on a track to forge ahead and change the land use designation of the property by using the Essential Public Facilities section in the Comp Plan that would then allow Public Works to develop the beach -assuming the money can be found in taxes, grants or selling more bonds (which is how the money was raised by the County to purchase the land), or some combination of these funding sources. If that fails, due to legal challenges, a change of heart by the Council, or for some other reason, then the Port may indeed step in and simply make it happen.

One other possible problem for those who wish to develop the waterfront is the State of Washington, and the state of the beach. The beach is clearly man-made, unstable, and clearly eroding. It was maintained by dumping sand and gavel on the sea floor, but since material from the gravel pit no longer exists, and filling in of the waterfront is not allowed in any case, the beach will continue to erode from wave action unless bulkheading can be permitted and constructed to retain the material. Under County and State regulations, this may be a major problem for the County Council to overcome in their quest to continue use of the water front. Even if they are successful in converting it to a land use designation that would, all things being equal, allow commercial use, the obtaining of permits could take years, and the cost of constructing a massive bulkhead would require more money that the County does not have..