Contact: Carolyn Casey
Port of Bellingham
(360) 676-2500
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2006
Open House Provides New Downtown Marina Information
Everyone Encouraged to Attend and Hear About Waterfront Redevelopment
The Port of Bellingham’s Marina Advisory Committee is hosting an open house about the planned new downtown marina from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday (March 28) at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven. This will be a great opportunity for people to learn more about the new marina the Port of Bellingham will be constructing in the former Georgia Pacific treatment lagoon.Open House Provides New Downtown Marina InformationEveryone Encouraged to Attend and Hear About Waterfront Redevelopment
The Port project will transform the contaminated industrial water treatment lagoon into a community asset creating about 450 new moorage slips, a mile of new waterfront trails and 28 acres of new aquatic habitat. The Port will remove 350,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments and will design the marina in a way that includes salmon passageways, shallow habitat areas and public access. Cleanup work is expected to begin in 2008.
This project will be paid for through moorage and user fees as well as state Model Toxic Control Act funds. Local property tax dollars will not be used to develop the marina. The cleanup is estimated to cost $34 million and marina development is estimated to cost $16 to $18 million depending upon the final design.
At the open house, stations will be set up throughout the Cruise Terminal Dome Room that will explain the research and findings regarding marina location alternatives, marina design alternatives, project financing, environmental considerations, Clean Ocean Marina ideas, economic benefits and planned next steps in this project. People will be able to go to each station and meet the Port staff and outside analysts who have been involved in developing this information. There also will be an opportunity for people to share their written ideas and thoughts at a public comment station.
The Port’s 10-member Marina Advisory Committee was created in 1991 to advise the Port Commission on marina issues including: moorage rates, capital projects, marina policies and special issues. Its membership includes representatives from commercial fishing tenants, recreational boating tenants, commercial boat-related businesses, boating clubs, the tribal community and neighborhood interests.
In 2004, after reviewing moorage demand studies and marina location analysis, the Marina Advisory Committee voted to recommend the Port of Bellingham move ahead with developing a new marina in the former treatment lagoon. The moorage demand study forecast a shortage of 683 moorage slips by 2015 unless new moorage was built. The Port plans to complete phase 1 of the new marina in 2012.
