Upcoming meeting concerning Seacrest ferry dock

[Grateful Diver]

Just got back from the meeting.

The plan is to begin year-round water taxi service in early 2010 ... and in order to do this they're going to need to pull out the existing dock (the fishing pier won't be affected) and replace it with a wider, stronger structure. They'll shut down the ferry in late September, 2009 and do the structural work once that service ends. The new dock will "T" ... with a longer, wider access ramp, a section that runs in front of and parallel to the fishing pier, and the section that the ferry docks to will be abourt 70 feet long and run perpendicular to shore, just off the south end of the fishing pier. For divers this is good news ... because it means the water taxi will no longer have to make wide, sweeping turns through the dive area ... and also the overall length of the dock will be shortened somewhat. For that reason the proposed route for the boundary rope would be moved a bit closer to the pier ... widening the area available for diving and opening up some of the structure just inside the existing boundary line to diving. The route they proposed would've blocked off Olive's Den, but when we broke up into discussion groups and talked to the designers about it, they were amenable to keeping that area available to the divers (the folks representing the City, the design team, and the ferry service seemed genuinely willing to listen to us).

Parking was a big issue being discussed ... and to be honest, I don't think there are any real solutions right now. Some of the suggestions ran from opening up the Armani parking area to more cars, turning the grassy area in front of the bathrooms into parking stalls, increasing shuttle routes to make it more amenable for people to park down along the public beach, and others. I suggested a staging area for divers over in the area by the showers now ... since those picnic tables over there don't seem to get much use.

City Counsellor Constantine did say that the intent is ... in the long term ... to move the water taxi to a different location, but that in today's financial climate it was unrealistic to expect that to happen anytime soon.

The impression I came away with is that what may ultimately force the water taxi to find another location is increased ridership. So as strange as it may sound ... it may be in our best interest to hope that program succeeds beyond their wildest expectations.

Turnout was quite good this evening ... probably 60 or 70 people in attendance, with a pretty good representation of all the various interests using the park as well as local residents. Maybe 10 divers showed up ... mostly the usual suspects. The owner of the local dive shop even made an appearance ...

Overall I came away feeling like the diving community's interests are being heard and considered.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[cardiver]

Thanks for going and thanks for the report, Bob.

[fmerkel]

Thanks for the report Bob. In all I saw 5 Marker Buoys, 1 Emerald Sea (Bob), 2 Seahorses, 1 other Aquarium member (Joyce and I overlap there), and the 5th-D owner Mark T. (couldn't spell his last name if I had to). I think this was in keeping with the proportion of W. Seattle residents present. I thought there were probably 100'ish people, a bit more then Bob did. The City is supposed to send us some post-meeting info.

As Bob said, the process is quite open to input and the community at large is there to provide it. As Seattle grows and we all value our mobility and our recreation everyone is affected and we need to find ways to accommodate one another. Talking to W. Seattle residents at the meeting tonight they seemed to understand this and willing to be flexible. Sometimes the big issue often gets down to parking. As Bob said, there are no immediate and easy solutions to this problem. There are a lot of planning fingers in this and finding suitable compromises is not a straightforward task.

Kathy Whitman was there. She's been out main contact for the City and acquisition of materials for improving the area for divers. She gave Joyce (spouse-also new President of Marker Buoys) some info about upcoming Park Dept. meetings that may be relevant to this project and how we might work to try to use these changes to our advantage. It would be nice to find ways to improve Cove 1 & 3 to take some pressure off 2. How to do this which mostly means putting 'stuff' for habitat is another hurdle to be looked at.

Spring will bring the need to do some overdue boundary work. Once the project begins (assuming it does) there will need to be some major work to revamp the boundary line. This is an area that divers may be more willing to zip their drysuits and pitch in since it means getting wet and doing something simple and concrete for their dive site. Bob, I or someone will keep you informed. It's interesting working UW if you've never done that before.

Fritz

[Sounder]

FWIW, Kathy Whitman and the Harbor Patrol were fantastic in assisting me with my entanglement incident when DIT was illegally practicing in Cove 2. They were also incredibly helpful in opening the off-limits area for the recovery efforts of the young man's heirloom fishing gear.

These are good people, and we're all in it together. I'm glad the meeting went so well and that divers were genuinely listened to. Please keep us posted on subsequent meetings as I would surely attend. Unfortunately my class tonight is a "every class you miss drops your final grade by one-letter" kind of class.

Thanks guys!!

[fmerkel]

If you go to this site:
http://kingcountyferries.org/default.aspx?ID=15

Then scroll down a bit in the left window the material showing the proposed dock, work time frame, etc. is available for download. This was handed out at the meeting last night.

Fritz

[4ster]

Thanks to Sounder for the report and to all that attended. And a hearty thank you to Fritz and others who did the work to keep Cove 2 open. I was traveling and could not attend, I really appreciate that others showed up. It's kind of like going to the dentist, you don't really want to but you know if you don't......

[Grateful Diver]

Thanks to Sounder for the report and to all that attended. And a hearty thank you to Fritz and others who did the work to keep Cove 2 open. I was traveling and could not attend, I really appreciate that others showed up. It's kind of like going to the dentist, you don't really want to but you know if you don't......

Sounder ????



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[4ster]

My apologies, I wrote that without enough coffee intake. Thanks Bob.