We are now halfway through the Legislative session and everything seems to be going well in Olympia, although we had a bit of a scare on PSSB 5255/PSHB 1077 a few days ago. The short version is that some marina owners down on the Duwamish were feeling that the calculation for lease rates on marinas was unfair as based on upland values that vary greatly due to location.
This Senate bill included language to mandate an averaging of lease rates for marinas based on geographic zones. That didn't originally sound troublesome to us until we realized that the definition of a "marina" in the bill was so broadly defined as to include everything where one can tie up a boat, including possibly the moorage next to your floating home.
(11) "Marina" means any entity providing vessel moorage on state owned aquatic lands including private and public marinas, yacht clubs, homeowner associations, mixed facilities with moorage and other uses such as boat yards, and individual docks other than docks that may be installed and maintained without charge under RCW 79.105.430.
This could include ANY entity, other than exempted residential homeowners, who have moorage on aquatic lands - restaurants, parks, anybody who offers a place for a boat to tie up, and no one seemed to be able to answer the question of what "exempted residential homeowners" actually meant.
Not Yet
A hearing was held on Thursday afternoon, Feb 26, Steve Greaves, Houseboat Harbor went down to testify, and Mike Ryherd, our lobbyist, was also there and testified. Mike worked with Senators Fraser, Regala, and Kohl-Welles on Thursday and Friday, and DNR on Friday, to clean up the definition section on 5255. As of late Friday the DNR spokesman said they had rewritten the language to make it clear it does not include floating homes.
As of this writing, the definition of "marina" has been changed to "any entity occupying state-owned aquatic lands that provides vessel moorage for a fee, excluding homeowner associations, facilities that provide moorage exclusive for floating homes, and facilities that are entirely dedicated to providing public use and access under a no-fee public use and access agreement."
Note: Fortunately, this Senate bill died before coming to a vote, but illustrates what goes on behind the scenes with our vigilant FHA Board working with our lobbyist and others to protect our community interests.