Efforts to prevent demolition of the Collins Building on the Everett waterfront have delayed permits for a new marina, raising the ire of Port of Everett commissioners.
Commissioners Don Hopkins and Phil Bannan learned Tuesday that the marina, which would add 150 more slips for large boats on the waterfront, still hasn’t received permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Without the permits, the port probably won’t be able to dredge the harbor until late summer next summer. Port officials had hoped the work would be done before February, the beginning of a “fish window” designed to protect young salmon in the area between February and July.
“We’ve been working on this (marina) project for two years,” Bannan said. “Now some of these snakes have come out to bite us. Is there something we’ve not done or they’ve not done?”
Port planner Graham Anderson said supporters of the Collins Building have raised questions to the Corps of Engineers, which have delayed the project.
A group called the Alliance to Save the Collins Building has been working hard to prevent its demolition, saying the building is the last remaining link to the city’s past on the waterfront.
It was built in 1925 as a lumber mill and was recently recommended for the city’s register of historic places.
Hopkins and Bannan aren’t opposed to the building itself. The port recently hired two consultants to see if it might be put to use under the $200 million redevelopment plan for the north marina area.
Dennis Derrickson, a planning consultant hired by Maritime Trust, the port’s development partner, said the company is developing a plan to save the building and will unveil it to the public Oct. 7 for comment.
The new plan will be part of the environmental impact study on the redevelopment.
“We want to give a report to the public on this and get some feedback on this,” he said.
The port has tried to separate the marina project from the redevelopment plan, and officials are concerned that delays in the marina dredging would significantly raise the cost of the project.
“It’s really bogus to me that they would tie up the marina for that when we are studying it as part of another project,” Bannan said.
Hopkins agreed.
“This is a huge expense added on to this,” he said. “Because somebody gets a little burr, it holds things up. It’s bush that government has to work this poorly. Let’s call (U.S. Sen.) Patty Murray. Let’s call the governor.”
The recommendation to apply pressure to obtain the permits angered port critic David Mascarenes.
He said the corps “was looking out for the taxpayer” and any political pressure would be an attempt to “circumvent this thing.”
Both Bannan and Hopkins said that’s what they were doing, trying to safeguard tax dollars.
“We’re asking that they meet the timelines that are spelled out,” port director John Morh said. “We’re not asking them to do things that they shouldn’t do.”
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