Tulalips to end leases on beachfront homes

Published 9:00 pm Friday, December 17, 2004

TULALIP – Thirty-two families who lease waterfront homes at Mission Beach will lose their leases in 2012 and have to move their homes or lose them.

Another 311 families who lease residential land on the Tulalip Reservation have leases that expire between 2009 and 2033. At the end of those leases, most will be offered a final 15-year lease, but then will have to leave, Tulalip officials said Friday.

The tribe’s Board of Directors, cited concerns ranging from the erosion of the bluff above Mission Beach to the severe environmental degradation of Tulalip Bay.

The Tulalips also are anticipating the need for more tribal housing, as the number of enrolled members could quadruple, said Ron Dotzauer, owner of Strategies 360, a public relations firm employed by the tribe.

Residents affected by the new policy began receiving mailed notices Friday.

Michael O’Leary / The Herald Mission Beach homes on the Tulalip Reservation must be moved by 2012 or their owners will lose them under a policy announced Friday.

“It would have been nice if we’d had more notice,” Mission Beach resident Cliff Cain said. “I’m at an age it doesn’t bother me so much. I was turning it over to the kids.”

But Cain said residents are likely to be upset.

“We have to see what the next step is,” he said.

Tulalip Chairman Stan Jones Sr. said the board adopted the policy after careful review of all options.

“We made this difficult decision because we had to – not for our own sakes, but for the benefit of our children and our children’s children,” Jones said.

“The bay is unique and uniquely part of who we are as a people. We are committed to taking the steps necessary to restore this area and clean up these waters so that we can maintain the integrity of the bay for generations to come.”

The Tulalips’ tribal government was established in the 1930s. Land leases were a way to pay for government services. The first lease was issued at Mission Beach in 1943. People own the homes, while the tribe owns the land.

The new policy focuses on specific areas of leased tribal lands.

The worst situation is at south Mission Beach, where homes that sit below a large bluff are at risk of damage from landslides because of erosion.

Leases on homes above the bluff in Mission Beach Heights will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on safety issues, said Marilyn Sheldon, the tribe’s executive director of economic and community development.

The other change addresses three other neighborhoods around Tulalip Bay on other leased lots. The additional 15-year lease will allow those residents more time to plan and prepare for other options, Jones said.

Mission Beach residents who will lose their leases in 2012 reach their homes using a long ramp from the bluff to a path that runs behind the houses. The crumbling bluff encroaches on the path in places. A fence of large poles cabled together has tipped toward the houses where the hillside is failing.

In one place, the fence leans so close to homes that residents have cut off the tops of the poles in order to walk the path. The fencing is within about a foot of one house.

In other places, water runoff has carved channels down the bluff, and eroding sand is pushing through the fence, as well as washing under the houses, which sit on pilings on the beach.

The Tulalips hired an independent firm to conduct an environmental study of Tulalip Bay and the surrounding area, Sheldon said.

The bay not only supports salmon, but also has been home to clam and oyster beds. The tribe wants to restore the bay’s health to support the aquatic life, Sheldon said.

Parts of the bay have been closed to swimming because of contamination.

“This was my swimming hole as a kid,” Sheldon said, showing a posted sign banning swimming at a beach below tribal headquarters.

Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@ heraldnet.com.