RCO Recommends Full Park Boundary!!

All supporters of Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park got some great news today. The Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) in Olympia has recommended that all 78.5 original acres of Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park should be included in the National Park Service's 6(f)(3) protected boundary. Now we just have to wait for NPS to rule (they decide, RCO only recommends). This is very good news. If you want the full RCO response, the link is here). It's a big pdf file (11+MB).

How much is enough?

For those who think Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park can afford to have more pieces whittled away by ill-conceived development, the two maps to the left might be instructional.

The upper map is an excerpt showing the topography of Kah Tai from a US Coast Survey map prepared in 1856. Port Townsend was still Port Townshend but well on her way to losing the 'H'. In fact, the full 1856 map has a hand-written notation pointing at the 'H' in the legend and indicating that it would be removed as an official directive. Although the map has suffered the wear and tear of a century and a half, it is clear that in 1856, Kah Tai was a fully tidal estuarine marsh open to Port Towns(h)end Bay.

The lower map is 1.5 centuries newer, and is a section from Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Geologic Map GM-57 (Schasse and Slaughter, 2005), available online. All that light brown area labeled Qml? That is defined as "modified land - soil, sediment, or other geologic material locally reworked by excavation and (or) redistribution to modify topography". In the case of Kah Tai, the 'local reworking' was 231,000 cubic yards of dredge spoil dumped in 1964 to create the Boat Haven.

Hasn't the Port of Port Townsend benefited quite enough from the 'reworking' of Kah Tai?

The Mayor says - "Sign the Petition!"

Mayor Barney McClure, that is. 'Hizzoner' was mayor of Port Townsend when Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was created, and his is one of the two signatures on the project contract and other relevant documents from 1980 and 1981. He's moved on from politics, but jazz is still front and center. Pictured after a recent evening's performance of B3 jazz are Barney (stage left), his wife Diane (a little obscured by Barney's enthusiastic support for the banner's message) and guitarist Dave Peterson (stage right).

Comprehensive Plan Amendment

A citizen-proposed amendment in the current amendment cycle for the City Comprehensive Plan would add the text shown in bold below to Section IV. Land Use Element of the current Comprehensive Plan:

Parks & Recreation
IV. Land Use Element

Goal 4: To develop park and recreation facilities, programs and opportunities which are responsive to the needs and interests of Port Townsend residents.

Policy 4.5: Design and manage park and recreation facilities to maximize environmental protection and provide interpretive opportunities for ecological systems and features, and cultural resources.

4.5.1. Extend maximum environmental protection in perpetuity for the exclusive open space, wildlife habitat, and passive outdoor recreation functions within Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park.

The Nature Park has been under threat of development for nearly half of its existence due to the imperfect nature of institutional memory which should have recorded the protected boundaries of the Park. When that memory failed at the City, the Port, the Washington State RCO and NPS, the only people left to protect the Park were the volunteers who created and fostered it into existence. That act of will is all that stood between irreplaceable wildlife habitat, natural open space and the 'progress' of mindless development.

The City Council has accepted this amendment to docket, but has put it on hold until they hear from RCO and NPS about the final 6(f)(3) boundary determination. We've been waiting a year so far for that ruling. But Kah Tai has been waiting far longer. It's well past time for the powers that be to stand up for what is right and honor the commitments made three decades ago.

deja view

Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park exists today because of the efforts of many Port Townsend citizens, but there are a few heroes who went far beyond what ordinary people would have committed to the cause. Four lawsuits were brought by citizens to protect the area from a variety of development threats. Not all were successful, but all were paid for by the unflagging dedication of hard-working folks.

Years after the park was a reality, the attorney fees for the lawsuits were still being paid off, one paycheck or one fundraiser at a time. The Ziggy cartoon was found in the archives of records saved by those citizens, tucked in with all the careful documentation of payments for attorney fees from nearly three decades ago.

The current incarnation of Kah Tai protectors hope that it never comes to that again. But we have already paid for an attorney to look at the records and provide guidance during the present effort to finalize the 6(f)(3) boundaries that will protect the park in perpetuity. We are waiting for the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office to 'ascertain the boundaries in continuity with the original grant intent' and recommend that permanent boundary to the National Park Service (NPS). NPS will have the final decision.

park acquisition schedule - parcel Z

In the application process for the LWCF acquisition grant that created Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park, an acquisition schedule was included in the submission attachments with OMB form 80-R0184 under 'Project Approval Information, Part IV, 3c. Attachments'. Note that this is what was proposed at the beginning of the grant process. Some private properties were tied up in probate issues that couldn't be sorted out in a timely way and some private owners decided to donate subsequently so the final number of 'negotiated purchase' and 'donation (private)' properties changed slightly. But parcel Z is 70 acres, not appraised and no cost listed so no purchase was necessary, and it is coded '4. Land transfer (public)'. That 70 acres includes all City, County, PUD and Port lands committed for the park. Click on the image to enlarge the schedule for viewing.  Note that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, is a federal office so the form was required by the federal LWCF process.

all the words you need to understand

Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was created with "funding provided by The Land and Water Conservation Fund".

If you follow this link to the LWCF page of Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office you will find the following language at the bottom of the first page:

"All property acquired or developed with Land and Water Conservation Fund grants must be kept forever exclusively for public outdoor recreation use."

Now, how hard was that?