News and Events

There is an effort underway to create a maritime community center on the north shore of Lake Union adjacent to Gasworks Park. The Northlake Community Wharf will serve several functions.

1.  Interpretive shipyard where the community can get involved and learn about historic ships undergoing restoration.

The Association just received this from John Pehrson, President of the Lake Union Opportunity Alliance.  The LUOA is a citizens' group tracking the rezone of the south Lake Union area. -- Bill

Association Supports Community Wharf

The Center for Wooden Boats is located at the south end of Lake Union.  It is an organization dedicated to preserving and teaching our maritime heritage.  It is currently developing a plan to open an outstation on the other end of the lake, near Gasworks Park.  Design for the new facility, called the Northlake Community Wharf, is well under way.  It features a community center, many of the aspects of a public park, and would serve as an extension of CWB's operations, including boat rentals.

Over 100 people turned out for the 47th FHA annual meeting on April 22nd at the Puget Sound Yacht Club on the north shore of Lake Union.

On 4/2/09 the FHA received a policy paper from DPD regarding floating homes, accompanied by a matrix or table which attempted to combine conforming and non-conforming floating homes regulations.  Bob Bowman and the SMP Workgroup responded with the following comments on 4/21/09.  See the our SMP Revsion page for more information

I want to thank Maggie and the DPD staff for meeting with Floating Homes Association representatives on two occasions to give us their initial proposals and to listen to our issues and concerns. From DPD's Policy Paper it is clear that they responded to some of FHA's concerns, particularly the proposed requirements to reduce float size at time of replacement and to create standards to regulate the maintenance of floats. At the same time, FHA still has serious concerns about several proposed regulatory changes and some specific language in the Policy Paper. We strongly oppose the proposal to combine the conforming and non-conforming regulations and ask that Table 1 be withdrawn. I will provide feedback on our specific concerns below.

Ships on Lake Union, Seattle. Staff Photographer Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Date filed: May 15, 1936 Bigger image.

The FHA in cooperation with the Museum of History and Industry is searching for writers whose work is informed by Lake Union. Perhaps you know of a hidden gem like Three's a Crew, the one excerpted below. Maybe you have found a paragraph in an old journal where the writer mentions Lake Union. Do you have letters from a 1950s houseboater? Are you writing poetry, fiction or non-fiction, focused on the lake? If so, let us know.  MOHAI historian, Lorraine McConaghy, and the FHA want to collect a variety of Lake Union stories and publish them in the newsletter or on the FHA website.