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News and Events
Fundraising around the Portage Bay houseboat community last December was not limited to sales of holiday wrap or wreaths. Instead, eight houseboaters spent two weekend days raising funds for a collaborative effort to stop the nutria invasion that is destroying wetlands and damaging shoreline around Portage Bay and adjacent areas.
Volunteers covered 145 houseboats on 35 docks and by December 8 had received contributions totaling $946 from 48 households, or one-third of the community. By the end of January, 36% of Portage Bay houseboaters had participated in raising a total of $1,101 - an amazing show of support and almost double the original goal!
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DPD Field Trip
It was a brisk Tuesday morning when members of the FHA's Shorelines Master Program Revision Workgroup huddled with representatives of the city's Department of Planning and Development on Log Foundation's 2019 Fairview dock. Maggie Glowacki, Lead DPD Land Use Planner, had accepted an invitation to visit the floating homes community and learn more about what makes a houseboat float.
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The FHA recently received this email update on the situation in South Lake Union from the Lake Union Opportunity Alliance (LUOA) -- Bill
Friends and Members of LUOA --
We reported to you in January that the overwhelming numbers of comments at the South Lake Union (SLU) Environmental Impact Study (EIS) Scoping meeting were critical of the City’s proposed Alternatives #1 and #2, and supportive of the LUOA position. That is:
Molly Cadranell
08/20/2008
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
FOR FLOATING HOMES
A floating community can potentially contribute to water pollution with both liquid and solid wastes. To help bring the water quality and sediments of Lake Union to a cleaner level, these floating home Best Management Practices (BMPs) are recommended. Remember, under Washington State Law, Chapter 90.48.080 RCW, it is illegal to discharge or allow to be discharged any pollutant into the water. With a little forethought and common sense, we can stop pollutants from falling into Lake Union, thus creating a safer and cleaner "water yard" for outdoor recreational pleasure.
I. Garbage and Recycling
1) Dispose of garbage on shore in your garbage dumpsters. Recycle paper, glass, cans in the recycle bins. Keep area around dumpsters and bins neat and debris-free.
2) Do not dispose the following in the dumpsters: paints, solvents, fuel, oil, batteries, antifreeze, wet rags. Take these to the King County Household Hazardous Waste Station.
Wandesforde Dock
2035 Fairview East
This counts the largest number of a species seen at one time, so if we see 3 crows, then a few minutes later we see 5, the count will be 5, to avoid counting any one individual more than once.
On Saturday 02/14/09 from 1:30 to about 3:00 PM, this being a very casual effort, we counted-
2 Canada Goose
The Floating Homes Association has submitted comments on the EIS scoping for the rezone proposed for the South Lake Union area. The Association's Board of Directors is adamantly opposed proposals #1 and #2, currently on the table. These proposals would allow 400-foot towers to blot out views of downtown and the Space Needle as far away as Gasworks Park. Views actually might end up being among the least of the intrusions, given the bulk and scale anticipated and the utter lack of any public space requirements.
The Lake Union Opportunity Alliance, a group formed as an alternative to the "citizens" group which came up with the first proposals, is proposing a third alternative which is much more palatable. But serious questions have been raised about the need for the rezone at all. The Floating Homes Letter raises this point, too --
Giff and Mary Jones share a spot on the FHA Board. (They share just about everything else, too, as far as we can tell.) We are fortunate that they've also shared responsibility for the Houseboatique since about the turn of the century.
They have transformed the whole thing from the rather random collection of "cottage industry" items they found then into a manageable enterprise. When they took over, the office was overrun with clothing of odd sizes growing out of the corners like mushrooms. They hacked back the T Shirts - An Heroic Effort that goes on to this day - and took control of the product line.
Giff Jones, Co Chair
12/06/2008
Alki Unstaffed
Your Safety and Security Committee was alarmed by recent reports that our fresh water fire protection was about to disappear under the scissors of Seattle budget slicers. The word was, the old ALKI was going to get "un-staffed", effectively closing for business, Station #3 at Fisherman's Terminal as of January 1,2009. Station #3 and the ALKI, partially staffed and limited as she has been, was the product of a hard-fought and long-awaited gain brought on the backs of accumulating numbers of disastrous marina and houseboat fires.
Last fall, FHA Board members Giff and Mary Jones mentioned in their Tour report on the Houseboatique that they were looking for new ideas this holiday season. They mentioned that one of the Tour Houseboatique volunteers, Debbie Woodbury, seemed to have a few. Everybody started talking.
Party Vibe
Melissa Ahlers, the FHA's Tour Czar, who has a profound sense of how these events can bind a community, offered her home for an evening to host a Houseboatique with a party vibe.
Meeting Followup
The Association's SMP Revision Subcommittee has been waiting for a copy of a Powerpoint presentation which flashed by during the CAC meeting last 11/18. The presentation listed a number of regulatory standards DPD is considering for floating homes.
There wasn't time for many questions during the meeting, but it appears that DPD wants to impose substantial restrictions on floating homes maintenance and replacement. DPD's Maggie Glowacki did send a pdf version of the presentation over last week along with a list of current conforming and non-conforming regulations for floating homes.
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