State Is Wrong to Evict the Lake Union Live-aboards

Living in a house is a poor second to living on a boat, say Don and Joanne Stonehill, who are among the hundreds of families targeted by a Department of Natural Resources campaign to end the practice of people living on boats on state aquatic land. Don St

Belcher, head of the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR), apparently just realized that a 1984 law permits renting space from the state to moor your boat, but won't let you sleep on the boat.

Belcher's office says the law, which does not mention sleeping or live-aboards specifically, was enacted to encourage water-dependent uses of state owned underwater lands. Living and sleeping are not water dependent she concludes, because they can be done just as well on land. The boat can stay in the marina, but the people have to go.

A DNR spokesperson likened the underwater lands to a state park. "You wouldn't want people to start living in the state parks, would you?" she asked.

But the state already leases the land in question to private companies operating marinas, which then rent slips to boat owners, a situation not exactly analogous to a state park.

The land in the marinas is public only in the very narrowest sense. The public certainly doesn't use it or have access to it. In fact, such uses of state land block the vast majority of the public from waterfront access.

A more accurate analogy would be to suppose that DNR leased some state land to RV park companies who then rented spaces to RV owners. Would it make sense for the state to prohibit sleeping in the RVs?

Belcher took reporters on a tour of Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island (The Seattle Press was not invited) where she pointed out boats moored outside a marina on public aquatic lands. She emphasized that those boats did not have leases nor pay any rent, other papers reported.

But why didn't Belcher take the reporters on a tour of Lake Union where as many as 200 families who have leases and pay rent could be evicted from their homes if Belcher's interpretation of the law is enforced?

These Lake Union live-aboard families pump out their sewage, provide a living 24-hour presence on the waterfront and, for the most part, act as stewards of the Lake.

Belcher is dead wrong on this issue.

State Senator Jeannne Kohl-Welles told The Seattle Press, "I have disagreed with Jennifer Belcher on this issue for several years. It's not clear to me why, but she doesn't want any residential uses on aquatic lands whatsoever."

Kohl-Wells said she and Sen. Pat Thibadeau would introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity to clarify the law. "The bottom line is the boats are going to be there anyway. Why shouldn't people be able to live on them?"

We agree with Senators Kohl-Welles and Thibadeau and the hundreds of Lake Union residents who want to be rocked to sleep by the waves every night. Long may they rock.

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