Following public safety concerns from tenants and a recommendation from police chief Joe Clark, the Bainbridge Island City Council made a key update to its policy for seeking liveaboard tenants of the Dave Ullin Open Water Marina at its Sept. 23 meeting.
As part of its commitment to preserving maritime culture, the city has been discussing a new policy that would support lower-income tenants at its 16 city-owned buoys in Eagle Harbor. One element of that plan is to give priority to new tenants who make below 60% of the Kitsap County Area Median Income, or more than $65,000 per year, per the U.S. Census, when a buoy opens up.
At the Sept. 23 meeting, city leaders decided to shorten the waiting period to 30 days from 90 before opening up applications to potential tenants with market-rate incomes.
“There’s four [buoys] each of varying sizes, and they’re designed to most efficiently use that space, and also place the vessel so that, as they’re swinging, they don’t have the ability to strike each other or interfere with navigation around the area. For us, vacant buoys invite unauthorized moorage. In one instance, I’m told, the person went on vacation and left their boat behind,” said Clark. “We also run the risk of a boat being oversized for that particular ball. Safety concerns related to the condition of vessels that are there: we inspect all vessels that are moored there, and of course someone just outright abandoning a vessel that we then have to dispose of, we have to take steps to dispose of that. In our experience, if the buoys are occupied, they’re in much better condition.”
Aside from getting priority on the waitlist, the new liveaboard policies will also add a split-rate moorage fee for tenants above and below the income threshold: starting in 2026, those below will pay a reduced rate of $200 per month, and those at market rate will pay just under $400 per month.
Currently, 13 of the 16 liveaboards at the marina would qualify for the low-income rates, said city management analyst Laura Shear, and out of the eight people on the waiting list, six qualify.
Initially, council inquired about counting the buoys toward the city’s House Bill 1220 affordable housing targets, but legal review revealed that would not be possible. The city leases the water space from the state Department of Natural Resources, and subleases the water to liveaboards, clarified Shear.
“We concluded that this can not be an official affordable housing site, primarily because we do not establish a landlord-tenant relationship — we don’t own the boats,” explained city manager Blair King.
Shear added that HB 1220 applies only to new dwelling units, which the marina is not.
