Liveaboards wary of new harbor planFree-floaters say their group is being singled out for regulation.

"To the Bainbridge Island Harbor Commission, an anchorage plan would legitimize and preserve the liveaboard community in Eagle Harbor.The reason we are here tonight is because you have made your case, harbor commissioner Betsy Peabody told a half-dozen harbor liveaboards and their allies at Tuesday's commission meeting.We want to preserve that use, but to do so, we need a level of management.But to the audience, any form of regulation looked like a potential infringement on their ability to live as they please.Why can't we rely on personal responsibility? asked audience member Jim Randall, who is restoring a boat on which he plans to live. "

“To the Bainbridge Island Harbor Commission, an anchorage plan would legitimize and preserve the liveaboard community in Eagle Harbor.The reason we are here tonight is because you have made your case, harbor commissioner Betsy Peabody told a half-dozen harbor liveaboards and their allies at Tuesday’s commission meeting.We want to preserve that use, but to do so, we need a level of management.But to the audience, any form of regulation looked like a potential infringement on their ability to live as they please.Why can’t we rely on personal responsibility? asked audience member Jim Randall, who is restoring a boat on which he plans to live. People are free to come here now, but they don’t all do it, Randall said. There is a natural regulation that goes on.The discussion concerned the harbor commission’s draft anchorage plan for Eagle Harbor. Because of strong reaction to that plan from the liveaboard community, the commission permitted public comment at its regularly scheduled meeting in advance of a formal hearing to be held in May.The plan, which would be phased in over time, would define an anchorage and moorage area in the central harbor. Ultimately, long-term anchorage would be phased out in favor of mooring balls.The existence of liveaboard communities in Washington was threatened by Jennifer Belcher, former state public lands commissioner, who maintained that state law prohibits living aboard vessels on state Department of Natural Resources property.Belcher’s successor, Doug Sutherland, has taken a considerably softer line, and has said that cities may permit liveaboards under certain circumstances, including the use of the best management practices to minimize environmental damage.The state is also willing to delegate its enforcement authority to local jurisdictions and lease the harbor to the city – provided the city demonstrates that it is enforcing adequate environmental regulations, said Mark Mauren, shoreline district manager for the DNR and ex officio member of the commission. The alternative is for each boat owner to go through the hoops and get their own lease, Peabody told liveaboards. The commission is trying to do that for you.But harbor anchor-out Mike Martin questioned whether his group was being made the scapegoat for wide-ranging environmental problems.Are paint chips coming off the boat the problem, or is it industry? he asked. You’re picking on the easiest target.Not so, said Steve Thiesfeld, area habitat biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Thiesfeld said the state is concerned about possible problems stemming from the cleanup work at the Wyckoff Superfund cleanup site on the south side of the harbor, and about sources of pollution originating on land.When we’re talking about long-term habitat, everybody has got to point the finger at himself, and say ‘I am part of the problem,’ Thiesfeld said.Particularly controversial was the provision calling for long-term anchorage to be phased out in favor of mooring buoys. The argument in favor of buoys is that they can be affixed to the bottom with a screw-like device, which disturbs only the diameter of the device, whereas anchors and their chains allegedly damage the bottom.Martin was skeptical of the damage argument, saying that there is no vegetation on the floor of Eagle Harbor. But Thiesfeld said that focus was too narrow.The mud on the bottom of the harbor is a viable ecosystem, he said. Chains swing, and they’re going to tear up some portion of it.Another advantage of fixed buoys is that they create order, which allows more boats to use the harbor at any one time. Capacity in the central harbor area is estimated at 125 vessels, Peabody said; 20 percent of that space would be designated for long-term liveaboard use, 30 percent for unoccupied vessels, and the balance for short-term use by visiting boaters.If we don’t maximize the number of people who can use the harbor, the anchor-out liveaboard community will ultimately be the loser, commissioner Val Tollefson said.The liveaboard community is now estimated at 20-22 vessels in Eagle Harbor, ranging from 18-25 over the last year.The city’s plan to charge rent to long-term liveaboards also drew fire.Randall accused the commission of trying to turn the harbor into a commercial area, while Martin said payment should be tied to the value of services provided.But to Tollefson, the fee issue is a matter of simple fairness.We have to figure out how Bainbridge Island citizens who choose to live on the water can bear a fair share of the cost of living here, he said.The commission will hold another meeting on May 15 to take comment before putting a plan in place. And once a plan is selected, it will be implemented on a three-year trial basis, then evaluated.Tollefson emphasized the long phase-in.This is not a plan for next August, but for the next 25 years, he said.Harbor Master Tami Allen said the bottom line is some sort of accountability.The part I’m really married to is a moorage agreement, proof of ownership and proof of sewage-disposal compliance, she said. That gives me something to take to any neighbors that complain to demonstrate that the liveaboards are not a problem.But Randall found that concept offensive.I do not have identification, he said. I don’t have a Social Security card or a driver’s license.And he saw the whole issue as one of personal freedom.Once you make me tie up to a buoy that says ‘City of Bainbridge Island’ on it, you’ve got your foot in the door, and once the government starts regulating, it won’t stop, he said. “