Bainbridge liveaboards get trespassing notices

Ted Stoughton stands in his 24-foot house barge after being served an eviction notice from his moorage on Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor. Boat owners and the liveaboard community were served eviction notices by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources this week after plans with the Bainbridge City Council for an open-water marina were scrapped. Stoughton has lived on the water of Eagle Harbor since 1984. less Ted Stoughton stands in his 24-foot house barge after being served an eviction notice from his moorage on Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor. Boat owners and the liveaboard community were served eviction notices ... more Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bainbridge liveaboards get trespassing notices 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

For decades, Bainbridge Island has harbored one of the state's most entrenched communities of liveaboards, a collection of boaters who pay no moorage fees, float haphazardly near shore and frustrate state ecologists. But this week was the beginning of what looks like the end.

The island's 20 or so liveaboards received trespass notices from the state this week, after the Bainbridge City Council failed to adopt a marina plan that would have accommodated the boaters and met state regulations.

"We don't have the budget to maintain an open-water marina, and we don't have the expertise," Mayor Bob Scales told the Kitsap Sun after the city's decision in September.

That paved the way for the state Department of Natural Resources to kick out the boaters from Eagle Harbor.

The trespassing notices come after roughly 15 years of haggling between Bainbridge and the state, which has long held a dim view of liveaboard structures. With a mandate to clean up Puget Sound, state land managers say such "over-water residences" are bad for fish, present navigational hazards and foul up the environment with sewage and dirty water. Plus, they're illegally moored.

"They're basically trespassing," said Jane Chavey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources. "If you aren't paying us for the use of this piece (of water), we encourage you to go to a marina. We'd like to see them become a part of the community in a much better area."

But because Bainbridge views liveaboards as part of the island's maritime charm, the state has tread lightly.

It normally limits liveaboard slots at a marina to no more than 10 percent of all slips or spots, but granted an exception to allow Bainbridge up to 25 percent, Chavey said.

The Legislature also approved $40,000 last year to help Bainbridge build a system of buoys that would concentrate boats in a more defined area. Such a system would have reduced the boats' footprint and impact on the environment.

"We've been working in good faith," Chavey said. "We try to work with communities. (Bainbridge) had a very long-standing tradition in the harbor to have liveaboards, and we wanted to work with them to figure out a way to have them."

Hilary Franz, a Bainbridge Island city councilmember and advocate for the liveaboards, said the city didn't reject the state's lease over money. Rather, it had a problem with one of the requirements -- that the city would have to build a moorage system of four buoys per liveaboard.

That requirement was to ensure the marina met the 25 percent liveaboard-per-vessel ratio, Franz said. She said she was planning to introduce a motion at Wednesday's City Council meeting for Bainbridge to clarify its position and continue talks with the state.

"I do not find it tenable that in a downturn economy that we would take people's homes and render them homeless," she said. "It is untenable for us to throw up our hands." Franz said the community includes about 14 longtime residents, and a few new ones who were forced to move from near Vashon Island this summer.

With its sheltered cove and shallow depth of only 35 feet, Eagle Harbor is considered one of the most desirable spots to drop anchor, attracting a range of vessels from well-kept barges to mossy, stained boats with flapping tarps.

For Ted Stoughton, who lives in a tidy 24-foot barge in the bay, the future was uncertain. Stoughton, who is 66, has enjoyed the quiet solitude of Eagle Harbor since 1984. Solar panels provide just enough juice for a small TV and a few light bulbs. On gloomy winter days he also uses a small generator. He showers at a nearby gym.

"I live simply," said Stoughton, who gets to his house by skiff and lives off Social Security checks of $560 a month.

He said he didn't know where he's headed, but planned to hopscotch Puget Sound in a new 34-foot powerboat he got from an estate sale.

Although some land-dwellers complain that the boaters foul the area with sewage, Stoughton considered himself and other liveaboards stewards of the water. He said they dispose of waste properly at a city-owned, pump-out station.

"We do our best to be good stewards and to show appreciation for our lifestyle," he said.

He has 30 days to move.