AN ACT Relating to installing
recreational docks and mooring buoys; and amending RCW 79.90.105.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 79.90.105 and 2001 c
277 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) The abutting
residential owner to state-owned shorelands, tidelands, or related beds of
navigable waters, other than harbor areas, may install and maintain without
charge a dock on such areas if used exclusively for private recreational
purposes and the area is not subject to prior rights, including any rights
of upland, tideland, or shoreland owners as provided in RCW 79.94.070,
79.94.260, 79.94.280, and 79.95.010. The dock cannot be sold or leased
separately from the upland residence. The dock cannot be used to moor boats
for commercial or residential use. This permission is subject to
applicable local, state, and federal rules and regulations
governing location, design, construction, size, and length of the dock.
((This permission may be revoked by the department upon finding of public
necessity which is limited to the protection of waterward access or ingress
rights of other landowners or public health and safety. The revocation may be
appealed as an adjudicative proceeding under chapter 34.05 RCW, the
administrative procedure act.)) Nothing in this ((section)) subsection
(1) prevents the abutting owner from obtaining a lease if otherwise
provided by law.
(2) The abutting
residential owner to state-owned shorelands, tidelands, or related beds of
navigable waters, other than harbor areas, may ((anchor to)) install
and maintain a mooring buoy((s)) without charge if the boat that is
((anchored)) moored to the buoy is used for private recreational
purposes ((and)), the area is not subject to prior rights,
including any rights of upland, tideland, or shoreland owners as provided in
RCW 79.94.070, 79.94.260, 79.94.280, and 79.95.010, and the buoy will not
obstruct the use of mooring buoys previously authorized by the department.
(a) The buoy must be
located as near to the upland residence as practical, consistent with
applicable rules and regulations and the provisions of this section. The buoy
must be located, or relocated if necessary, to accommodate the use of lawfully
installed and maintained buoys.
(b) If two or more
residential owners, who otherwise qualify for free use under the provisions of
this section, are in dispute over assertion of rights to install and maintain a
mooring buoy in the same location, they may seek formal settlement through adjudication
in superior court for the county in which the buoy site is located. In the
adjudication, preference must be given to the residential owner that
first installed and continually maintained and used a buoy on that site, if it
meets all applicable rules, regulations, and provisions of this section, and
then to the owner of the residential property nearest the site. Nothing in
this section requires the department to mediate or otherwise resolve disputes
between residential owners over the use of the same site for a mooring buoy.
(c) The buoy((s))
cannot be sold or leased separately from the ((upland residence)) abutting
residential property. The ((mooring)) buoy cannot be used to
moor boats for commercial((, transient,)) or residential use, nor
to moor boats over sixty feet in length. ((One buoy may be installed
without charge for the first one hundred feet of shoreline property owned, and
one additional buoy may be installed without charge for every one hundred feet
of shoreline property owned above the initial one hundred feet. The permission
granted in this subsection is subject to the boat or mooring system not posing
a hazard or obstruction to navigation or fishing or habitat degradation.))
(d) If the
department determines that it is necessary for secure moorage, the abutting
residential owner may install and maintain a second mooring buoy, under the
same provisions as the first, the use of which is limited to a second mooring
line to the boat moored at the first buoy.
(e) The permission
granted in this subsection (2) is subject to applicable local, state, and
federal rules and regulations governing location, design, installation,
maintenance, and operation of the mooring buoy, anchoring system, and moored
boat. Nothing in this subsection (2) prevents a boat owner from obtaining a
lease if otherwise provided by law. This subsection (2) also
applies to areas that have been designated by the commissioner of public lands
or the fish and wildlife commission as aquatic reserves.
(3) This permission
to install and maintain a recreational dock or mooring buoy may be
revoked by the department, or the department may direct the owner of a
recreational dock or mooring buoy to relocate their dock or buoy, if the
department makes a finding of public necessity to protect waterward access ((or)),
ingress rights of other landowners ((or)), public health or
safety, or public resources. Circumstances prompting a finding of
public necessity may include, but are not limited to, the dock, buoy, anchoring
system, or boat posing a hazard or obstruction to navigation or fishing,
contributing to degradation of aquatic habitat, or contributing to
decertification of shellfish beds otherwise suitable for commercial or
recreational harvest. The revocation may be appealed as ((an
adjudicative proceeding under chapter 34.05 RCW, the administrative procedure
act)) provided for under RCW 79.90.400.
(4)
Nothing in this ((sub))section authorizes a boat owner to abandon a
vessel at a recreational dock, mooring buoy, or elsewhere.
