Z-1203.1  _______________________________________________

 

                         SENATE BILL 6259

          _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington   57th Legislature        2002 Regular Session

 

By Senators Jacobsen, Oke and Rasmussen; by request of Department of Natural Resources

 

Read first time 01/14/2002.  Referred to Committee on Natural Resources, Parks & Shorelines.

Allowing for the installation of recreational docks and mooring buoys by residential owners abutting state-owned aquatic lands.


    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 lease, license, or other instrument by the department.

    (a) The buoy must be located as near to the abutting residential property 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 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, contributing to decertification of shellfish beds otherwise suitable for commercial or recreational harvest, or interfering with the department's ability to exercise its leasing authority under chapters 79.90 through 79.96 RCW.  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.

 


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