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.
