Background:

State Management of Aquatic Lands.

Aquatic lands are generally managed by the state and protected for the common good. The Legislature has designated the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as the manager of the more than 2.6 million acres of state-owned aquatic lands. In managing these lands, the DNR must support a balance of use demands and statutory goals such as public use, environmental protections, trade, transportation, and generating revenue consistent with those goals. The DNR must also establish standards for determining equitable and predictable lease rates for users of state-owned aquatic lands.

Types of Aquatic Land and Lease Terms.

Aquatic lands include the lands beneath navigable marine "salt" waters and fresh waters of the state. There are three categories of aquatic lands: tidelands, shorelands, and bedlands.

Tidelands are submerged lands and beaches that are exposed and submerged with the ebb and flow of the tides. Shorelands are the submerged lands lying along the edge of a river or lake, between the line of ordinary high water and the line of navigability. Tidelands and shorelands in front of or within two miles of a city are considered first-class tidelands and shorelands, and those more than two miles from a city are considered second-class tidelands and shorelands. Bedlands are those aquatic lands that are submerged at all times beneath navigable waters.

Platting is the process of making a plan or map showing the division of a piece of land into individual lots or subdivisions. The DNR is required to plat all previously unplatted first-class tidelands and shorelands simultaneously with the establishment of harbor lines and the determination of harbor areas. The DNR may, but is not required to, plat second-class tidelands and shorelands.

Unplatted first-class tidelands and shorelands may be leased for a maximum period of 10 years. The maximum term for a re-lease of unplatted first-class tidelands and shorelands is five years. The maximum lease term for platted tidelands and shorelands is generally 55 years. Bedlands in front of second-class tidelands or shorelands may be leased for a maximum period of 30 years. Bedlands in front of leased unplatted first-class tidelands or shorelands may be leased for a maximum period of 10 years.

Rights of Adjacent Upland Owners to Navigable Waters.

Washington is a "non-riparian" state, meaning adjacent upland owners do not have an automatic right, by virtue of their upland ownership, to build out over the adjacent navigable waters. Owners of residential property abutting state-owned tidelands and shorelands are permitted by statute to install and maintain private recreational docks on such land free of charge.

Upon offering first-class tidelands or shorelands for lease after platting and appraising them, the DNR must notify the owner of record of uplands fronting upon the lands being offered for lease by mail that:

the tideland or shorelands are being offered for lease; and
the property owner has a preference right to apply to lease the tidelands or shorelands at the appraised value for the lease for a period of 60 days from the date of service of mailing of the notice.

Summary of Bill:

Leases for both platted and unplatted first-class tidelands and shorelands are aligned under the same terms and processes.

Leases of state-owned first-class tidelands and shorelands must be for a term no longer than 55 years, whether for platted or unplatted tidelands and shorelands. At the expiration of any lease of first-class tidelands or shorelands, whether platted or unplatted, the lessee or the lessee's successors or assigns have the preferential right to re-lease all or part of the area, superior to any preference right given to the landowner fronting the tidelands and shorelands.

The Department of Natural Resources retains the authority to survey and plat unplatted tidelands and shorelands, but is no longer required to do so.

Leases of state-owned bedlands must be for a term of no longer than 30 years, irrespective of the type of tidelands or shorelands fronted by the bedlands.