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Junior sailing club begins navigating permit process for new $1.72 million facility

The sight and sound of Gig Harbor Junior Sailing’s flotilla of young mariners has become a defining part of the downtown waterfront in summer. Now the organization is putting down more permanent roots.

The nonprofit recently filed for permits to build a $1.72 million, 2,560-square-foot support building at 3815 Harborview Drive, on West Shore Marina’s property.

The club has operated at the marina for years, thanks to the generosity of its owner, Gig Harbor businessman Stan Stearns. He lets hundreds of kids onto his property for sailing lessons and provides GHJS with five moorage slips that would otherwise be rented to paying customers.

But the club lacks a building on the 1.9-acre property. Right now, its operation there is dispersed between a trailer, a shed and other temporary structures. The club has no changing room for sailors (or marina users), no office for computers and record storage, and only several portable “Handy-Kan” restrooms.

The Gig Harbor Junior Sailing Club operates out of West Shore Marina. The nonprofit requested permits for a new building at the marina that will provide its permanent home. Photo courtesy of the club.

$1 million gift

The Stearns family is giving GHJS $1 million toward the cost of constructing a building that will consolidate these functions. The family will also provide a 99-year ground lease at $1 per year, a club representative said.

The new building will sit on the north end of the marina property, next to land that slopes steeply up to Harborview Drive and its sidewalk.

The proposed building’s design “draws from the simple, utilitarian character of traditional Gig Harbor waterfront support structures and historic netsheds,” according GHJS’s filings for a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit.

“The proposed form, materials, and detailing are intended to reflect the working waterfront context while avoiding excessive ornamentation. The result is a modest maritime support building that serves the operational needs of GHJS while remaining compatible with the historic waterfront setting.”

The project must clear some regulatory hurdles first. It will need several variances from existing building and design code, due to what GHJS calls the “unique physical and operational constraints” of the site.

The proposed new Gig Harbor Junior Sailing support building would occupy part of the northeast end of West Shore Marina, backed up to a steep slope that rises to Harborview Drive. Source: Gig Harbor permit portal

Pedestrian access

The property now lacks pedestrian access, except via a curved, sloping driveway used by vehicles. A project such as this one would normally require a footpath linking Harborview Drive directly to the new building’s entrance.

Gig Harbor Junior Sailing is asking to omit this footpath. Because of the site’s topography, it “would require long switchback ramps, retaining walls, grading, and removal of mature vegetation” and also “impair the ability to support the existing water-oriented marina use.”

The proposed new building’s design ‘draws from the simple, utilitarian character of traditional Gig Harbor waterfront support structures and historic netsheds,’ according to permit filings. Source: Gig Harbor permit portal

The city will also likely require Gig Harbor Junior Sailing’s project to include a feature that allows the public to view or access the waterfront. This requirement, included in the city’s Shoreline Master Program (SMP) regulations, is triggered by the Shoreline Substantial Development Permit application.

The properties to the immediate north and south of West Shore Marina have, or are slated to have, dedicated public access in the form of walkable paths next to the waterfront.

To the north, a boardwalk extends across the bulkhead of the Murphy’s Landing Marina and Edgewater Condo properties. An easement guarantees the public’s right to use it.

A broad wooden boardwalk already spans the waterfront at West Shore Marina. If used as the required public access for the Gig Harbor Junior Sailing support building project, it could potentially link with waterfront pathways at properties to the immediate north and south. Photo by Ted Kenney

North of Murphy’s Landing, after a short stretch of sidewalk crossing a stream, the waterfront path continues through Austin Park at txʷaalqəł Estuary, along the back side of the Harbor History Museum, under North Harborview Drive and terminates at Donkey Creek Park.

Existing boardwalk

Just south of West Shore Marina, the Blair-Moller dock and netshed property at 3813 Harborview Drive recently upgraded under a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit.

The Gig Harbor Hearing Examiner conditioned approval of the permit application on the property owner allowing public access via a footpath along the waterfront. The decision noted that a city official testified at the hearing that the project would include “a new public walkway along the shoreline.”

The West Shore Marina property already has a wooden boardwalk across its waterfront, separated from the moorage area by a metal fence and gates.

The city’s policy, as stated in the SMP, is to “plan for an integrated shoreline area public access system” when considering proposals for public access. But it also states a goal of “Preserv[ing] views and vistas to and from the water, to enjoy the aesthetic qualities and character of Gig Harbor shorelines.”

Access via views

Instead of using the West Shore Marina boardwalk as the project’s public access feature — and potentially integrating it with the waterfront walkways of its neighbors to the north and south — Gig Harbor Junior Sailing proposes to offer public access in the form of a view from the Harborview Drive sidewalk.

From there, a viewer can look out across the marina’s parking lot toward the harbor and its activities.  A GHJS project memo states that this “maintained visual access corridor from Harborview Drive toward the marina and bay” will be approximately 50 feet long.

“This visual access approach provides a meaningful public shoreline benefit while avoiding unrestricted pedestrian access through active marina, boat storage, launching, and youth sailing operational areas,” the memo states.

The Gig Harbor Hearing Examiner will ultimately decide the variance and public access questions, though the developer, city officials and the public can weigh in during the approval process, including at future public hearing.

Confident about fundraising

Pete Clement, a Gig Harbor Junior Sailing board member, said he is confident the club will be able to raise the additional $720,000 needed for the project, beyond the Stearns Family Foundation’s $1 million gift.

The Gig Harbor Junior Sailing Club serves about 700 students per year from its locations at West Shore Marina and Wollochet Bay. Photo courtesy of the club.

“We have a fund that we’ve been working to grow for the past several years” for an opportunity such as this, he said. The club has already been promised multiple gifts in the $150,000 to $200,000 range for the project, and is working with professional fundraising consultants to obtain more. Donations from the public will also be important, he said.

Gig Harbor Junior Sailing keeps about 20 small sailboats and dinghies at West Shore Marina, plus up to four powerboats used in running the program. The club will store some of the dinghies in the new building during the off-season. They stay next to the water during the busy summer season, Clement said.

Gig Harbor Junior Sailing serves close to 700 students every year, with operations split between West Shore Marina and a facility on Wollochet Bay. The club also fields the Narrows Race Team, which trains at West Shore Marina and competes in races around the region.

The junior sailing club currently uses a trailer, parked at West Shore Marina, to store its gear. Photo by Ted Kenney