This old deck - a future park or a problem?

A disintegrating over-water deck on the one-way section of La Conner’s North First Street has been a topic of debate in town recently.

The so-called “Kirsch property” was the site of an old warehouse purchased by the town for $350,000 in July 2001.

For nearly 14 years, the property has been waiting to become a park. Now the La Conner Parks Commission has asked the town to look into selling the property, which has an assessed value of $240,000, according to the Skagit County Assessor’s office.

Money from selling the property, which consists of a strip of land about 6 feet wide and the old deck that used to be the floor of a building, could go toward developing La Conner’s new, much larger waterfront park just south of the Rainbow Bridge, parks commissioners have proposed.

But that idea does not appeal to two Town Council members, Dan O’Donnell and Jacques Brunisholz, and veteran Planning Commission member Linda Talman and a few other residents.

At a recent council meeting, they voiced their objections to selling the old deck, because, they say, waterfront property is precious and irreplaceable once it’s gone.

Back in 2001, when Eron Berg was mayor, La Conner’s waterfront access was much more limited. The now nearly complete boardwalk was still a dream, and the 700 linear feet of shoreline that has become the main feature of the town’s new waterfront park was an industrial site with a fish processing plant.

A month after it purchased the Kirsch property, the town sold the part that was dry land for $120,000 and kept the old over-water warehouse that was built on pilings.

In 2006, the building, formerly Bering Trading & Packing and then Channel Marine, was demolished because it was falling apart. All that is left of the old warehouse is 4,000 square feet of deteriorating wood decking that sits on creosote-treated wood pilings over the water.

The Kirsch property, across the street from a La Conner Marina parking lot, supposedly boasts about 50 square feet of dry land, according to Skagit County records.

Also, town officials have been told that about 10 feet of the channel side of the deck, including some of its pilings actually encroach on an area a neighbor leases from the Department of Natural Resources.

On the south edge of the property is a private residence, on its north edge is dry land that is also owned by the town because it is the waterfront end of long ago vacated Jordan Street.

At a recent Town Council meeting, Town Administrator John Doyle said that about eight years ago, the town had an engineer inspect the pilings and the deck. The engineer estimated that making it sound would cost around $400,000.

Council member O’Donnell said he believes the old deck is sturdier than it looks and that the town should turn it into a park that would be a short walk for residents of the nearby La Conner Retirement Inn. Talman, who is on the Planning Commission, cited town codes and vision statements that make retaining waterfront access for the public a priority. Council member Brunisholz said the property is unique and should be retained.

Meanwhile, the old deck, surrounded by chain link fencing to keep people off it, just sits there.

Council member John Leaver called it an “eyesore.” Council member Bill Stokes said he worries that it will become a costly liability. Council member MaryLee Chamberlain said she’d like to see what the Parks Commission has in mind for all the properties the town owns before a decision is made whether to sell the Kirsch property.

In 2008 the town was forced to demolish an over-water structure on the south end of town, the old fish plant that was part of the property that is now the new waterfront park near Rainbow Bridge.

The town had been trying to lease the old fish plant property for years, but while it sat there vacant and unused, it deteriorated to the point that the state Department of Ecology threatened to fine the town because chunks of it were falling into the channel.

La Conner lucked out on that one. The town obtained a grant that paid most of the $200,000 demolition cost.