Owner wants to change 100-year-old dock in Pierce County. Will the state let him?
A man was walking down the street in downtown Gig Harbor in December 2021 when he saw a “for sale” sign.
The next day, he put down a full-price offer to buy the property: an aging wooden dock leading down from a small white house and a netshed, where fishermen mended nets and prepared their boats for sea. Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer records indicate he bought the combined two parcels for $2 million on Dec. 28, 2021.
Now he’s embroiled in a dispute about the future of Gig Harbor’s waterfront and negotiations required to make changes to the city’s historic marinas.
The city’s hearing examiner approved plans to renovate the dock last year. A resident appealed that decision, and now the state Shorelines Hearings Board will decide if the project can move forward.
Ancich-Tarabochia Dock sold in 2021
The Ancich-Tarabochia Dock, or simply Ancich Dock, is next to Ancich Waterfront Park, a public park with a viewing plaza overlooking the water and a boat storage facility below.
The buyer of the dock was John Lee, a dentist from Oregon. Lee declined to speak with The News Tribune through Tom Lerch, a Gig Harbor resident who agreed to help Lee repair the dock and act as his property manager.
Lerch said Lee bought the dock because he wants to invest in the community, where he has a home and plans to retire. They want to make the century-old dock safe to use and “restore it back to its glory days,” he said in a phone call with The News Tribune Feb. 5.
County Assessor-Treasurer records show that Lee bought the property from Nick Tarabochia, Jr. and Ancich LLC.
George Ancich and Nick Tarabochia, Jr. formerly owned the dock and netshed, according to the city of Gig Harbor’s website. The original structure dates back to the 1920s, the website says. The netshed is one of 17 remaining in Gig Harbor.
A reporter visited the dock with Lerch Feb. 8.
“It’s hard to imagine how bad it was,” Lerch said, gesturing to the dock and describing how they had to replace all the plywood, which had rotted out. “... you couldn’t even walk out here.”
Lerch also pointed out the pieces of foam keeping the dock afloat. The state of Washington requires that these foam blocks be encased in a protective shell as of Jan. 1, 2024 to prevent pieces of foam breaking down and becoming a microplastic pollutant that endangers fish and aquatic ecosystems, according to the Department of Ecology website. Lerch said the state granted them an extension to wrap their foam since Lee and Lerch plan to make improvements to the dock.
Though the dock is currently listed for sale, Lerch said Lee decided to do so “as a testing of the market” and that it’s “not indicative of a long-term decision.”
“This is not a real estate quick turn to try and make money,” Lerch said. “Although the property is for sale now, that was more for personal reasons than it was for commercial reasons ... the primary purpose is to build it out as a dock.”
He declined to share more information publicly, saying that Lee is dealing with a health-related issue.
An overview of the property from Meridian Investment Sales says the property is currently listed with an asking price of $5 million. The News Tribune confirmed these details March 6 with a Meridian representative.
Plans to renovate dock hit stiff opposition
Working with Lee and representatives from Marine Floats Corporation, Lerch planned to spearhead renovations to the dock once he received the necessary permits. He submitted the first applications in 2023.
Dependent on these permits, Lerch and Lee plan to remove the aging dock system and rebuild it with ecologically-friendly materials in line with state regulations. The proposed changes include replacing the dock’s 59 pilings, or supporting posts, treated with creosote — a wood preservative that may be toxic to fish, according to the Environmental Protection Agency — with 40 galvanized steel pilings. They also propose to reduce the area of water covered by the dock from 8,970 square feet to 7,321 square feet by installing grating that allows light to shine through. But the actual marina will be longer and wider than the existing one, with seven shorter “finger piers” extending from its east side, according to plans for the dock and the city’s public permit portal.
Commercial fisherman and Gig Harbor resident Guy Hoppen was among the close to 20 residents who opposed the project in public hearings with the Gig Harbor Hearing Examiner beginning in July. The proposed Ancich Dock design is too close to where the city has long planned to build a Commercial Fishing Homeport, he wrote in public comments.
According to Hoppen’s comments, the existing layout of Ancich Dock allows boats to moor perpendicular to the shore and would leave enough space for boats at the future adjacent Homeport to get in and out properly. The proposed changes would allow boats at Ancich Dock to moor parallel to the shore along the finger piers. Parallel moorage requires more maneuvering space, and would require boats at Ancich Dock to cross over into the city’s area near the homeport, he showed in diagrams.
Lerch said the plans for Ancich Dock were modified to increase the distance from the proposed homeport, upon request from city staff, though both parties agree that Ancich Dock boats will need to cross into the city’s tidelands to get to open water.
The city’s plans for a Homeport, providing public moorage spaces for up to 17 commercial fishing vessels, date back to 2013, according to their website, but permitting delays have stymied construction plans. The city is hopeful permits will get federal approval before the spring, and that crews can begin building the homeport this summer, Gig Harbor City Administrator Katrina Knutson told The News Tribune via email Feb. 5.
Residents also raised concerns that there’s not enough parking at the Ancich Dock site for boat owners, and that the new dock would depart from its historic use as a commercial fishing dock by allowing pleasure craft such as yachts to moor there.
The property includes a parking lot, but Lerch said only two or three spots are usually filled at any given time. Lerch parks there, and Lee also allows Gig Harbor Canoe & Kayak Racing Team coaches to park there during the day.
There are large boats and yachts currently moored at Ancich Dock, but the owners rarely leave their cars at the site and most are usually gone for weeks at a time, according to Lerch. The owners aren’t allowed to park on site for more than 72 hours.
“We don’t put any stress on the street,” Lerch said. “If people have to park here longer than 72 hours, they’re asked to take their car home and get a ride here ... I’ve never had an instance where there hasn’t been a parking space available.”
Hearing examiner approves project with conditions
In a decision on Sept. 25, 2024, the Gig Harbor Hearing Examiner approved the Ancich Dock project as long as the owners limit the number of boats to 17 and agree that their right to cross over into tidelands leased by another party can be restricted if necessary for that party to fully use and access their land. For example, boats at Ancich Dock could be restricted from traveling through the tidelands near the Homeport if that compromises space for the boats at the Homeport.
The hearing examiner didn’t specify what those restrictions could look like or how they would be enforced.
On Feb. 12, the state Shorelines Hearings Board held a virtual hearing following Gig Harbor resident and former commercial fisherman Jim Franich’s petition that the board review the hearing examiner’s decision.
Franich told The News Tribune via phone Feb. 10 that he appealed to the state Shorelines Hearings Board because he believes city staff didn’t provide the hearing examiner “with enough information to really make an educated decision on what the historical use has been down there.”
“I believe that Mr. Lee has every right to develop his project, but I just believe that he needs to follow the city codes,” Franich said.
According to his petition, he alleged that the hearing examiner’s decision violates a section of the Gig Harbor Municipal Code and sections of the city’s Shoreline Master Program, because there’s not enough off-street parking.
The parking lot has seven spots, and the city isn’t requiring more because the old marina is considered grandfathered in to current parking codes, according to the hearing examiner’s decision. A new marina that expects to moor 17 boats, each 45 feet or longer, would require 17 parking stalls under current city code, the decision said.
Asked when the Shorelines Hearings Board’s decision may be released or how they’ll make their decision, Dominga Soliz, a spokesperson for the state Environmental & Land Use Hearings Office, wrote in an email that she can’t share an estimated date or the criteria they’ll use to decide a pending case.
Washington state law requires the board issue a decision within 180 days of when a petition is filed, unless the Department of Ecology or the state attorney general files a petition to intervene.
That decision is necessary for work on the dock to begin, according to Lerch. Since construction is restricted to certain periods of the year, they’ll need to receive approval soon in order to start construction this year, he wrote in a text message to The News Tribune.
He also wrote that most of the construction work would occur off-site, and actual installation of the dock will take two to three weeks. Lerch indicated in a 2023 application for a Joint Aquatic Resources Permit that construction was expected to take from 2024 to 2029.
Canoe and kayak racing team use the dock and clubhouse
Not long after Lee saw the “for sale” sign, Alan Anderson, founder and former head coach of Gig Harbor Canoe & Kayak Racing Team, was taking a walk downtown and thinking about how he needed to find a place to moor the team’s coaching boats. The small boats allow coaches to closely follow and instruct athletes on the water. That’s when he saw that all the fishing boats previously moored at Ancich Dock were gone.
He found out the dock had a new owner and got in touch with Lee.
“What are you going to do with this?” he recalled asking Lee. “’He says: ‘I’d like to do something for the community ... specifically the youth in this community.’ My jaw just dropped open.”
Lee now rents out the net shed and dock space for coach boats to the team at a discounted rate, according to Lerch.
Head coach Alyson Mrozinski told The News Tribune in a phone call that having access to a clubhouse right next to the boat storage space they rent from the city is “really a divine appointment.” The team uses the net shed as a clubhouse for fun team activities, office space and as a warm sanctuary in the winter months, she said.
