Published January 2001

Port pinning down details on master-plan proposal

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

The Port of Edmonds could be closing in on a new master plan, one with a waterfront arts center and partial realignment of Admiral Way, port Executive Director Bill Toskey said.

“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years,” Toskey said about the plan process, which has included hiring consultants and holding public hearings and workshops. “We’ve gone slower than we wanted to go because we didn’t want to get too far ahead of the rest of the community.”

A workshop is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 8 in the Edmonds Yacht Club at the Edmonds Marina to collect public comment on the proposed plan, which has been culled from three proposals drawn up by David Evans & Associates of Tacoma, Toskey said. Port commission action on the plan could come as early as Jan. 29.

The proposed plan is a compromise of sorts, Toskey said, in which only a portion of Admiral Way would be relocated. Of the three the public looked at in November, two of the concepts involved realignment of Admiral Way so that it would abut the railroad tracks from Dayton Street to Marina Beach; the third proposal left Admiral Way untouched.

The current proposal would realign Admiral Way from Anthony’s Homeport restaurant southward, Toskey said. The plan also would include four major buildings at the port:

• Arnie’s Restaurant, which would remain at its current location at 300 Admiral Way.
• A new arts facility, which would be located near Arnie’s.
• Anthony’s Homeport restaurant, which would be rebuilt and house port offices.
• A new building that would have marine-related retail and repair shops. The building probably would be erected near the railroad tracks, Toskey said, and the current administration building would be removed.

A fifth building, possibly for maintenance purposes, is still an open issue, he said.

Although the port has a general idea of the potential cost involved, it won’t have an estimate until a plan has been finalized and approved, Toskey said. To that end, the port last month hired BERGER/ABAM Engineers Inc. of Federal Way to do a cost analysis of the street-relocation proposal, to be completed for the Jan. 8 workshop.

But Toskey said he does expect the cost of implementing a master plan to be funded by port revenue other than taxes.

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