PORT TOWNSEND — Hastings Estate Co. Inc. owners will know within 14 days if they can move forward with renovation of the historic Hastings Building — including building a five-story hotel and ferry terminal — or if they will have to appeal to the state for permitting.
Port Townsend Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts listened to arguments on Thursday afternoon from both The Hastings owners’ team of attorneys and the city of Port Townsend.
Olbrechts will issue a ruling within two weeks as to whether the city of Port Townsend must issue a conditional use permit for the renovation.
The Hastings owners — Harry Dudley and his sister, Lucinda D. Eubank — plan to replace the single-story structure on Hastings Landing with a five-story hotel and a full-service passenger ferry terminal. The Hastings Landing location now is over the water at the end of Taylor street.
The owners also want to open the top two stories of the current Hastings Building at Taylor and Water streets as a hotel.
The plans also include a restaurant, a cafe and retail space at the location.
Both the 1889 Hastings Building and the structure housing the Hastings Landing — which has been closed since 2005 — are structurally unsound, and the pilings under the Surf Restaurant must be fixed.
Hastings attorneys presented designs on Thursday that showed how the building would look after the remodeling.
One of the features includes reducing the size of the structure currently over the water and improving lighting so fish can travel along the shoreline — an important ecological improvement, according to the company.
What kind of permit
The question is what type of permit the company must apply for.
If a conditional use permit is required, Hastings Estate Co. Inc. will need to go through a hearing with the state’s Department of Ecology, which would add months to the process.
However, if the project falls within the city’s substantial shoreline development permit, the company can move forward without Ecology’s approval.
City Planner Rick Sepler told the examiner that city officials like the idea of the development, but they are concerned about issuing a permit because of the size of the proposed building.
The city believes Hastings Estate Co. Inc. needs a shoreline conditional use permit because the building to be constructed above Hastings Landing is more than 35 feet tall.
“However, a passenger ferry terminal would be welcome in the community,” Sepler said.
“It is in the interest of public use.”
The Hastings Estate Co. Inc. argued that its design — which brings the Hasting Landing building up to 50 feet tall — is not in violation of the city’s requirements for the local permit.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
