PORT ANGELES — Work on the outside of The Landing mall on the city’s waterfront must await a potentially lengthy permitting process.
The interior remodeling of the mall at 115 E. Railroad Avenue needed only a city building permit, which has been issued, said Associate City Planner Scott Johns.
But the exterior remodeling requires a city shoreline substantial development permit, a hydraulic approval permit from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to work in the water.
After a Port Angeles Planning Commission public hearing at 6 p.m. Aug. 8 in the council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., the shoreline substantial development permit can be granted by the city.
Then the permit would go through a 21-day comment period at the state Department of Ecology, which can either approve it or attach additional conditions, Johns said.
The permit can be appealed to the state Shoreline Management Hearings Board.
No exterior modifications can occur until the other permits are approved, Johns said.
“So he will not be able to proceed with some of the project until those permits are received,” he said.
Muffy Walker, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ regulatory branch in Seattle, said approval of the federal agency’s permit depends upon the scope of the project.
Replacing a few pilings on an existing structure is different from adding new pilings or expanding the use, she said.
This project probably would have a standard individual permit that would include cultural resource and endangered species investigation, Walker said.
“So it could take a year, it could take less or it could take more.” she said.
“It also depends upon the comments we receive — are they simple to resolve or difficult resolve?”
Johns said the developer also must indicate that the increased floor space will be occupied by a water-related use “to some degree,” since the property is on tidelands leased from the state Department of Natural Resources.
“Uses are as important as structures,” he said.
“So the developer will have to make a case that a French bakery is a water-related use.”
But after meeting with Ecology officials, it was determined that a conditional use permit won’t be necessary, since everything planned for the project is a permitted use, Johns said.
Resources controls the tidelands on which The Landing juts out into Port Angeles Harbor between City Pier and the MV Coho ferry terminal.
The port negotiated a 30-year, non-renewable lease with DNR in 2003.
The deal included annual rent of $79,904.85, which doubled the previous rent.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-417-3532 or brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
