PORT ANGELES — Construction of the Peninsula’s first sprint boat race track in Port Angeles is on hiatus while the proponents’ plans are under review by the Army Corps of Engineers.
In January, Dan Morrison, one of four investors who bought the 113-acre South Fairchild Industrial Park for $1.05 million from the Port of Port Angeles in August, said he expected the 4-acre course to be completed by May.
In a phone interview Friday, a frustrated Morrison said he hadn’t expected the permitting process to take this long and didn’t know when construction will begin.
Morrison said all of the necessary information has been provided to the city of Port Angeles and the Corps, but the city can’t grant a permit until the Corps completes its review.
“I’d love to be digging already,” he said.
“But I can’t without an answer from the Corps.
“We’ve been beating on them every day.
“I’ll break ground as soon as they give me my permit. We’d start tomorrow if I had a permit.”
Nathan West, Port Angeles director of community development, said in January that the Dan Morrison Group must return a checklist for the State Environmental Policy Act, apply for an unclassified use permit and return a wetland delineation.
The checklist evaluates the environmental impact of the activities on the property.
Once that is completed, the level of impact, and whether that impact is acceptable, will be determined, West said.
The planning commission then will make a recommendation about the permit to the Port Angeles City Council, which will decide whether or not to approve it.
Plans for race course
The sprint boat race course on land southwest of William R. Fairchild International Airport would be 3 feet deep and 15 feet wide, and filled with 500,000 to 750,000 gallons of water.
The property has three wells, but water may be trucked in for the eventual course until the investors, known as the Morrison Group, acquires another permit to extract the water for the course.
Morrison said he had planned to host a sprint boat tournament on Aug. 8, but those plans have been cancelled since the course has not been built.
“There’s a second one in Sept. 19,” he said. “We could still make it.”
Sprint boat racing is a growing hobby around the nation and Morrison said hosting tournaments in Port Angeles would bring in a lot of revenue for the community.
Twenty-two acres of the land are on the market, but the Dan Morrison Group isn’t aggressively trying to sell the plot.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
