PORT ANGELES — The City Council wants to energize the downtown waterfront.
The Feiro Marine Life Center at City Pier needs more room.
And the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary office is running out of space.
All three entities are contributing to a joint solution, putting their money where their needs are by beginning the process last week to create a combined marine-research, public-outreach center on the waterfront, city, Marine Life Center and marine sanctuary officials said last week.
The City Council took the first step in addressing those concerns by unanimously agreeing Tuesday to request proposals for conducting a $40,000-$50,000 pre-design study for “a multi-agency campus focused on marine-based research, education and outreach,” Nathan West, city community and economic development director, said in a memo to the seven council members.
“As part of the commitment to the RFP [request for proposals], each agency is agreeing to pay one-third of the costs associated with the pre-design effort,” West said.
The city’s contribution will consist of up to $20,000 in economic development funds, the council decided.
Applications to conduct the study are due July 3.
The report will assess the potential size and specifications of the facility along with real estate, financing, ownership and management options.
Approval of the study was such a given among council members that the action was on the consent agenda, West said Friday.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest among council members that this is a very important project, and for that reason, we felt there was a lot of support,” West said.
The marine center, which could be newly built or located in an existing facility, would be located between Hollywood Beach west to the Valley Creek estuary, within the boundaries of the city’s waterfront improvement project, which begins this summer, West said.
West added that the commitment by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to keep NOAA’s Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary headquarters in Port Angeles was key to moving to the study phase of the project.
“It is an amazing opportunity, and obviously NOAA, for example, could choose any other community on the Pacific Ocean, and they selected Port Angeles, and that’s something really important to us,” West said.
The marine sanctuary is a federally protected zone that stretches 135 miles from Cape Flattery in Clallam County south to Copalis in Grays Harbor County and 25 to 40 miles into the Pacific Ocean.
The headquarters was located downtown in what is now the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building until 2002.
“We look at Port Angeles as the gateway, and since we are here and have a foothold here, it already makes sense for us to look at a joint campus concept here,” sanctuary Superintendent Carol Bernthal said last week.
NOAA’s lease at The Landing mall expires in 2013, she said.
The marine sanctuary has 7,150 square feet of space in Port Angeles, and needs 20,300 square feet, according to the agency’s April 2012 facility strategy report, which also cites the potential need to improve vessel moorage in Port Angeles if a new research vessel is built.
“We want to stay in this zone,” Bernthal said.
“It makes sense. We are a marine sanctuary, so we need to be located down in the waterfront area.”
Feiro Director Deborah Moriarty said the Marine Life Center wants to at least double its space for exhibits.
“What that will look like will come through with this study,” she said Friday.
“It’s like all the stars are aligned,” Moriarty said of the RFP process.
“We have shared needs at this point for facilities,” she said, adding that the project may involve simply expanding the facility at City Pier.
“We recognize we’ve outgrown our spot. Whether we stay here or look at another situation, that’s what this study will identify, and what size a facility this economy and this community can really use.”
Mayor Cherie Kidd estimated the center would be 20,000 to 30,000 square feet and “would be world-class in our downtown,” she said.
“We are at the point now with the RFP that we can do everything we can to push this forward,” Kidd said.
Council member Patrick Downie also had high hopes for the multi-agency campus, which he said must have entertainment value, which the Marine Life Center would provide.
“It has to have some kind of entertainment factor that has to be able to bring the community both locally and regionally,” he said Friday.
“It has to be self-supporting, there has to be a reason for the public perhaps to want to pay a reasonable admission fee to come and enjoy what’s on display,” he added.
“It could be transformational in nature, so I hope that whatever comes out of all these studies and this feasibility work, we will all end up with a facility that will be world-class, that will be a place people will want to come to. That’s my goal.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
