PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend commissioners were told at a workshop that purchasing the Short’s Family Farm would benefit the agency in key ways,
The commissioners learned more at the Tuesday meeting about the 253-acre Short’s Family Farm in Chimacum that it is considering purchasing. Port officials in September signed a non-binding letter of intent with owners Roger and Sandy Short that gives it until Jan. 28 to negotiate terms and price.
If the port acquires the farm, it would be its first venture into the agriculture sector. At least four other ports in the state own agricultural property: the Port of Skagit, the Port of Columbia and the Port of Walla Walla.
Known locally for its grass-fed beef and its Magic Soil products, Short’s Family Farm is located in an unincorporated area of Jefferson County and is protected from development and subdivision by a conservation easement the Shorts signed with the nonprofit Jefferson Land Trust in 2016.
The easement, which the Jefferson Land Trust purchased for $800,000, limits what anyone who purchases the property can do with it.
The port commissioned an environmental report on the property, which, in addition to farmland, includes a portions of Chimacum and Naylor creeks and wildlife habitat for salmon and migratory waterfowl.
Executive Director Eron Berg said purchasing the Short’s Family Farm was a good investment for three key reasons.
“The port is well positioned to manage a complicated property and an investigation so far has shown us that there’s a lot of complexity here, with two creeks, topography issues, historical uses issues, water rights,” Berg said.
As a public entity with elected officials representing the community, Berg said the port i in a good position to work with groups that had competing visions for the property, such as salmon and agriculture interests.
Secondly, Berg said, purchasing the farm also fell well within the port’s original comprehensive scheme passed by voters in 1926 that expressed a broad support for economic development of the agriculture sector.
Finally, Berg said, purchasing the farm was a hedge against an unknown future by helping the county adapt to a changing world.
“There is uncertainty about the future” Berg said, citing changing climate conditions.
“There’s resiliency and value in a community such as ours by ensuring our ability to grow food on farms,” he continued.
Erik Kingfisher, stewardship director of Jefferson Land Trust, presented commissioners with a description and overview of the farm and some of the specific allowable and prohibited uses for the property.
The permitted uses include agriculture and accessory activities as defined in the state’s RCW, the restoration of agriculture and habitat areas, maintenance and construction of buildings, the exercise of water rights, customary rural enterprises (like farms), recreation that doesn’t require site modification and minor forestry.
Among the prohibited uses are mining; establishing commercial feedlots or aquaculture facilities; covering more than 2 percent of the property with impervious surfaces, including roads; altering the land by grading, excavating or removing soil; waste hazard disposal, billboards; and recreational motor vehicle use.
Commissioner Peter Hanke asked Kingfisher if hunting will continue to be allowed on the property when it is sold.
Kingfisher said that it would be because it Roger Short wanted it to be among the terms in the conservation easement.
“It permits the landowner, whoever that may be, to use the property for hunting,” Kingfisher said
Overall, the commissioners were generally positive toward the idea of the port purchasing the farm.
The next steps will include getting an appraisal for the property and the completion of a feasibility study.
Commissioners will receive an update at its next meeting on Jan. 11, and a community meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Chimacum Grange, 9572 Rhody Drive.
The farm will be on the board’s Jan. 25 meeting agenda for discussion and possible action.
Information about Short’s Family Farm can be found on the port’s website, at https://portofpt.com/engineering/
At the workshop, commissioners also received an update on the strategic planning stakeholder committee and plans for its meeting starting in early 2023.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@soundpublishing.com
