PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend commissioners approved a development plan for Short’s Family Farm that laid out goals, strategies and actions for the 253-acre Chimacum property it acquired from Roger and Sandy Short in 2023.
Commissioners Carol Hasse and Pam Petranek voted for the resolution on Wednesday; Commissioner Pete Hanke had an excused absence from the meeting.
“I’m super excited,” Petranek said. “I see it as a master blueprint, and I like that it’s detailed and organized.”
A nine-member steering committee composed of six farmers and representatives from the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, the Jefferson Landworks Collaborative and the Jefferson County Conservation District met nine times between Feb. 7 and June 5 to hammer out a development plan for the farm to achieve the port’s stated objectives of strengthening Jefferson County’s agricultural financial sector and supporting the local food system.
Farm steering committee members Kellie Henwood, Al Latham and Martin Mills presented the plan, which contained four primary goals and recommended steps for achieving them: supporting, sustaining and expanding local agriculture; restoring natural bird and salmon habitat; seeking a return on the port’s investment; and balancing the urgent need of maintaining the viability of the farm with longer-term work such as creating lease agreements, developing a public access plan that outlines what areas of the farm are open to visitors, and further research into land and habitat ecosystems.
The port will formally take ownership of the farm on Sept. 1.
The farm itself presents many challenges, most significantly the ongoing need to manage the reed canary grass that clogs Chimacum Creek. The shortage of arable land makes it more suitable for grazing than growing crops and much of it is flooded throughout the year. The existing buildings are old and many need to be replaced.
“The key that we came up with early on was these things aren’t going to happen right away and we had to think about this 10 years from now, 40 years from now and 100 years from now,” Mills said.
“It’s overwhelming if you look at it any other way than that. Remembering this is a long-term plan will be helpful for everyone.”
With just four months to come up with a plan, there was not enough time to gather all of the data and materials the steering committee sought in order to create a more detailed and in-depth proposal, port Deputy Director Eric Toews said.
“There is so much that we didn’t know that we couldn’t make definitive recommendations about the mobile slaughter unit being located on site,” Toews said. “Similarly, definitive conclusions on re-meandering Chimacum Creek. A habitat restoration plan might do that. We don’t have the information.”
Likewise, the plan did not include hard numbers or budgets.
“Was there ever a focus on the business plan of what a [farm] manager would cost or what the monthly nut would be to get the farm functioning or revenue streams?” Hasse asked. “Is that going to be the port’s responsibility to come up with that business plan? I was wondering if there was any information on that that you could share with the commissioners.”
Latham said the steering committee did not get down to that level of detail.
“I think that’s going to need some time,” he said.
Of urgent concern, Mills and Latham said, is doing basic maintenance on the property — from mowing, to fence repairs, to winterizing — so it doesn’t return to its “natural state.”
“Imagine you’re buying a house,” Mills. “You don’t want to just leave it for a season.”
Creating short-term leases for farmers who want to use the land immediately also is a possibility, Latham said.
Information about Short’s Family Farm and documents related to the planning process can be found on the port’s website at portofpt.com/shorts-family-farm.
In other news, the port’s 75-ton yard had 78 haul-outs in June compared with 99 in 2023, harbormaster Kristian Ferrero said. But the 395 total haul-outs for the first six months of the year was comparable to the 414 haul-outs during the same period last year.
Its 300-ton yard had 85 haul-outs during the first half of the year, which is more than in previous years, he said. Occupancy in the big yard was 63 percent, which is typical during the summer, when people are out using their boats, but Ferrero said he anticipates it will increase in August and September, when those working boats return to the port.
The biggest increases have been in reservations at the Point Hudson Marina & RV Park, with about 300-400 more nights reserved per month for moorage and hook-up sites, he said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
