Pier vote critical for project

by Meg Olson

“I can’t say enough about what the pier and the revitalization of our waterfront have done for our city,” White Rock mayor Judy Forster told Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce and community members. “If you’ve got this dream, this vision, it’s really exciting for you to pursue it. We feel our pier is the gathering place. It’s where people meet.”

At the October 29 event organized by the chamber of commerce to encourage voters to approve a special recreation district on the November 4 ballot that would allow the Point Roberts pier project to go ahead, Forster described the transformative power of the White Rock pier and promenade.

In 1986, she said, White Rock’s Marine Drive was “a lot of fish and chip places and a lot of cottages.” There were no public walkways, meaning pedestrians on their way to the beach often walked on the road. Parking was in dusty road ends and shoulders. There was no way for disabled people to use the beach. White Rock had a pier, but it was difficult to access and in poor repair. “The city council of the day decided to give ourselves an extreme makeover,” Forster said. ‘We wanted to merge this whole area. Make this place a destination.”

After receiving several million dollars in federal and provincial grant funding, the city built the waterfront visitors to White Rock enjoy today, including the half-mile long pier, a promenade over a mile long, a museum in the old train station, pay parking lots and ramps accessing the beach. “We have over 65 eating establishments along Marine Drive now and we just built a new hotel,” Forster said. The waterfront redevelopment spawned year-round events, which encouraged year-round businesses to replace seasonal ones. Year-round businesses meant year-round jobs, which is changing White Rock’s demographics. “White Rock has sort of been known as a retirement community. Now we’re getting a lot of young families.”

While the city continues to allocate $30,000 a year in its budget to maintain the pier, Forster said the waterfront more than pays for itself. Even with winter reductions in parking fees, pay parking generates $1.5 million a year for city coffers. The waterfront also offers the city fundraising opportunities, such as selling memorial benches for $2,500 each. The pier has had some unexpected benefits, such as improving cellular phone reception. The city rents space at the end of the pier for cellular telephone towers.

“Quite a few people didn’t want this. They wanted White Rock to just stay a beach community, but it’s the best thing the city’s done by far,” Forester said. “There’s an air of optimism.”

Chamber of commerce pier committee member Terrie LaPorte said the community could be getting their last chance for a pier at the foot of Gulf Road when they head to the polls November 4. The permits and environmental studies secured through grant funding and volunteer hours will expire in December. “If this doesn’t get passed we have to start from scratch. This is our last kick at it. If we don’t get a yes vote this project will die,” she said.

What the chamber is looking for is a yes on is the last item on the November ballot, and it doesn’t say anything about a pier. The ballot question, constrained by state election laws, asks voters to approve formation of a special district “to provide financing for neighborhood park facilities, improvements or services.” The district, LaPorte explained, is the taxing authority that could be used to generate maintenance funds if grants could be obtained to build the pier. She estimated banking conservatively on expenses of White Rock and other cities with piers, that the district might need to raise $45,000 a year through taxes to maintain the pier if it’s built, which would mean only $15 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house on the Point.

More than about taxes, which the new district will not be levying until the pier is completed, the November 4 vote is about community support needed to move the project, forward and secure grant funding for construction. “The Port of Bellingham has assured me if we give the go-ahead they will help us find construction funds,” LaPorte said.

Several audience members worried that voters who supported a pier might vote against the special district, since it comes directly after the park maintenance and operations levy and doesn’t mention the pier. “We weren’t allowed to say pier but special recreation and service area means you want a pier,” LaPorte said. “Spread the word. We want a positive vote on the fourth.”

“You live in such a beautiful place,” Forster said. “This decision you’re making is a very important one. If you have the opportunity to build a pier ­ go for it!”

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