Port of Astoria commissioners on Tuesday tentatively approved exploring a partnership with a private company to develop housing and a cruise ship dock at the East Mooring Basin, while expressing plenty of questions about how it will work.
Nik Sernande, a San Francisco-based architect and member of Fishermens Wharf – Astoria LLC, presented his vision for the marina to commissioners.
Fishermens Wharf has proposed expanding the marina to the east of the causeway while building floating single-family homes to the west, similar to development found in Sausalito, California. The company seeks a 50-year lease of about 100 acres. A second phase of the company’s vision would develop a cruise ship dock along the breakwater.
Commissioner Bill Hunsinger has repeatedly raised concerns about the cash-strapped Port ceding control to work with private entities to develop its languishing properties. He has, for example, objected to the agency exiting its lease at the North Tongue Point industrial dock early to allow boatbuilder Hyak Maritime to develop a vessel fabrication and repair center.
The public has shared many concerns with him about what the project at the East Mooring Basin would do to parking, traffic, a boat ramp for recreational fishermen, the longshoremen-handled cruise ship business on Pier 1 and any agreements the Port has with the Army Corps regarding its breakwater, he said.
