Spiraling land values for waterfront property in the last few years have created a crisis for recreational boating. Traditional marinas with public slips are giving way to residential development, working boatyards are being taxed at “highest and best use” rates that deflate the bottom line, permitting issues are driving up costs and delaying any new marina or dry-stack facility construction, and public launching ramps are in short supply and often outmoded (see Boaters Get Bumped - BoatU.S. Magazine, March 2006).

While access issues are complex and usually very local problems that deal with private property, there is at least one potential solution at the federal level, The Keep Our Waterfronts Working Act introduced in Congress, July 2007. This bill (H.R. 3223) sponsored by Maine Rep. Thomas Allen, is aimed at preserving sites for “waterfront dependent commercial activities”.

H.R. 3223 would establish a grant program to be administered by state agencies to protect and promote access. Language in the bill incorporates key elements from strategy to preserve access developed by participants at Working Waterways and Waterfronts, a national symposium conceived by BoatU.S. and cosponsored by 23 other organizations last May (see “Access Summit Shares Solutions,” BoatU.S. Magazine, July 2007). Rep. Allen's bill is particularly timely in that it would amend the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, now up for Congressional reauthorization.

Boaters should write to their own members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor H.R. 3223.

Please ask your elected federal representatives to co-sponsor H.R., 3223. It is common-sense legislation.