BoatUS
Honors Access Award Winners
First National Symposium on Water Access Launched
As
waterfront land values skyrocket, high taxes shutter marinas and residential
development overtakes the waterfront, recreational boaters have been
losing more and more access to the water. But some forward thinking
communities and organizations are working to turn back the tide and
today — at the Working
Waterways and Waterfronts – A National Symposium on Water Access
held in Norfolk, VA — seven recipients were recognized with the
first ever
BoatUS Recreational Boating Access Awards.
The Award
was created to honor a group, government body, business, individual
or non-profit organization that has succeeded in preserving or improving
public waterway access for boaters. Judging criteria included: how well
challenges were overcome; the direct impact of the solution; and how
adaptable the approach would be in other areas facing similar water
access challenges.
“These
Access Award winners show us that with creative thinking and concerted
action we can gain better access to the water,” said BoatUS Founder
and Chairman Richard Schwartz in presenting the awards.
The seven
BoatUS Recreational Boating Access Award winners are:
Middle
Peninsula Planning District Commission, VA, for creation of
the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority in response
to legislation passed by the General Assembly. The Commission provides
a model institutional framework for local governments to address public
water access on a regional basis.
Shoreline
Property Owners and Contractors Association, WA, for their
creation of an advocacy organization to preserve and promote recreational
boating access by advocating common-sense, science-based permitting
and regulation for boating facilities siting, development, construction
and maintenance. It is an excellent model for grassroots organizing
that joins boater/citizen stakeholders with the affected marine business
community in a pro-active, multi-pronged campaign aimed at regulatory
and legislative reform.
Carryover
of the Carolinas, NC, for the development of a unique technological
solution — a boat lift that provides waterway access between biologically
separate and environmentally sensitive water bodies while eliminating
or minimizing environmental impacts. The technology essentially allows
boaters to use man-made canals that formerly could not be accessed from
any other waterway.
Scituate
Marine Park, MA, for the successful public acquisition of at-risk
waterfront land and the subsequent development and operation of public
facilities for boating access as well as for related recreational, cultural
and historic uses of benefit to the larger community. This was a textbook
case on how to build grassroots momentum for improving boating access,
and is a model for local governments faced with imminent loss of waterfront
to develop a community supported, user fee-based boating facility.
Port
of Bellingham, WA, for an industrial waterfront revitalization
project that places recreational boating access/facilities development
at its core. It is a model process on how to get the public engaged
with recreational boaters and the boating industry in a planning and
development partnership with local government. It is expected to meet
current and future demand for recreational boating facilities while
preserving the city’s working waterfront.
City
of Trenton, MI, for successfully restoring to environmental
health the “Black Lagoon,” and thereby transforming a contaminated
industrial site into a much-needed marina that will serve transient
boaters on the Detroit River. This provides an excellent and successful
model that capitalized on a “brownfields” industrial site
for recreational boating access facilities by engaging a wide variety
of partners, enlisting broad community support and leveraging multiple
funding sources.
North
Carolina General Assembly, for its initiative in creating the
state Waterfront Access Study Committee in 2006, the subsequent comprehensive
review and the resulting recommendations to protect and promote North
Carolina’s working waterfronts. This is an excellent example of
a legislative response to a growing challenge faced by one constituent
group that other state legislatures could adopt.
For more
information, go to http://www.BoatUS.com/gov/AccessAward
BoatUS –
Boat Owners Association of The United States – is the nation’s
leading advocate for recreational boaters providing its 670,000 members
with a wide array of consumer services including a group-rate marine
insurance program that insures nearly a quarter million boats; the largest
fleet of more than 500 towing assistance vessels; discounts on fuel,
slips, and repairs at over 870 Cooperating Marinas; boat financing;
and a subscription to BoatUS Magazine, the most widely read
boating publication in the US.
