After public outcry, Whatcom Council rethinking its closure of this popular beach
After substantial public outcry, Whatcom County Council members are reconsidering their February decision to close access to a beach south of Cherry Point by blocking the road about a half-mile from the shoreline.
Council members voted unanimously on Tuesday night, March 8, to hold a new public hearing March 22 and consider reversing last month’s closure of Gulf Road south of Henry Road, a step they took at the request from the property owner, Pacific International Holdings.
Gulf Road is the only way that the public can reach a remote stretch of beach on private land overlooking the Cherry Point Aquatic Preserve, which consists of 3,000 acres preserving critical habitat for bull kelp, Pacific herring, salmon, surf smelt, orcas and surf scoters.
“I personally maybe didn’t ask enough questions when we had our first pass at this, and we’re hearing a lot from the public that’s portraying a very different situation than we got described by the (landowner) in terms of conditions out there at the beach at Gulf Road,” said Council President Todd Donovan, in a committee meeting earlier Tuesday.
Council members voted unanimously Feb. 8 to allow the road closure after Pacific International asked to keep the public away, citing “illegal dumping, abandoned vehicles, alcohol and drug use, the discharging of firearms, unauthorized fires, destruction of private property and trespass along Whatcom County rights-of-way and onto private property occur in this area,” according to a memo from the Whatcom County Department of Public Works.
No one spoke against the closure at a Feb. 8 public hearing, but environmental advocates told The Bellingham Herald shortly after the closure was approved that closing the road could hamper research and volunteer beach cleanups.
“It would definitely make our monitoring projects more challenging,” said Eleanor Hines, a scientist with the environmental advocacy group RE Sources for Sustainable Communities and North Sound Baykeeper.
Since then, the County Council has heard from RE Sources, the North Cascades Audubon Society and others who use Gulf Road to get to the beach for birding, kayaking, kite-flying and other recreation.
“I’m hearing from people who I know would never trespass saying ‘I go there all the time’,” said Councilwoman Carol Frazey.
Oregon and California give their residents broad freedom to cross private property to reach public tidelands, through the 1967 Oregon Beach Bill and the 1976 California Coastal Act.
But Washington state’s 1972 Shoreline Management Act, established by referendum, has much less explicit language.
Access to the beach is in a legal gray area, Donovan said, because Washington courts have not ruled definitively on whether the public can cross private property to reach the mean high tide line, which is open to the public.
“It’s a very complicated issue, what the rights for public access to beaches are, that are privately held, and I don’t think we’re going to sort that out right now,” Donovan said.
In this case, Gulf Road is less than 100 yards from an inviting beach that’s been used by the public for years.
Councilwoman Kaylee Galloway said she checked crime data from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and was told that there were only 17 calls for service to the beach over the past three years.
“There’s some conflicting information for the public that makes it very difficult to understand exactly where’s public and where’s private,” Galloway said.
“I think if we want to clarify those boundaries then we should certainly do that. That can be done independently of closing the road,” she said.
Hines told The Herald in February that things have been getting better there and the waterfront was nearly deserted on a recent weekday, as waves lapped at the pebbly beach topped with piles of driftwood where an abandoned conveyor stretches into the sound — and there were no junked cars or trash.
Both Galloway and Councilmember Kathy Kershner said they visited the beach and had similar experiences.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 12:33 PM.
