Whatcom County Council reconsiders decision on this Cherry Point beach access
Access to an isolated beach near Cherry Point will remain after public outcry prompted the Whatcom County Council to reverse its earlier decision to close Gulf Road a half-mile from the shoreline.
A vote to open Gulf Road south of Henry Road was 4-3 Tuesday night, March 22, in a meeting that was a hybrid of in-person and online participation.
Councilmembers Tyler Byrd, Ben Elenbaas and Kathy Kershner voted to keep the county-owned road closed, citing private property rights and the need for a long-term solution regarding public access to the shoreline west of Ferndale.
“If they’re trespassing, we have laws for a reason and I think that we need to uphold them regardless of how people feel,” said Councilmember Ben Elenbaas.
“But I do want people to be able to go down there,” he said.
At a public hearing just before Tuesday’s vote, speaker after speaker told the council that they have been visiting the beach for years, and consider it a public benefit.
“There are a lot of people in this community who care a lot about that beach,” said Dale McGuire, who said he’s been visiting there since he was a teenager, hunting agates with a former girlfriend.
“I didn’t win the girl, but the beach became my love,” McGuire told the council.
Some speakers said it’s one of the few places in Whatcom County where people can drive to within a few feet of the beach, making it attractive to people with disabilities.
“This beach has been a refuge for us,” said Jessica Spencer.
“To have that big open space during the pandemic, it’s basically a treasure in my opinion,” she said.
Other speakers told the council that the beach is used for recreation such as kite-flying, kayaking and birding, and said that Gulf Road provides access for avian studies and other research, as well as for organized 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, in a February interview with The Bellingham Herald.
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.
Owner asked closure
But the County Council voted unanimously Feb. 8 to allow the road closure after the owner, Pacific International Holdings, cited “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.
Several speakers disputed those claims, saying that frequently organized beach cleanups keep the shoreline clear of debris, and that some of the trash washes ashore from waters of the Georgia Strait and isn’t illegally dumped.
Robert Hoffman called those claims “90% hyperbole” and described seeing families with children and their pets enjoying themselves.
“It would be a crime to close that beach,” Hoffman said.
Beach access laws
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, 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 except in places where tidelands are privately held.
“Washington state has, I will say, abnormally bad laws in terms of public access to public beaches and tidelands,” said Councilman Todd Donovan.
