News and Events

2010 SEATTLE FLOATING HOMES TOUR

"From Funky to Fabulous - 100 Years of Houseboat Living"

Sunday, September 12
12 to 5 PM

12 Homes on East & West Lake Union
Open for Public Viewing

The Seattle Floating Homes Association is pleased to announce their biennial Floating Homes Tour in 2010, themed "From Funky to Fabulous - 100 Years of Houseboat Living," Sunday, September 12, from 12 to 5 PM. 

Tickets go on sale Friday, July 16.

It is another warm summer morning in the heart of Seattle. Take a walk with me as we amble along Fairview Avenue East and hear the latest news from our houseboat neighbors.

What Committed Leadership, Ingenuity, and Sweat can Create

In the densely populated neighborhood of Eastlake among the houseboats, apartments, homes, marinas and businesses, there is an oasis of greenery and flowers along the shoreline of the northern leg of Fairview Avenue - the Eastlake P-Patch garden. Since its original founding in 1981, and subsequent enhancement in 1998, the beautiful urban garden has been very popular with local residents. It has a waitlist of over 100 people vying to get a plot, with typical waits of over 5 years.

120705-1 April 29, 2010 Table of Contents

Juvenile Salmon Use in Lake Union in Relation to Floating Home Complexes
Seattle, Washington

Snorkeling Survey Photos by Pentec. Log of all photos submitted with this report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

During the spring and summer of 2009, Pentec Environmental conducted a juvenile salmon study in Lake Union for the Floating Home Association (FHA).

The principal objective of the study was to conduct site-specific surveys to provide the City of Seattle with improved scientific data with which to develop reasonable guidance and regulations for floating homes; these data were intended to clarify the actual significance, if any, of these structures to outmigrating juvenile salmon.

Observational data were collected around 9 floating home complexes by fisheries biologists at above water and snorkel transect stations using standardized methodologies. To augment findings, the results from recent acoustic tagging studies conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) were also included in this report.

Results and conclusions are as follows:

• Based on above water and snorkel observation events, juvenile salmonids do not appear to be associated with the Lake Union nearshore either at floating home communities or at the Gas Works Park reference site. Only 1 of 97 observations events conducted between late-April and early-July revealed the presence of juvenile Chinook salmon proximal to floating homes.
• These findings are consistent with juvenile Chinook salmon acoustic tagging studies conducted during the 2007 and 2008 outmigratory period. These studies showed a pattern of use in Lake Union and throughout the Ship Canal characterized by a general offshore use of aquatic habitats. Juvenile salmonids largely selected against nearshore habitats in South Lake Union and Gas Works Park.
• Above water and snorkel results showed that nearshore habitats in the vicinity of floating home complexes were used by several fish species, most abundant was the small forage species threespine stickleback. Several other warm water resident species were present in low to moderate numbers including smallmouth bass, yellow perch, prickly sculpin and sunfish. Most warm water residents were juveniles that would not pose a predatory risk to juvenile salmon.
• No large adult smallmouth bass, northern pikeminnow, or other predatory fish were observed during observation events near or beneath the structures of floating home complexes.
• The prevalent offshore behavior of juvenile salmon in Lake Union is likely influenced by a number of physical and biotic factors including prey abundance, predator avoidance, and the high level of nearshore development already present in the lake.

To read a new history of our houseboat community and to see some old photos, click on this link to Seattle's Historic Houseboats, a new houseboat history researched and written by History Link. 

The article was funded by Wards Cove on Lake Union.

This article recently appeared on the Woodinville Weekly's web site.  Unfortunately, about a week later, their site began to experience some technical problems.  We've reprinted the article below for reference, until their web site comes back on-line. The original link was here. -- 8/10/2010

Take a tour of Seattle’s floating homes for a glimpse at a unique community

Admit it. You’ve always been just a bit curious about what it would be like to actually live on one of those houseboats on Lake Union. You drive past them and imagine life aboard a floating home in a community of inhabitants who share a common love of water, boats and wildlife. I know I do, and although I’ve kayaked past some of these unique residences, I’ve never been inside one.

Read Take a tour of Seattle’s floating homes for a glimpse at a unique community, published 8/2/2010 in the Woodinville Weekly.

On 7/27/2010 the PI website carried an article on Seattle's Department of Community Development's (DPD's) revision of the Shorelines Master Program by Vanessa Ho, Seattle Wants to Ban New Houseboats.

The article features comments by Amalia Walton, Chair of the FHA's SMP Task Force, and FHA board member Caroline Kukyno and includes responses from city staff.

Mayor Mike McGinn will join community celebration sponsored by the Eastlake Community Council, Wards Cove on Lake Union, and the Eastlake P-Patch

A dramatic "make-over" along the 2800 block of Fairview Avenue East (Google Map) on the north east side of Lake Union near the Hamlin Street intersection includes access to a new beach, shoreline restoration and a lushly landscaped "green street," with a wide and meandering new sidewalk.  Coincidentally, the Eastlake P-Patch across the street has expanded, creating space for 24 new garden plots.  

Both of these neighborhood amenities will be celebrated on Saturday, August 14th from 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.  Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will join the festivities at 2:30 for two back-to-back ribbon cuttings at the beach and at the P-Patch.

The Eastlake P-Patch Expansion Project is in full swing for Spring! We've accomplished a great deal, but none of it would have been possible without our generous donors.

Thank you so much, all of you!