§ 18.3 - Early Aquatic Land Law and Policy in Washington State

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§18.3 Early Aquatic Land Law and Policy in Washington State

When the constitutional framers drafted the Washington Constitution, much discussion focused on the ownership and control of the shores of navigable waters. See Hughes v. State, 67 Wn.2d 799, 804, 410 P.2d 20 (1966) ("the most vexing and politically sensitive problem confronting the convention was that of harbors, and the control, use, ownership, and disposal of the tidelands of the new state to be."), rev'd, 389 U.S. 290, 88 S. Ct. 438, 19 L. Ed. 2d 530 (1967). Waterborne commerce constituted the economic lifeblood of many early communities, yet access to the shores for the earliest settlers was often difficult due to heavily forested and steep shorelands bordering acres of inhospitable mudflats. Building out over tideflats, or filling and reclaiming them, created the hubs of many communities such as Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle. The first territorial legislature in the Washington Territory had acknowledged this need of access to the water by granting a right to wharf out to waterfront properties. Laws of 1854, p. 357. By the time the framers began working on the constitution, many...