Plans to Renovate the Warner's Bayou Boat Ramp Have Been Put on Hold

Plans to renovate the boat docks and parking areas at the Warner's Bayou Boat ramp have been put on hold until after Labor Day to give residents from the surrounding neighborhood an opportunity to provide feedback on the project after they inundated the county with complaints about the plans.

At an impromptu meeting at the boat ramp Wednesday night, Karen Windon the deputy county administrator told the crowd of more than 50 people that the county erred in not getting input from the residents before moving ahead with plans for the boat ramp.

"We made a mistake and we want to rectify that," Windon told the crowd after announcing that the ramp will not close over the summer. The announcement met with some applause, but the crowd was still wary of the "fixes."

"Where is the perceived need to fix this," one neighbor asked. "If it's not broken, don't fix it."

When the county designed plans to improve the boat ramps, no one on staff thought it would be controversial, after all they thought they were simply improving what was already out there. But those improvements included paving a sand and shel parking area, building permanent restrooms and taking down the big Australian Pine trees that had stood on the site for decades and replacingthem with native trees. And an early version of the plan even included plans for concessions.

The neighborhood said no way to such an extensive rehab of a boat ramp they considered a community asset. Neighbors don't want the ramps to draw even more traffic. They also didn't want the boat ramp closed for five months beginning next week.

After the county received emails about the plans to close the boat ramp and a protest was planned for Wednesday night, the county decided to put renovation on hold. County Commission Chairman John Chappie and staff from several departments came out to the boat ramp Wednesday evening to make the announcement to residents and to listen to their concerns.

While residents were relieved to hear that the ramp would not close next week, several were still angry about three trees that had already been cut down and had several questions about the design for the boat ramp. Neighbors made it clear that they did not want to boat ramp near the intersection of Riverview Boulevard and 59th Street NW to lose its neighborhood feel.

It was clear at Wednesday's meeting that while all of the neighbors were concerned about the extent of the plans, not all of them agreed on what should and should not be done. And while the county held an informal and impromptu informational meeting at the park, staffers promised to schedule a formal meeting where all the neighbors could get answers to their questions and provide input on the design.

While several vocal residents were angry about the removal of Australian Pines, others said that the invasive species needs to go and they liked plans to replace them with native trees. Many residents also seemed to like the boat ramp improvements which are designed to replace an aging ramp that could fail in the future and to redesign the incline so that it isn't so steep that boaters scrape their boats and trailers when coming out of the river.

Some residents wanted bathrooms to replace the portalet now on site, but wanted them relocated. Other neighbors were fine with having the portalets. Others suggested getting rid of bathrooms all together.

And while many of the neighbors seemed to accept the improvements to the ramps themselves, several were still concerned about plans to pave the parking lot and to build new permanent bathrooms — plans that would make the boat ramp compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and that are touted to help prevent oil and grease from running off into the river during heavy rains.

Charlie Hunsicker, the director of the county's natural resources department, told the crowd that by paving the parking area and adding retention ponds, the county could prevent pollution from going into the river. Paving is also designed to save the county money on maintaining the parking lot's sand and shell surface. But many of the neighbors said a paved parking lot would spoil the natural neighborhood beach that they love. They want to see studies on the pollution prevention before any changes are implemented.

The plans to have vendors at the site had already been scrapped long before Wednesday's meetings, but residents wanted more assurances that no vendors will be included "not even a vending machine" and that any such future ideas for such ammenities would have to come through neighborhood meetings before any proposals were written.

The county plans to announce its first formal meeting on the boat ramp improvements today. The next meeting will allow more neighbors to have an opportunity to speak and will allow everyone a better opportunity to hear the answers.