Working Waterfront Case Studies
WORKING WATERFRONT CASE STUDIES FOR PRESERVATION AND ENHANCEMENT OF WORKING WATERFRONTS IN U.S. CITIES.
2-12-25
By our research team at Positive People for Sausalito
These case studies are presented as approaches to thoughtful, sustainable waterfront development in towns similar to Sausalito. Sausalito is unique and these case studies are simply meant to inspire ideas and strategies that might work in our community.
There are several important considerations that are common to all these projects, as well as Sausalito’s.
These case studies all were aimed at preserving and enhancing their maritime uses, while also allowing for well-planned “insertions” of compatible mixed uses that encouraged a more cross-functional, energized environment that engages the community more fully.
All these projects involve sites that were not originally zoned for housing or retail. The interaction between the uses, including office and recreation is what creates a vibrant and successful neighborhood.
All of these projects closely involved the end users, neighbors, and other interested parties, but with the recognition that the synergies were critical.
Thoughtful development is not executed by the city, but by private developers who must do projects that are profitable. Developers almost always do not self-fund their projects. Instead they use funds from your investments, on which you expect return: Pension funds, Insurance companies, banks, and other institutions make the investments. Developers are almost always simply the “orchestrators”, or “coordinators” of the funds, architecture, construction, etc.
Opposition to the normal evolution and changes in a city are counter to its critical long-term survival. Cities are organic and grow by slow change.
Important elements that were successful all these cases together:
They all enhanced and/or grew their maritime business base
They all created energetic, mixed use environments.
They all re-activated the sleepy atmosphere of the waterfronts
They all brought in significantly more dollars through tax base, tourism, and commerce
BELFAST HARBOR, MAINE
A New England working waterfront is zoned by the city council and residents for mixed use to highly successful results.
Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 6,938, similar to Sausalito’s. Its seaport has a wealth of historic architecture in several historic districts, and remains popular with tourists. In 1996, shipbuilding was re-established on the Belfast waterfront with the opening of French & Webb, Inc., classic wooden yacht builders and restorers. Following in their footsteps, Front Street Shipyard opened a major boatyard on the Belfast Bay in 2013. Together, the two boatbuilding companies have restored Belfast's working waterfront and helped revive the city economy as well as appeal to tourists.
It may have been inevitable. A part of Belfast’s waterfront characterized by graffiti-covered, decrepit industrial buildings wouldn’t remain so for long, given the safe bet that is investing in Maine harbor-front property. But the story of how Front Street Shipyard became established on that same property—now characterized by multi-million dollar yachts parked in and outside large green, steel-sided buildings—might seem like an overnight success story.
In fact, it’s a story that owes its happy ending to two groups of people who saw opportunity, and who were willing to work to find a way for each to win. Cliché though it might sound, the Front Street Shipyard and Belfast’s city government truly achieved a win-win. It may not have come to fruition without a bit of legal innovation with a name only a lawyer could love: contract rezoning.
“We created a zoning process that was flexible and could respect the business interests and the public,” Marshall said. “A lot of things went right,” but the key decision was having a vision. “It’s identifying upfront what’s important to you.”
A key part of the restoration of the harbor both for marine uses and tourism was the “Harbor Walk” where visiting boaters may also enjoy waterfront parks and public access including the Harbor Walk and Rail Trail, which stretches almost 3 miles along the waterfront, across the Armistice pedestrian bridge and up the Passagassawakeag River, providing scenic strolling, jogging, dog walking, and bicycle riding. The Museum in the Streets is another lovely guided walk around town, perfect for exploring the history of Belfast. The walkway was one of those important amenities, and it’s busy, year-round, with people of all ages. It’s probably the only shipyard in North America where you can actually walk through the industrial boat travel-lift area, but it’s more than a recreation area. “We brought a working waterfront back to Belfast.”
Belfast Harbor Fest, a community project of the Belfast Rotary Club, honors the maritime tradition of Belfast, Maine, provides people of all ages with opportunities to experience Belfast harbor, stimulates the economic life of Belfast and the Belfast area, fosters membership in the Belfast Rotary Club, and generates support for Rotary service projects that make real Rotary’s belief in “Service Above Self.”
We can see that Belfast’s zoning is highly diversified, with Seaport waterfront uses, and warehouse districts, together with residential, retail, recreation, and restaurant uses. This varied mixed-use approach has been extremely successful, adding a tourist and locals mix with maritime uses that are interesting, as well as functionally working with the other uses.
BELFAST HARBOR REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Belfast Chamber of Commerce. https://belfastmaine.org/about-our-area/our-harbors/
Yelp 5 star reviews of the harborwalk. https://www.yelp.com/biz/belfast-harbor-walk-belfast
Belfast Harbor’s own website with descriptions of myriad activities. https://belfastharbor.net/Belfast.shtml
Detail of Belfast City’s adopted zoning map. https://www.cityofbelfast.org/DocumentCenter/View/4901/Adopted-Belfast-Zoning-Map-2022-Fin-May-2022pdf
Downeast Magazine raves about the changes. From 2012. https://downeast.com/travel-outdoors/moonbat-kingdom/
2 NEWPORT OREGON
Balancing Fishing, Tourism, and Research
Newport, Oregon (Pop. 10,500) was built on tourism and natural resource industries like timber and seafood, and the Bayfront quickly became its economic hub. Later, with the construction of jetties and dredging of the Yaquina Bay channel, the shipping industry took hold. But in the early 1900s, the Bayfront began to change shape as businesses migrated away due to the construction of Highway 101.
Then, in the 1980s, business and government leaders developed a revitalization plan to establish Newport as a destination resort but also an important working waterfront that includes research, commercial fishing, and other services to lessen the city’s dependence on natural resources and tourism, thus creating a ...
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