PORT TOWNSEND — The Port of Port Townsend will begin removing the Lombardy poplars along the south side of Sims Way in late April or early May as part of the Boat Yard expansion project.

The removal will occur after the city of Port Townsend completes its state environmental policy act (SEPA) review, Matt Klontz, the Port of Port Townsend’s director of capital projects, told port commissioners Wednesday.

The Boat Yard expansion is part of an overall project in which the port is partnering with the city and Jefferson County PUD to underground power lines, install a sidewalk and add landscaping along the main route into downtown Port Townsend.

The work requires taking out about 55 trees, which interfered with overhead power lines and caused arcing that created an electrocution risk to individuals working in the Boat Yard.

Port commissioners said they preferred the poplars be removed before spring.

“I wish it could happen sooner rather than later before they’re leafing out and more creatures are inhabiting them,” Commissioner Carol Hasse said. “The bottom line is the safety of the workers.”

Dave Nakagawara, the port’s manager of capital projects, said a SEPA notice for the expansion project was posted Wednesday at the Boat Yard. The public will have until Feb. 27 to submit comments on the project to the city’s Planning and Community Development Department, which will make a determination as to whether the project will have a significant adverse environmental impact.

Information about the project and comment form can be found at tinyurl.com/yc78styw.

“At the end of this process, could the project be sidelined if there were comments with merit?” Commissioner Pete Hanke asked.

It is possible, but highly unlikely, port Executive Director Eron Berg said.

The Sims Way project has undergone a significant public engagement and review process, and the scope of the work has been consistent with all of that planning, Berg said.

After considering different styles of fences Klontz presented, commissioners chose a 6-foot-tall black steel security fence for installation on the north side of the Boat Yard along the new border created by its expansion. Although more expensive than chain link fencing ($75,000 to $105,000 instead of $67,500), commissioners said it would provide better security and is more aesthetically pleasing.

In addition, the higher cost would be offset by foregoing landscaping with climbing plants that had been intended to hide a less attractive cyclone fence.

Klontz said work on the port’s $6.135 million stormwater upgrade in the Boat Yard has started. Under an interlocal agreement with the city, a new discharge conveyance system, rain garden and bioswale — a wide vegetated depression that helps remove pollutants — are being constructed to divert and filter runoff from Castle Hill, Sims Way and the Boat Yard before it is discharged into Port Townsend Bay.

The upgrade will keep the port’s and city’s stormwater separate; the city will be responsible for maintaining its part of the system. The end result will be cleaner water and less silt.

“This resolves an issue that has long plagued the Boat Yard,” port Deputy Director Eric Toews said. “And it allows for further expansion of the Boat Yard to the west.”

Connie Anderson, the port’s director of finance and administration, said the port met its operational revenue budget of $8.312 million in her 2024 year-to-date December report to the board. Total operating expenses were about 4 percent higher for the year than budgeted, much of it due to greater salary and benefit costs, she said.

The end of construction of the Point Hudson jetty on March 1 had a big impact.

“We landed in a much better spot than we expected,” Anderson said. “Having Point Hudson open all year made a difference.”

Meanwhile, the city of Port Townsend’s decision to start charging for downtown parking in May prompted discussion about the impact it will have on the port’s Back 40 parking lot at Point Hudson, which is intended for the use of tenants and marine trades workers.

“If the Back 40 is full of downtown merchants’ employees, it hasn’t served its purpose,” Hasse said.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.