PORT ANGELES — City Council members have placed their stamp of approval on an agreement aimed at paving the way for a proposed new marine life research and education building in downtown Port Angeles.

Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an agreement with the Feiro Marine Life Center and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to solidify the relationship between the three agencies as they determine whether a proposed $27,902-square-foot $12.6 million facility is feasible as an anchor for the city’s ongoing downtown waterfront improvements.

The agreement follows a pre-design study released in May that picked out either the current location of the Feiro Marine Life Center on City Pier or a vacant piece of property between North Oak Street and the Valley Creek estuary as the best locations for the building.

“This is a marvelous project, for our city and for future generations,” Mayor Cherie Kidd said at the council meeting.

Financial responsibility

The agreement does not establish any financial responsibilities for any of the three parties, said Nathan West, the city’s community and economic development director.

“Essentially, what is before you is a non-monetary memorandum of agreement that solidifies [the] relationship between the three parties,” West said.

Neither sanctuary officials nor the board of directors for the marine life center had formally approved the agreement as of Thursday.

Commitment

Deborah Moriarty, director of the Feiro Marine Life Center, said Thursday that city approval of the agreement is significant because it confirms that Feiro and its two partners are committed to working toward the facility.

“The opportunities are here for us,” Moriarty said.

“The partnerships are right; the partnerships are strong.”

Robert Steelquist, education and outreach coordinator for the marine sanctuary, said the agreement signifies the sanctuary’s significance to the city and the marine life center, and vice versa.

“We just see this as a way of acknowledging our importance to one another,” Steelquist said Thursday.

According to the agreement, the city would lease space for a small conference center and, through a sublease, the space necessary to meet the requirements of the marine sanctuary, which would include office space, classrooms and laboratories.

The marine life center would negotiate its own lease responsibilities, according to the agreement.

“It is important to mention that the city has specifically stipulated that it will not own any future building or land,” West wrote in the City Council memo accompanying the agreement.

“A similar stipulation clarifies that the city will not incur new general fund debt as a result of this project.”

The marine sanctuary headquarters currently operates out of a 7,150-square-foot space in The Landing mall on Railroad Avenue, while Feiro occupies 3,500 square feet in a building on City Pier not far to the east.

Moriarty said the marine life center, whose visitors have doubled since it became a nonprofit in 2008, outgrew its space on City Pier long ago.

‘Nothing new’

“There’s nothing new we can do with this facility,” Moriarty said.

A new facility shared with marine sanctuary staff would allow both to further their mission of education and outreach about the ecosystems of the North Olympic Peninsula, Moriarty explained.

“We want to offer more to our visitors and more to our community, and we feel we can do that,” Moriarty said.

“We want to be able to do more of what we do well.”

Said Steelquist: “Feiro has a strong education mission very compatible with our own mission.”

Funding methods for the proposed facility have not been worked out yet, but Moriarty said the Feiro’s board of directors has long considered some sort of fundraising campaign as a partial solution.

“Feiro had always considered some sort of capital campaign, and identifying what number [would be needed] is what [the three partners] are going to do,” Moriarty said.

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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.