Construction to start on Petaluma’s boat house

Buoyed by donations, advocates for Petaluma River access are finally realizing a dream first floated seven years ago as construction crews weigh anchor on a project to add a public boathouse at the downtown Turning Basin.

But, as workers next week begin driving piles into the river bottom near Taps for the floating small craft rental center, the historically silted waterway and a lack of funds threaten the next phase of the $1 million project.

On Sept. 26 and 27, a barge-based pile driver will be knocking the seven posts into the river, the first visible step in building the Floathouse Boat Rental Center that was proposed in 2010.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Greg Sabourin, the executive director of the Petaluma Small Craft Center. “It’s a big deal for Petaluma and the Turning Basin. We’re excited.”

The workers will use a vibratory hammer to drive the piles from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. taking a 2-hour break around noon. The next phase of the project will be the construction of 170 feet of dock, which will hold the rental office. Sabourin said that could take place next summer or fall, depending on fundraising efforts.

The final phase, once the boat rental center is open, will be a restroom and shower at Cavanagh Landing Park. The Floathouse is expected to be a tourist draw as Petaluma continues to capitalize on its aquatic asset in the heart of the city, Sabourin said. It will rent most types of human-powered craft, including stand up paddle boards, canoes, kayaks, peddle-powered boats and small sailboats.

It will be the first large-scale river access project in Petaluma since the Petaluma Marina project in the 1990s, he said.

“We are a river town without an easily accessible place to rent watercraft,” Sabourin said. “The Floathouse is about easy access. The boats will be right there on the docks on the water, ready to go. It’s going to become a real focal point for the river.”

But even as the project’s first phase is full steam ahead, the lack of river dredging threatens to clog future plans. The floating dock which will eventually host the boat rental office would be mire in mud at low tide in the current river that hasn’t been dredged in more than a decade.

“That’s an issue that nobody saw coming,” Sabourin said. “We’re in something of a quandary right now.”

The interim solution, he said, could be to erect a temporary metal-framed vinyl tent structure, which would be considerably lighter than the floating office building. That proposal is in the initial stage and would need city approval. And phase two of the project is still contingent on the Small Craft Center obtaining funding for the rest of the project. Currently, they are about $700,000 short of their goal, Sabourin said.

Meanwhile, there is little movement on the effort to remove the silt that has choked the Petaluma River, making for a shallow waterway where boats become marooned at low tide. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has traditionally dredged the river about every four years, has not had funding for the project in more than a decade.

This year, the Corps of Engineers received $600,000 to do the preliminary work, but did not get dredging funds, according to Dan St. John, Petaluma’s director of public works.

“There is no money beyond engineering,” he said. “There is no firm date when a dredging event will occur.”

The Corps of Engineers had been working with cities and private groups on a partnership, which could lead to a regular regional dredging cycle, but that effort is on hold pending a federal review, St. John said.

“That took a little wind out of our sails,” he said.

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)