Floathouse construction underway in Petaluma River

Piles were driven in first phase of public boat house in the turning basin.|

A rising tide lifts all boats, and last Thursday, it also lifted 180 feet of floating dock that the Petaluma Small Craft Center is installing at the Petaluma River’s downtown Turning Basin.

The pilings for the Floathouse, a publicly accessible boat rental center designed and funded by donations, were finally driven after a year long delay due to the closure of the D Street drawbridge.

The docks, which were floated up the river for the Floathouse platform, were used as a template for Petaluma’s Lind Marine to guide the seven fiberglass pilings into the deep mud and earth right off of the city docks accessible from Weller Street and River Plaza.

Once the pilings were driven, at a cost of $27,000, the docks were again motored back to the rowing club. Some will continue to be used by rowers and paddlers, and the rest disassembled and returned to storage until PSCC, working for 10 years to provide river access for all in people-powered boats, has secured the $250,000 to $350,000 necessary to open the first river-oriented recreation facility in Petaluma since the Petaluma Marina was built in 1990.

Greg Sabourin, PSCC’s executive director, said the Floathouse will benefit the whole community, allowing reasonably priced rentals of a wide range of watercraft, from kayaks to canoes, rowboats and stand up paddleboards, perhaps even an electric boat. The journey leading up to this first phase of construction has been long and instructive.

Development is difficult enough, said PSCC board president Phil Hervé, but on the water it presents a whole other level of difficulty. The board has steered the organization through an arduous planning and permitting process, learning about regulatory matters such as the “fish window,” when construction on a California waterway can take place without disturbing the life cycle of the inhabitants.

The elephant in the room, though, is the ongoing lack of river dredging, forcing PSCC to delay its plans for the Floathouse office, and instead use a light, high-quality event tent as an office until the river is dredged.

The city has encouraged the project with support during the planning and permitting phases, and also now as construction begins. PSCC has also benefited from the help of local businesses like Van Bebber Brothers, which stored the docks for the past year, Rivertown Feed & Pet Country Store, which stored the 40-foot pilings, and Pacifica Companies, San Diego-based developers of the Haystack Landing project between Weller and Copeland Streets, which stored PSCC’s boats and equipment.

Boating clubs like SSU Crew, North Bay Rowing Club and River Town Racers have provided numerous volunteers and hundreds of hours of physical labor to move, assemble and clean the docks twice in less than a year.

Sabourin hopes that with the pilings in place, the community will rally behind the Floathouse capital campaign. PSCC is launching River Legacy, which includes naming and recognition opportunities for everything from life jackets ($50) to composite and wooden oars ($600 per set) to Hobie Pedal Drive SUPs ($2,900) to sections of docks ($1,300) and the pilings themselves ($12,650).

A flurry of community information presentations and fundraisers, both in person and online, are planned for the year ahead, Sabourin said.

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