Kayak Point County Park is a county park near Warm Beach, in Snohomish County, Washington. The park is located along Port Susan and includes a saltwater beach, a boat launch, a disc golf course, and public campgrounds. Kayak Point is the most popular county park in Snohomish County and is mainly visited for recreational fishing, crabbing, and birdwatching.
Kayak Point was home to a private, locally-run seaside resort from the 1920s to 1950s, named after a pair of Inuit kayaks brought to the resort from Alaska. In the 1960s, Atlantic Richfield proposed construction of an oil refinery at Kayak Point, purchasing of land, and received approval from the county to re-zone the area for industrial use. During public hearings, local residents opposed the refinery and later filed a lawsuit against the county over its re-zoning decision, which was voided by the Washington Supreme Court in 1979 as an inequitable use of "spot zoning". Atlantic Richfield later attempted to develop some of its land holdings into a master-planned residential community in the 1970s, but failed to receive county approval due to a lack of good roads and sewers. The county park was established in 1972, using waterfront property bought by the county government from Atlantic Richfield.
History
Originally part of the ancestral territory of the Snohomish people, the Kayak Point area was settled by American loggers from the 1850s to 1890s. After the near-shore timber had been logged away, Seattle real estate developer Clarence Dayton Hillman bought along Port Susan, from Kayak Point to modern-day Warm Beach, from 1907 to 1909. Hillman platted the area, naming it "Birmingham", and sold parcels for $75 each (equivalent to $ in dollars), advertising in Seattle-area newspapers during the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition to prospective buyers. The Kilian family settled at the south end of Birmingham and later developed their property into a seaside resort in the 1920s, building roads, cabins, and a boat launch. The resort was named "Kayak Point", after a pair of Inuit kayaks brought from King Island, Alaska, and displayed in front of the resort store.
Atlantic Richfield proposals
The Atlantic Richfield Company purchased the resort and surrounding properties in the late 1950s, with the intent of building an oil refinery on the site; in the interim, the resort was leased to a Tacoma businessman and would continue operating until the refinery was approved for construction. Atlantic Richfield formally unveiled their proposed oil refinery in 1967, requesting that the county government issue permits to allow for the refinery's construction and operation as an exception to the area's rural residential zoning. Atlantic Richfield selected Kayak Point due to its protected deep water location, road access, available workforce, and proximity to Canada, where crude oil would be delivered via pipeline. The $100 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) refinery would employ 400 workers and create an additional 800 jobs in supporting industries.
The plans angered local residents, who organized the Save Port Susan Committee and testified against the zoning exception during a public hearing on November 30, 1967. Despite the testimony, the county planning commission and the county board of commissioners approved a change in the comprehensive plan to rezone Kayak Point for the oil refinery. As part of the rezoning plan, Atlantic Richfield agreed to allocate to public recreation, as well as clean up any oil spills in the area regardless of fault. Opponents of the oil refinery, while pleased with the spill provision, sought penalties and damages in the event of a spill and feared that further petrochemical development could follow the refinery's opening.
In response to the rezoning, 19 members of the Save Port Susan Bay Committee filed a lawsuit against the county commissioners and planning commission on June 24, 1968. An additional legal challenge, coming in the form of a complaint for declaratory judgment, was filed in September by the committee questioning enforcement of the rezoning agreement's conditions on pollution control and its affects on Port Susan residents. On October 28, 1968, Atlantic Richfield announced that it would drop plans to build the Kayak Point refinery, instead choosing to build a refinery at Cherry Point near Bellingham, due to the delays from litigation and the immediate needs for a new refinery. A similar proposal from Union Oil for a nearby site on Port Susan was defeated by the county planning commission in 1971, despite support from the Tulalip Tribes.