House Boat Owners Mail Holiday Jeers Couple Forced To Move Barge Because Neighbors Complained

Sat., Dec. 27, 1997

Associated Press

A Seattle couple who moved their 36-foot high house barge after neighbors complained that it was blocking views along the northeast shores of Lake Union fought back with Yuletide jeer.

Christmas cards John and Lynne Fluke sent out featured a 5-by-17-inch color photo taken from the lake’s north end, challenging recipients to find the obstructed view.

In the center was their 100-ton, 120-foot-long floating home. To the right is a weeping willow tree that masks a portion of the water view. Telephone poles, land-based buildings and a dry dock for small boats all further diminish the view to a thumbnail-sized portion near the center of the card.

The barge had been built to accommodate the Flukes’ 84-foot yacht, Excalibur, and had been docked in an industrial non-residential zone on the lake since July, when the couple moved the structure from its former mooring in Ballard.

The Flukes had said they were living on the barge only while their yacht underwent repairs, but the professionally decorated home was featured in a four-page spread in the July-August issue of Seattle Homes and Lifestyles magazine.

Neighbors alerted the city’s Department of Construction and Land Use to the Fluke’s residential use of the property in an area zoned for industrial use only.

The city investigated, determined that the barge violated several land-use and shoreline restrictions, fined Fluke $5,325 and ordered him to relocate.

Developer Robert Taylor, who lives in a penthouse across the street from where the barge - complete with three bedrooms, a dumbwaiter and a 300-bottle wine cabinet - was moored for nearly six months, said the controversy was overblown.

“I thought what he did (to make it a home) was an improvement,” Taylor said. “I don’t know them, but I don’t have a problem with what they did.”

The structure is now at Coastal Transportation, an industrial-shipping company next to the Ballard Bridge, where more than a dozen vessels are moored.

Under a temporary agreement reached with city officials, the structure can remain at Coastal Transportation until Jan. 15.

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