Columbia River island residents become landlords

WENATCHEE – Crescent Bar islanders have added a new twist to their battle to remain on the Columbia River island after their leases expire in April – or at least add about 10 years to their stay: They’ve become their own landlords.

The approximately 400 islanders have sued the PUD and the Port of Quincy in federal court for either new leases or $90 million in compensation if they have to remove their RVs or vacate their condominiums.

Lewis Card, attorney for leaseholders in the island’s two RV parks, said Thursday that the three island homeowners associations – North Park, South Park and condos – have created a company called Crescent Bar Holdings LLC that has purchased the stock of Crescent Bar Inc.

He said individuals from each of the three associations now manage CBI.

CBI is the development company that subleases Crescent Bar Island from the Port of Quincy, which in turn leases the island from the PUD.

CBI built the island’s condominium buildings, manages island facilities, including the golf course, boat launch and beaches. It holds the leases of condo and RV park tenants. It collects the islanders’ lease payments.

Card and others questioned declined to say if money exchanged hands in the purchase deal. He also declined to describe the islanders’ motive for taking control.

But CBI’s 1979 lease agreement with the Port of Quincy lists an expiration date of February 2023 – about 10 years later than the islanders’ individual leases.

In their suit, the islanders argue that language in the 1979 lease also extends their own leases’ expiration dates to 2023.

The PUD argues that the 1979 lease is invalid because it needed but never received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the licensing authority for the utility’s Columbia River dams. Because of this, even CBI’s lease, the PUD argues, expires in 2012.

Unlike the islanders, CBI’s old ownership had said that they’d decided not to contest the PUD’s claim of the 2012 expiration date.

But now that islanders are in charge of CBI, they plan to.

In a Dec. 14 court filing, CBI’s new attorney, R. Bruce Johnston, of Seattle, writes that CBI now “intends to enforce its rights and tenancies under the 1979 lease and any and all related leasehold interests.”

Johnston didn’t respond to phone and email requests for comment.

Curt Morris, president of the Port of Quincy board, said CBI’s new ownership likely would not alter the port’s relationship with the company. Nor, he said, could CBI assign the lease to others without port approval.

The islanders’ suit coincides with a petition they filed directly with the regulatory commission to appeal for authorization to remain on the island.

U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush has said he’d consider postponing a ruling on the suit until the commission resolves the islanders’ petition – a process that could take years.

With the April 2012 lease expiration date looming, islanders and island business owners have asked the court to allow them to stay on Crescent Bar at least through summer 2012, the island’s tourist high season.

The judge could rule on their request Dec. 20.