Port of Port Townsend to solicit proposals for its Short’s Farm property

Published 1:30 am Friday, August 14, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend staff outlined the next steps for the 253-acre Short’s Farm property, which the agency purchased in 2023.

While the farmland is currently occupied by tenants with short-term leases, the port hopes to foster stability and a stronger return on investment with an eye toward longer-term projects that serve the community and local food production.

An official request for proposals is set to be published in September.

Since February, port staff have conducted about 20 meetings with stakeholders to gauge interest and solicit ideas for future projects that could take place on the farm.

Stakeholders include current tenants — such as One Straw Ranch, Chimacum Grainery and Community Works — as well as farmers and others involved in the local food system.

Staff also met with Jefferson Land Trust, which controls a conservation easement on the property.

Heron Scott, the port’s lease and contracts administrator, provided a presentation to the agency’s commissioners on Wednesday.

“The impetus for re-engaging the stakeholder group is that all of our (current) leases were designed to be short-term sort of to buy time as we developed a more comprehensive long-term strategy,” Scott said.

The original intention behind the purchase of the farm was to support activities related to community agriculture while generating a return on investment for the port. But struggles related to the creeks on the property and necessary updates to infrastructure have slowed progress.

“At the beginning, we knew the math would be tough,” Port Executive Director Eron Berg said. “There’s some real challenges there. It will take longer and need more creativity and maybe a bit more work than we thought at the beginning of the process.”

During this year’s meetings, port staff said they received widespread appreciation for their acquisition of the farm and support for their original vision of supporting community agriculture, restoring the environment and preserving public access to the property. But there was less clear agreement from stakeholders on what they hoped to see moving forward.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Pete Hanke expressed frustration about a lack of direction.

“It’s really disappointing that we’ve had this farm for two years and we have no idea what we’re doing with it,” he said. “I think that’s the problem of too many cooks in the kitchen.”

Staff said that being too prescriptive about how the farm is used — without the certainty of community buy-in — could result in investments that don’t pan out well in the future.

Staff considered four main strategies for the property, including a single lease (which could be run as a co-op or include subleases), multiple leases to different entities, an agricultural incubator, or a focus on regenerative agriculture and education.

Given the port’s limited resources to manage the property, staff and commissioners expressed the most interest in having a single lease or a smaller number of tenants with long-term agreements. They also discussed the possibility of passing maintenance obligations on to tenants as part of the lease agreements.

The official call for proposals will outline the property’s constraints, such as the conservation easement, zoning and flooding that occurs on the site.

“We envision a very straightforward proposal process that would just say, ‘Who are you? What do you want to do at the farm? And what kind of terms are you looking for?’” Scott said. “Our ideal scenario is someone (who) says, ‘Hey, we want to be here for 15 years, but we need X, Y and Z capital upgrades,’ and we’re gonna program that in to our agreements and make sure our rates reflect that investment, so that we can get a return on investment.”

Proposals could range from farming to food processing to an agricultural equipment co-op, Berg said.

“The only limit to what we might want to do there is imagination, somebody willing to do it, and a return on investment,” he said.

But Deputy Director Eric Toews emphasized that proposals will need to be concrete and actionable.

“We would hope that people would have a business plan,” he said.

Scott said that port staff aim to be available to help with drafting proposals and navigating the submission process.

He called the proposed timeline “aggressive.” The hope is to publish the request for proposals in September, offer one-on-one meetings in October through December and receive completed proposals for a January deadline, although those dates are subject to change.

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Reporter Christy Carley can be reached by email at christy.carley@peninsuladailynews.com.