The view of Dungeness Bay from Oyster House Road should improve later this year after the old Oyster House building at Clallam County's Dungeness Landing Park is demolished.

"We're taking the building down," said Joel Winborn, Clallam County's fair, parks and building maintenance manager.

"We'll assess the pier at that point and see if there's options so people can access the pier.

"It would be great to have an accessible pier but the building is in need of coming down."

The wooden and concrete structure sits facing the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 19.6 acres just west of Cline Spit, four miles north of Sequim.

It includes a restroom, pumphouse, water tank, storage building, seafood processing building and a pier.

Cline Spit County Park there has a small boat ramp, picnic sites and a bird-watching platform.

The area is home to Dungeness crab, pandalid shrimp and the sand-

verbena moth, plus six

varieties of oysters, three types of butterflies and numerous bird species.

The Clallam County commissioners were told in May 2008 the building and pier were in "extremely poor condition" and should be condemned.

Clallam County public works and parks' Bruce Giddens said he wasn't sure how long the permitting process to demolish the former seafood processing building might take.

"We're hoping to get it done before the end of year but that depends upon the permits," he said.

Part of that permitting process is figuring out how to demolish the building while keeping the debris out of the water, Giddens said.

"Once it's removed, it will open up the view of Dungeness Bay."



Reach Brian Gawley at bgawley@sequimgazette.com.