RAMSTACK: Potomac wharf gain to firms

COLUMN:

Business owners along the Alexandria waterfront last week won a partial court victory that would allow them to build up their wharves despite the federal government’s claim to the property dating to the presidency of George Washington.

Wharf reconstruction might be good for the waterfront’s boating, retail and entertainment businesses, but Justice Department attorneys say it could infringe on the government’s ownership of the Potomac River waterway.

“We are reviewing the court’s opinion, and no determination has been made as to the government’s next step,” said Andrew Ames, Justice Department spokesman.

Maryland ceded its part of the property now known as the District of Columbia to the federal government under a 1791 land grant. The government’s property rights under the land grant “included the bed of the Potomac River to the high water mark on the Virginia shore.”

But times have changed.

The Alexandria waterfront has evolved from a navigable waterway used mostly for maritime shipping and fishing to more of a commercial and residential area built partly on infill soil and rocks.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia re-examined whether centuries-old ownership rights should continue to determine who controls the property.

The dispute arose from questions by such business owners as Robinson Terminal Warehouse Corp. and Old Dominion Boat Club about whether they could rebuild and possibly extend wharves along the waterfront. Wharves refer to platforms supported by pilings built out from the shore into waterways.

Old Dominion Boat Club uses wharves for its members to dock boats. Robinson Terminal Warehouse provides commercial shipping services.

The Army Corps of Engineers said no construction to extend the wharves is allowed without their permission or an act of Congress. Even then, the property could be used only for public purposes.

The business owners want to use the property for private enterprise, which included building a fence around the wharves to keep out unwanted visitors.

They said the government owns only the navigable portion of the Potomac River under the 1791 land grant, which should not include the waterfront.

Property owners along the waterfront can decide when and where to build their wharves, they said.

“Neither party is correct,” said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr.

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