Salmon Beach: An Example of Cooperative Living William Cameron and Roger Edwards


The Salmon Beach community was incorporated in July 1950 as a nonprofit corporation that now owns real property along the east side of the Tacoma Narrows waterfront in Tacoma, Washington. Salmon Beach was recognized as a state historic district in 1978, giving some cultural significance to a collection of former fishing shacks or cabins dating back to the early 1900’s. Cabins are built over water on posts imbedded on the tidelands which are now owned by Salmon Beach. Salmon Beach leases its tideland area between the inner harbor line and the extreme high tide line, including a boardwalk easement, to cabin owners along the waterfront. Salmon Beach maintains the common areas of the beach, tideland and the upland used by members. The Salmon Beach area is so unique that Arcadia Publishing has a book in the Images of America series called Tacoma’s Salmon Beach.


In 1977, the community was divided into two nonprofit corporations that operate in essentially the same way. The intent of each corporate member or “Neighbor” is as follows, in theory:


• Each would “own” the tidelands immediately under his/ her cabin, in fee;


• They would own all other lands in common.


One problem is that state and local laws make this subdivision for transfer in fee very difficult, if not impossible. The intent is to recognize that each corporate member or “Neighbor” exercises control over the tideland on which his/her cabin is located as well as has an undivided common interest in the land designated “common land” on the survey map, which ownership interest is exercisable through his/her rights in the nonprofit corporation.


The condition of Salmon Beach’s hillside and the community itself are unique. A gated entry leads along two winding roads through a public park, ending at two parking lots on top of the bluff overlooking the community with a spectacular view of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Only foot traffic can traverse the hillside and residents cooperate with their time and labor to maintain the trails and walkways. When the space between the hillside and a cabin is not sufficient, neighbors have moved their cabins further from the hillside with proper permits.


Each of the cabin owners or “Neighbors”, are members of a nonprofit corporation with voting rights at general association meetings, with self-management by an elected board of five directors, plus a secretary and treasurer elected by the board. The community uses a local attorney for an escrow agent to issue and record land lease agreements with each cabin owner on the beach. Neighbors pay assessments to the association, which in turn pays Pierce County real property taxes and maintains the common areas on behalf of the neighbors.


Consequently, Salmon Beach is not a homeowners association. Under RCW 64.38, a homeowners association is, in part, “a corporation, unincorporated association, or other legal entity, each member of which is an owner of residential real property located within the association’s jurisdiction…” None of the members of the Salmon Beach community is an owner of residential real property located within the association’s jurisdiction and Washington has long held that a leasehold interest is personal property1


. In this respect, Salmon Beach, its formation and its geographic location are unique.


This provides for an interesting transaction when one of the neighbors sells his cabin. He sells the cabin and then assigns his lease within Salmon Beach to the new owner. For all the world this probably looks and seems like a typical residential real estate transaction, but the new owner receives a conveyance of leasehold improvements and a bill of sale, because he is in essence buying personal, not real property.


So is the community really a co-operative? A cooperative is an organization or enterprise owned by those who use its services. It is also, “A dwelling (as an apartment building) owned by its residents, to whom the apartments are leased” according to Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014). Unlike a homeowners association where the association usually comes as a covenant attached to the real property, Salmon Beach is unique in that the “Neighbors” own the real estate in common and then lease each lot back to the individual. In this respect it most closely resembles a cooperative.


1 “We cite the foregoing cases as showing that a leasehold has generally been considered as personal property in this state.” Ferree v. Doric Co., 62 Wn.2d 561, 565, 383 P.2d 900 (1963).


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