Call John Fluke Jr.'S Building A Vessel, A Boat Shed, Or Just . . . -- A Home Without A Port

He's the former chairman of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, former president of the prestigious arts organization Poncho, A-list civic-event party-goer, and multimillionaire heir to a well-known local fortune.

Currently, John Fluke Jr. also is drawing a $75-per-day fine and raising the ire of both the Seattle city government and his new neighbors.

The object of their anger is Fluke's large, silvery floating structure located on the north shore of Lake Union. At three stories, the building is approximately 36 feet tall and 120 feet long, dwarfing everything around it.

"It's the ultimate rule beater, and there's big money behind it," fumed Rick Miner, owner of a houseboat across the lake. "It angers me no end."

Essentially a floating boat shed with living space tucked into one end, it was built to house John and Lynne Fluke's 84-foot yacht, the Excalibur.

Early this month two tugs guided it from its former Ballard moorage to a new dock at 205 N.E. Northlake Way, where neighbors such as Wallingford community activist Gretchen Spranger began asking questions.

Like, isn't this thing too tall for the neighborhood?

How can it be here without permits?

And, how can the owners live there when houseboats aren't allowed along the northeast corner of the lake?

Good questions, responded Molly Rice, shoreline inspector for the Seattle Department of Construction and Land Use (DCLU).

She promptly investigated, came to the conclusion that the structure didn't meet the strict requirements for houseboats or house barges, and found that "what they (the Flukes) are basically saying is that they're a vessel, and we don't regulate people living on a vessel."

That's enough to make Rick Miner mad all over again. "It's no more a vessel than the Statue of Liberty is," he blurted.

Showing governmental diplomacy, Molly Rice asked Fluke to prove the structure was a vessel - by taking it through either the Ballard Locks or the Lake Washington Ship Canal under its own power and navigation. That hasn't happened.

She also asked the couple to move it elsewhere by July 18, citing five violations of zoning and shoreline codes. When they didn't move it, the fines began accumulating.

Fluke, whose father founded Everett-based John Fluke Manufacturing, a world leader in the manufacture of testing and measuring equipment, did not respond to requests for an interview. However, through his attorney, he said he has done nothing illegal.

And he has complained to the city. Meanwhile, the neighbors are complaining to anyone who'll listen, phoning City Council members and writing to Mayor Norm Rice.

"My concern is that this project is not permitted," explained Wallingford activist Spranger. "In the normal permitting process, the community is given a chance to comment, and we had no say.

"It looks like this couple who has money has just decided to build this and move onto Lake Union. They're blocking views."

If they're allowed to stay, Spranger says, she fears what will show up next.

Condo builder investigates

Don Dally, president of Dally Homes - which built the new Pacific Palisades condominium just north of the Fluke structure - jumped into the fray when several condo purchasers asked what this big thing was that had suddenly moored itself smack-dab in their view.

Recalling that it took him seven years to get the permits to build Pacific Palisades, Dally went on a fact-finding mission.

On Monday, he approached Lynne Fluke, who married Fluke two years ago after his 1993 divorce.

Dally was most interested in how the Flukes could live in the boat shed since houseboats aren't permitted at the site.

He said Lynne Fluke didn't tell him the structure was a vessel, as the Flukes initially told the DCLU. Instead, he said, "she told me, `We don't live there. That's a business; that's an office.' "

Strange, Dally thought, given the four-page spread he'd just read in the July-August issue of Seattle Homes and Lifestyles magazine.

Accompanied by color photos of the interior and exterior, it told the story of a man forced by divorce to surrender a 6,400-square-foot Hunts Point waterfront home.

He moved onto his yacht, remarried, then "began developing plans for a barge superstructure that would double as an all-weather yacht maintenance facility and home."

The article says the multistory home, built into one end of the structure, was professionally decorated and has three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, living room, media room, workout facility, deck with hot tub, and a two-car garage.

"We weren't ready for the suburbs yet," the article quotes the wife as saying. "But for now, my husband loves living on the water and he loves the bachelor feel of our lifestyle, and I love the condo feel of our home."

For more than a year, the Flukes lived aboard along the ship canal in Ballard. They were asked to move the structure, said the DCLU's Rice, when it was discovered that it was moored on state land.

The magazine article does not name the couple. However, the photographer, Inken Kuntze-Osterwind, has confirmed they are John and Lynne Fluke.

A `temporary' residence

When Dally told Lynne Fluke that her statement that the couple doesn't live there didn't ring true, he said, she acknowledged they were in residence, but only temporarily "while their boat is being repaired." Dally said she also told him, "you can't pressure us into moving it."

King County has no record of either of the Flukes owning any residential property, and John Fluke's official address is the Bellevue office of his family-owned investment business, Fluke Capital Management. Fluke and his brother David are the primary stockholders of John Fluke Manufacturing, which has $200 million in assets.

The city has no record of a business license being issued to Fluke for a boat-repair facility. However, in a letter drafted by his attorney, he explained that an existing Lake Union repair firm would be renting the space from him.

City hearing requested

Earlier this week, Ramona Monroe, the Flukes' attorney, wrote that letter to the DCLU "to clarify some apparent misunderstanding regarding the purpose and use of the structure" and to ask that the list of violations be withdrawn.

Monroe asked for a hearing, arguing that the structure is a covered boat-repair facility and, as such, is allowed on Lake Union, and that living quarters are necessary for the crew of a vessel undergoing repairs.

The letter did not say whether the Flukes intend to use the facility to have their own yacht repaired. That vessel is currently reported by a friend of John Fluke's to be in dry dock elsewhere.

Monroe's letter also didn't reiterate the Flukes' original position that the structure is a documented vessel and, thus, a legal live-aboard.

A date for the DCLU hearing has not been set, but Ann Ormsby, manager of code compliance, predicted it would be before the end of next month.

Meanwhile, neither she nor shoreline inspector Rice is convinced that the structure will be allowed to remain as it is, where it is.

"They can have a boat repair, but they cannot have a residence there, and I don't believe they can have an office over water," Ormsby said. "They'd have to remove that portion over water."

Structure without a country?

Even if that happens, Rice isn't sure the boathouse could remain because she thinks it exceeds the 35-foot height limit along the northeast Lake Union shoreline.

Should the Flukes decide to stay in residence, they must move their floating home to an area that allows recreational moorage - not a simple thing to find, Rice says, for a structure so big.

Does that potentially make it a structure without a country? "Yes, that would be a good headline," Rice said.