Alignment and Extensions

Dear NMA Members, 

At the June 8th Harbor Commission meeting, Commissioner Beer presented his new mooring system proposal.  The proposal involves realigning the mooring fields, installing a new anchoring system and having a shared mooring on one end of the two-point mooring systems.  A copy of the slide show that was presented at the June 8th meeting can be downloaded below.

We have posed a number of questions to Commissioner Beer and the full Harbor Commission in response to the proposal: 

1. Has this mooring reconfiguration been approved by City Management? Or is this still in a conceptual phase?  
2. What financial analysis has been performed - revenues and expenditures, investment and payback - for the extensive capital and services outlay to implement this revised system?  We have noted that this new project doesn’t seem to appear in the proposed FY2022-23 budget document. 
3. If the City pays for the new hardware, we believe the City will assume the liability when a boat breaks loose from any new system or when the new system causes damage to a vessel.  If the City installs and owns the new system, what is the City's exposure for accidents caused by the new system?  How will the City manage the assumption of liability? 
4. We would like to review the engineering analysis on the specific hardware being proposed for the shared mooring system.  The proposed solution is far more rigid with greatly reduced catenary (thus reduced shock absorbing potential) between a vessel and the mooring anchor to limit movement of the boats, and we are very concerned about the potential stresses on boat cleats and other attachments.  We are also concerned with how the system will perform under the heavy Santa Ana winds we have in Newport Beach.  
5. Does this project require any approvals from the Coastal Commission?  Does it require an Environmental Impact Report?  Does it require a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) to move forward?  Have any of these documents been completed at this time? 
6. What type of “proof of concept” or trial moorings for implementation is being considered?  Has Commissioner Beer identified areas that will be implemented first?  What is the proposed timeframe for the implementation? 
7. Was there an incident or a series of accidents that prompted the safety concerns that drove this proposal?  We are concerned that the shared moorings make it more difficult to get a vessel on and off the mooring, and as previously discussed, may cause other issues and potential damage to vessels.   
8. It should be noted that Commissioner Beer’s earlier study from 2020 had identified a plan for a mooring realignment for safer fairways that now appears to have been abandoned for this far more complex reconfiguration. 

We believe the existing mooring configuration has served the harbor well for decades.  We can’t understand why the Harbor Commission would propose a significant change when the existing mooring configuration that has been developed over the years is quite functional. 

New Harbor Commissioner Appointments:  On another note, on Wednesday, June 14th, the Newport City Council will confirm the nominations for the 3 Harbor Commissioner positions that will become vacant on June 30th.  There are 6 nominees for the 3 positions.  On June 28th, the City Council will vote of the appointments, who are listed below:

• Ira Beer (incumbent)
• Don Yahn (incumbent)
• Antonella Castro
• Rudy Svrcek
• Jordan Wachter
• Bill Peterson

City Council always appreciates input for these appointments.  Feel free to email your support or concerns of any nomination to  Citycouncil@newportbeachca.gov.

Shore mooring fee increase:  Lastly, the NMA has not heard of any new developments regarding the proposed shore mooring fee increase.  We will send out an update when we learn of any new developments on that subject. 

Thanks for your support!

Your NMA Directors 

Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners 

P.S. Contributions to the NMA are always appreciated  

To ALL Mooring Permittees -    The Harbor Commissioners are pushing the shore mooring rate discussion later to the May Harbor Commission meeting. However, Ira Beer's initial report on the proposed “Mooring Realignment and Extension Policy” WILL be presented this Wednesday, April 13th at the City Council Chambers at 5pm.  The meeting agenda has only the Staff Report which states the objectives and process for development of the policy – the actual presentation and report are not included with the Staff Report. The NMA feels that it is important for mooring permittees attend the initial presentation of this long-awaited policy - it will have implications for ALL mooring owners.  

An excerpt from the Staff Report is below:

Commissioner Beer’s objective in optimizing field and row layouts is threefold: 1) to ensure the fields are safe and have adequate maneuverability for all mariners, not just the mooring permittees; 2) to maximize the use of space within the mooring fields in the most effective manner possible and 3) provide staff and the community with guidance for mooring field extension requests.  

Commissioner Beer met with the Newport Mooring Association (NMA) to discuss the objectives stated above and took the NMA’s comments into consideration. Those comments included the NMA’s position that reducing the width of an existing row resulting in the reduction of boat size to a mooring permittee (even only upon future transfer) would be met with concern; and that the existing list (at that time) of mooring permittees seeking a five-foot extension should have a way of being accommodated. Commissioner Beer considered the NMA comments in addition to that of other stakeholders, including several mooring permittees, and subsequently developed a general methodology to establish the maximum size vessels within each row of each mooring field. The maximum lengths were calculated allowing for approximately three boat lengths for maneuverability. Once those distances were determined, the subcommittee then reviewed those lengths with conditions in the fields and revised the three-boat length methodology to suit field conditions.  

Commissioner Beer has drafted a new proposed policy on Mooring Row Alignments and the Mooring Extension Application Process. The purpose of the policy is to provide operational guidelines to support amendments to Title 17 and or City Council Policy H-3. Commissioner Beer seeks input from the Commission and public before completing formal recommendations which he plans to bring before the Commission for approval in the near future.    

Protect your mooring by attending the Harbor Commission meeting on this coming Wednesday, April 13th at 5pm at the City Council Chambers, 100 Civic Center Drive, NB.  

Sincerely,   

Your NMA Directors 

Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners 

P.S. Contributions to the NMA are always appreciated  

Dear NMA Members,  

On Wednesday evening the Harbor Commission, without much notice to the NMA, invited a representative from the State Lands Commission (SLC) to give a presentation to address what the City may be required to do in setting mooring fees.  

The NMA only learned of this late Friday and quickly responded, requesting SLC to also speak to the obligations of the City to not discriminate in rates charged for use of the State tidelands for berthing boats, regardless of whether the same tidelands were used for a restaurant dock, fuel dock, yacht club dock, private residential dock, or a mooring.  The NMA’s Board sent a letter to the SLC two days prior to the presentation and presented arguments against rate discrimination if the Commission were to impose a 2, 4, or even 10 times rate increase, when the City would not consider doing the same for the rates charged for every other user of the tidelands.  The NMA also had our attorney, Greg Hatton, confirm the obligation of the City to not discriminate in rates.  For additional information, the NMA presented a survey of similar shore mooring rates in Southern California.

NMA’s letter to State Lands, the State Land’s presentation, and the NMA shore mooring survey can be downloaded below.    

We were pleased to note that the representative from the SLC reminded the Commissioners that they are not allowed to discriminate in setting rates for use of the tidelands for the same purpose.   

The next month or two will are critical in the fight to preserve our moorings as we know them.  WE NEED YOUR HELP – here’s how:   

Reserve the dates:  MONDAY, MARCH 21 at 5:00pm and TUESDAY, MARCH 22, at 4:00pm.

1. Show up at the Harbor Commission Special Meeting on Monday, March 21st, 5:00pm.  The meeting will take place at Marina Park in the second-floor meeting rooms.  The address is 1600 West Balboa Blvd, Newport Beach, CA 92663. 
2. Be ready to attend the City Council Meeting on Tuesday March 22nd at 4pm, as the results of the Special Meeting may be brought before the Council at that time.  The City Council Meeting will be held in the Council Chambers at the Civic Center – 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach.
3.  Call and email your City Council Members and the City Manager - one email will reach all members and the City Manager:  citycouncil@newportbeach.gov or call 949-644-3004
4. Email the Harbor Commission Members - one email will reach all members:  HarborCommission@newportbeachca.gov 

If you have not sent your Mooring Association dues, please do so, and a bit more if you can for us to obtain own appraisal and legal support for the NMA to fight these increases.  Our dues are currently $50 per year.  

Thanks for your support!  

Your NMA Directors

 Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners

Dear NMA Members,

Per the Harbor Master, Paul Blank, the special Harbor Commission meeting on Onshore Mooring Rental Rates is scheduled for 5 pm, Monday, March 21, 2022. The meeting will take place at Marina Park in the second-floor meeting rooms. The address is 1600 W Balboa Blvd, Newport Beach, CA 92663. Please put it on your calendars – we will share more information shortly.

Thanks for your support!

Dear NMA Members,  

The Harbor Commission meeting was well attended, and the NMA Board and other Mooring Permittees spoke to the issues on the proposed on-shore mooring fee increase as part of Public Comments.  Each Harbor Commissioner acknowledged the large number of emails they received on the mooring increase.  After a brief presentation from City Staff on additional comparable mooring fields, the NMA pointed out again that in administering the harbor for the people of the State of California, the City may not discriminate in charges and fees for use of the tidelands, which had not been addressed in any of the revised materials. Many spoke about the calculations of the rates, and the NMA particularly asked for a delay of 90 days on the vote.  

The Harbor Commissioners ultimately decided: 

• They would continue the recommendation and vote on the increase for 60 days
• They would hold a Study Session with mooring permittees to discuss new information and alternatives, most likely the same day as the next Harbor Commission meeting - March 9th - time and place yet to be determined
• They would like to review comments from George Netzer on the critiques to the appraisal 

We will follow up to get the Netzer responses on critiques of the appraisal, circulate them to all of you, and continue our research and our development of alternatives to the original appraisal recommendations.  It is very evident that the next targets will be off-shore moorings and transferability under the topic of “Affordability.”  Please keep your ideas and comments coming to us and to the Commissioners – it makes a difference! 

1. Call and email your City Council Members and the City Manager - one email will reach all members and the City Manager:  CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov  or call 949-644-3004  
2. Email the Harbor Commission Members - one email will reach all members:                HarborCommission@newportbeachca.gov 

Please, if you have not sent your Mooring Association dues, please do so (and a bit more if you can) so that we can obtain our own appraisal and legal support for the NMA to fight these increases and retain transferability.  

Thanks for your support! 

Here's an update on NMA's meeting with the Harbor Commission's sub-committee on moorings:

Members of the NMA Board of Directors met with the Harbor Commission Subcommittee (Commissioners Kenney, Beer and Cunningham) last Thursday evening. We presented our objections to the latest appraisal which outlined the objections fully described in our Position Paper which was highly critical of the methods and assumptions used in the recent Netzer appraisal.

Our Position Paper can be found here.

The Commissioners were cordial, but stated that the appraisal, which still calls for a 10 times increase in shore mooring rates, will be presented at the next Harbor Commission meeting for review and possible approval to go forward to City Council. We received the impression that some of the members thought that a delay of 60 days would make sense to receive further input. The same members discussed that a meeting with the mooring owners in a workshop setting might also be helpful. But all of this was up to the Commission as a whole, and so we are urging all mooring holders to show up at the Harbor Commission meeting and let their voices be heard.

Again, please come to the Harbor Commission meeting on Wednesday, February 9th at 5pm, in the City Council Chambers, located at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA.

After our meeting with the Subcommittee, a new staff report was sent to the Harbor Commission for the Harbor Commission meeting. That report left out the NMA's position paper which contained a lengthy rebuttal to the appraisal report. The NMA was disappointed it was not included.

The new staff report includes reference to approaches used by other harbors, but ignores the City's extensive study of appropriate charges for tidelands use and the City's own report approved in the 2017 George Hamilton Jones appraisal. It is NMA's view that if the City used its own extensive approved study, and treated the fees charged for different tideland uses the same without discrimination, the mooring rates would not increase, unless the City added services to the moorings. 

The 2017 George Hamilton Jones appraisal treats all rates approximately the same, ranging from about .40 cents to $1.00 per foot, with "other uses" set at .76 cents per foot. Updated to today's rates, that would be .83 per sq ft per year. These rates are in the current City fee schedule. 

The NMA has pointed out that in administering the harbor for the people of the State of California, the City may not discriminate in charges and fees for use of the tidelands. We did not see this important point in any of the Staff Reports. 

Again, it appears clear that the City is charging lower fees (per square foot) for other tidelands moorage and berthing, but what it is proposing to charge for mooring owners, and not by a minor amount, but 10 times higher for recreational use of moorings. The Beacon Bay Bill (State Tidelands Grant to the City) specifically forbids this fee discrimination when setting tideland fees.

We all need to attend the Harbor Commission meeting this Wednesday to ensure that mooring permittees let their voices be heard. 

Here’s how you can help:

1. Show up at the Harbor Commission Meeting Wednesday, February, 5:00pm at the City Council Chambers - 100 Civic Center Drive.

2. Call and email your City Council Members and the City Manager - one email will reach all members and the City Manager: 

CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov

or call 949-644-3004

3. Email the Harbor Commission Members - one email will reach all members: HarborCommission@newportbeachca.gov

4. If you are a member of a Yacht Club, call and email the bridge and board of directors of your yacht clubs.

5. If you have not sent your Mooring Association dues, please do so and a bit more if you can so that we can obtain our own appraisal and legal support for the NMA to fight these increases.

Please join us in the fight!  See how to donate below:

Dear NMA Members,

As you are likely aware, on Wednesday, February 9th at 5pm, the Newport Beach Harbor Commission will be considering the City Staff recommendation to raise recreational shore mooring fees by over 1,000%. The NMA strongly opposes this proposal, and members of the NMA Board will be meeting with the Harbor Commission on Thursday, February 3rd, to discuss the proposed fee increase.

Key topics to be discussed:

1. The City is charging lower fees (per square foot) for other tidelands moorage and berthing. The Beacon Bay Bill (State Tidelands Grant to the City) specifically forbids this fee discrimination when setting tideland fees.

2. This mooring fee increase threatens affordable small boat access in Newport Harbor. These moorings are specifically protected by the City’s Local Coastal Program Policies and in general by the California Coastal Act in terms of protecting low-cost recreational access to the harbor.

3. In our opinion, the 3rd party appraisal that was used to justify this outrageous fee increase uses inappropriate methodology and is seriously flawed. 

4. We believe the City should heed the various city policies that encourage the city to charge affordable rates for recreational uses in the harbor to promote the use of Newport Harbor and to better serve all city harbor users – including the use of on-shore moorings, off-shore moorings and docks.

Additionally - On January 11th, the City Council accepted the Harbor Commissions 2022 Objectives. According to the objectives, the Harbor Commission is planning to review the transferability of all moorings. The Commission is also planning to review the location of shore moorings and appropriate boat size. 

In order to protect your mooring permit and privileges please consider to attending the next several monthly Harbor Commission meetings. 

We will keep you updated as events progress.

Please join us in the fight!  See how to donate below:

To Mooring Permittees -

The meeting went well last night. The Commissioners started off the agenda item by stating they would not be taking any action on the onshore mooring fee increase and would be postponing any action until the February meeting. They moved forward with the staff report and public comment. There were around 50 people in attendance. There were around 15 speakers opposed to the fee increase and none in favor. We think many people opted not to speak given the matter was postponed.

By the end of the agenda item, the commissioners seem to agree the shore mooring fee appraisal was defective. We believe the speakers were able to convince the commissioners to question the need to charge “full market value rents”. One objective was to convince the commissioners that it is legal and reasonable for the city to charge “low cost/affordable” mooring fees which would allow the current fee structure (with existing CPI adjustments) to remain in place.

A few of the commissioners closed by indicating they want to offer more services to mooring users (dredge shore mooring areas and maybe provide some work docks etc.) but they need to raise fees to do so.

Our assumption is that the Harbor Commission will have a new staff report 3 days before the February 9th, 2022 meeting that recommends a significantly smaller fee increase for the shore moorings. We will continue to work on this issue, and keep you all posted as we have new information.

If you have not sent your Mooring Association dues, please do so and a bit more if you can to obtain our own appraisal and legal support to fight these increases.

Thank you for your support!