16 • May 6 - 19, 2016 • The Log
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Small Craft Harbor Commission weighs future of Marina del Rey
The county-operated harbor would continue to accommodate small vessels, offi cials say.
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LOS ANGELES — Increasing access to the water for Marina del Rey boat- ers and minimizing traffi c impacts of current or upcoming waterfront redevelopment projects were the major discussion points at the April 13 Small Craft Harbor Commission meeting. As several corners of Marina del Rey
are either under construction or about to be redeveloped there has been a constant worry of whether the county- run harbor would have a new mix of slips favoring larger vessels. Commissioners and county staff
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indirectly addressed some of those concerns last month as they discussed the demand of small vessel slips and the state’s requirement to maintain a quota of boats smaller than 35 feet. A discrepancy in slip vacancy rates of small slips in relation to the harbor as a whole was a chief concern for at least one commissioner, who pointed out Marina del Rey has a 6 percent vacancy overall but about 20 percent of slips for vessels 25 feet or smaller are not occupied. “I think it’s more than one factor,”
B A TTERIES ®
said Gary Jones, director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors, of why small slips have a higher vacancy rate. “Primarily it is due to a lack of demand.” Jones said the county could con-
PREMIUM AGM BATTERIES
sider how to make more effi cient use of the slips. He suggested making Marina del Rey more accessible to nonprofi t uses. “We’re looking at the feasibility of a public purpose policy we hope can be extended to lessees to enable them to more easily … offer their facilities to nonprofi ts and the like at reduced rates,” Jones said, adding such orga- nizations could promote increased recreational boating uses in Marina del Rey. “At the moment it is diffi cult under the standard lease agreement terms that our lessee has with the county to support these types of programs.” A major issue, according to Jones, is an obligation to assess market rates for almost all users of Marina del Rey’s boating venues. “We are obliged to charge full
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market rates,” Jones told commission- ers. “There are some grandfathered agreements [such as] the Sea Scouts, but there is not a policy that really for- malizes and standardizes access to the county’s amenities … to similar groups who might want to use the facilities.” Jones said he and his staff are regu-
Marina del Rey will continue to maintain a balance of small and large boats, county offi cials said at a recent Small Craft Harbor Commission meeting.
larly approached by groups seeking to use Marina del Rey slips at low or no cost but their respective requests cannot be accommodated because of a lack of policy in place. He added Marina del Rey would continue to be a small craft harbor. “This harbor will always have a
majority of small slips, the way it was originally constructed and now with the thresholds that are put in place by the Coastal Commission. It will always have a predominance of small slips,” Jones said. Marina del Rey’s Local Coastal
Permit was modifi ed in 2009 “to ensure no loss in total boat slips and slips 35 feet and [smaller],” according to a Coastal Commission report. The Coastal Commission also
recommended Marina del Rey expand efforts to provide affordable boating opportunities, create youth boating programs, build new storage infra- structure, and allow for increased uses of kayaks and other personal watercraft. A recently completed project at
Burton Chace Park has 44 boat slips (up from 33 slips), a 300-foot side-tie dock and 140-foot long dock for tran- sient berthing. The slips could accom- modate boats of 26 feet and larger. The updated docks at Anchorage 47
are expected to feature 253 new slips when completed, or 77 fewer slips than the previous confi guration. County offi cials, according to news reports, said about 180 of the slips would be dedicated to 20- to 30-foot vessels. Several private redevelopment
projects are either underway or in the works, including Neptune Marina, Mariners Bay and Pier 44. Commissioners also reviewed com-
ments received from the public during the March 3 night meeting, where local stakeholders provided input of what they thought the county should do to enhance recreational uses at Marina del Rey. Community members were pri-
marily concerned about public safety, mobility around the harbor, water quality and the availability of guest docks.
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