Boaters docking at offshore mooring fields in Newport Harbor will have their existing permits grandfathered in for their lifetimes.
This week, a City Council majority dismissed a recommendation from the city’s Harbor Commission that rates be increased as much as almost 400% to cover the cost of maintaining the public harbor, instead going with a staff-suggested alternative that will maintain current rates and also give boaters a one-time opportunity to transfer their permits to another party by 2028.
The city’s goal is that moorings in the future be owned, managed and maintained through the city license program, for which higher rates have already been set. Mooring permits have long been a commodity privately traded and sold for often large amounts of money.
The commission conducted a lengthy review of the mooring rates, starting in 2015, and recommended phasing in an increase – drawing loud protest from the boating community – to bring the price for renting in the public harbor in line with a fair market rate for using an asset owned by the state and considered part of the public trust. The State Lands Commission oversees these areas of submerged land known as tidelands.
Councilmember Erik Weigand was the sole dissenter on the City Council this week, saying he’d hoped the decision could have been delayed because there was not enough time for the public to review the staff’s alternative, which was only made public on July 5.
“The discussion was relatively new to the public; the whole process was at the Harbor Commission for many months and had many public meetings and reviews,” Weigand said. “An appraisal that was done raised a lot of concerns among the community. The agenda was released and it went into a whole different discussion grandfathering in rates.”
Presently, boaters pay $3.34 per linear foot of boat per month. The moorings have no amenities, such as power or water, and can only be reached using a dinghy, paddleboard or other sort of watercraft.
The latest version of the proposal discussed by the commissioners would have charged between $7.77 and $17.78 per linear foot, with the price increasing with the size of the boat. A city-commissioned appraisal had suggested a high of $23.25 to correspond with fair market value.
The staff’s alternative “retained the maximum amount of accessibility and affordability in the harbor,” Councilmember Robyn Grant said following the vote. “The law requires us to be fair and equitable. This has been going on for 15 years, and it’s an important issue for Newport Beach. The harbor is the lifeblood of the city and this is making sure there is access.”
Grant said she appreciated the hard work the commissioners put into reviewing the moorings and the associated costs.
“We also listened to the many emails, letters, and phone calls,” Grant said about the majority decision. “It was democracy at work; the people spoke, and we came to a compromise.”
In the agreement, current permitholders—there are about 800 in mooring fields throughout the harbor—will see only a 2% cost of living increase until the permit is transferred or given up.
Permitholders will be allowed to add a second name to the mooring permit, who will retain the present holder’s rate.
When those permitholders both die, their heirs will have one year at the existing rate and can either decide to sell the mooring permit, give it back to the city or continue using it. If the latter is selected, the mooring cost becomes whatever new rate the city has established at that time.
Existing mooring permittees may also privately transfer their permit to a new permitholder once within the next four years, but no later than Aug. 21, 2028. No further transfers are allowed after that date or after the one-time private transfer.
Mooring permittees who obtained their permit through a private transfer during the initial four years will continue to pay the existing rates for four additional years from the date of transfer. After four years, the mooring permits will be converted to a city license and will be subject to the short-term mooring license rates that have been established.
The new monthly rate for a 40-foot boat – the length most popular in the harbor – will cost $15 per linear foot per month. But that only applies to new mooring licenses or those that are transferred.
Dozens of boaters were at the meeting on Tuesday, July 9; several were represented by the Newport Mooring Association, a group of hundreds of boats that has been opposed to the mooring rate increases.
“The Newport Mooring Association is grateful that the City Council listened to the concerns of mooring users regarding the proposed rate hikes,” said Anne Stenton, the association president. “We also want to thank the California Coastal Commission staff for their input and support to keep moorings an affordable option for boaters in Newport Harbor. We look forward to working with the city and agencies to make sure the system is fair to everyone.”
In a letter to the city following the Harbor Commission’s April discussion regarding the rates, the Coastal Commission recommended the city delay implementing any mooring rental rate increase to allow more time to consider concerns mooring holders had presented to the city and look at other uses in the harbor, such as the disparity between the rates for private dock users and mooring holders.
Currently, rental rates are set at $1.67 per lineal foot per month for onshore moorings, and $3.34 per lineal foot per month for the harder-to-reach offshore moorings, the staff pointed out.
“Commission staff are concerned that the discrepancy between mooring rental rates and private slip rental rates may impose inequitable access to recreational boating in Newport Harbor,” the letter said, adding that before making a decision, the city should analyze “fair market rent rate for private slips and develop a proposal to simultaneously implement the updated rental rates for both moorings and private slips to resolve this discrepancy.”
Chris Bliss, who was among those who spoke out against the commission’s proposed rate hikes, said he is relieved there is no plan to raise the present mooring holders’ rate, but worried about the investment many have made to obtain their permit and that they will have only four years to recoup that.
“There are millions of dollars in equity that all permittees paid at some point to acquire their moorings that will just evaporate,” he said. “The city thinks this will be OK and just part of the process, but most mooring people will not stand by and quietly see their investment go down the drain.”
Richard Navarro, another a longtime mooring holder, said there should have been more accountability and review of the new plan that the council voted for, which he calls “half-baked.”
“The alternative plan was slipped in at the last minute,” he said, “without a thorough review by their own Harbor Commission or an opportunity for public input.”
