*Editor’s Note: This story previously mistakenly included an outdated blueprint of the proposed marina revisions.*
After numerous revisions to reconfigure a local marina over the last several years, and an appeal by residents, all parties involved have finally agreed on a proposal.
Newport Beach City Council unanimously voted 6-0 Tuesday to modify the Harbor Commission’s decision to include the recent agreeable revisions to Newport Marina at 2888 Bayshore Dr. Councilman Marshall “Duffy” Duffield recused himself because he is a tenant of the marina.
The two sides worked hard to find a compromise, Mayor Pro Tem Will O’Neill noted. Their efforts make the Council’s decision easier, he added.
In 2016, the applicant submitted a proposal to reconfigure their commercial marina. A neighbor appealed because of the potential for the boats to drift into his water space. Over a series of meetings, the Commission amended the decision and placed conditions upon the proposed project. The applicant did not resubmit a revised proposal, instead, they spent the following two years searching for a solution.
Eventually, a new project was submitted and approved by the Harbor Resources Manager, which residents appealed. Harbor Commission voted 4-2 to deny the appeal on Jan. 9 and uphold Miller’s approval of the proposed marina configuration.
Since then, the applicant has redesigned the marina and came up with a mutually acceptable plan that all parties agreed on, explained Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller.
The most important modification is the addition of a harbor “camel,” four piles supporting a floating, 16-inch tube that prevents vessels from floating onto the neighboring water.
“It’s kind of like a bumper,” Miller said.
Another modification revolves around the slips that most of the previous disagreement centered around, in front of the nearby homes, are now basically, more or less, for vessels the same size as they are in present day configuration, Miller explained.
“There isn’t a dramatic change in the size or height of vessel of what is there today,” Miller said.
The large boats have also been relocated to the north side of the marina.
This is also an important example of why it’s important that the city is in charge of making these types of decisions, not a county or state board, O’Neill pointed out.
“This is why, when we’re looking at the patchwork quilt in the harbor, the city needs to do absolutely everything it can, by the way, to bring it back into our jurisdiction,” O’Neill said. “Everything we can do to make sure we’re the ones monitoring and making these decisions, because at the end of the day we’re the ones affected, our residents are the ones affected.”
