Welcome to the Newport Mooring Association
News posts are in date order. Older posts are continued on the next page "Older News"
News posts are in date order. Older posts are continued on the next page "Older News"
This is the independent appraisal by the top appraising company in California, CB Richard Ellis. You can download the appraisal and the NMA Position Paper below.
This appraisal takes into account the most important facts impacting mooring rates and uses the same methods accepted and used by the California State Lands Commission. Among other considerations, it takes into account the lack of access to Newport Moorings compared to every other harbor that has moorings. The rates charged by all other harbors are lower and they also provide, as part of the charge, dinghy docks for 24/7 access to the moorings.
Anyone reading the independent appraisal by this reputable company will see why the Netzer appraisal is seriously flawed.
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Just $100 now and you are paid up until the end of 2024. Please consider giving more as we move into the new year!
January 8, 2024
Dear Mooring Permit Holders,
On Wednesday, January 10th at 5pm, the Harbor Commission will review their new appraisal which would increase offshore mooring fees 3 to 5 times. For example, a 50-foot mooring would increase from $2,004 to $11,250 per year. Increases for other sizes are posted below.
The NMA is shocked that this is even being considered. The NMA has repeatedly pointed out that mooring holders already pay 5 to 10 times more than all other tideland users including homeowners with docks and major corporations who operate marinas. We are currently paying far, far more on a square foot basis for use of the same tidelands. This new report exaggerates this discrepancy multiple times over and flies in the face of fairness and blatantly discriminates against mooring holders. The staff report and related documents can be downloaded below.
In our view, this, together with the other actions of the Harbor Commission this last year, appears to be designed to destroy private mooring permits as we know them.
We need your help, we need your money, and we need your involvement.
It’s time to step up and be counted.
Below is a snippet that shows the new rate scheme - this is taken directly from the Netzer Appraisal Report, and is also shown on page 4 of the Staff Report:
Thank you for your continued help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
November 29, 2023
Dear Mooring Permit Holders,
Here is a brief update on recent actions by the Harbor Commission, City Council and the California Coastal Commission –
1. On 11/28/23 City finalized ordinance for an entire new mooring scheme called Mooring Licenses with extremely high rates for the City-owned moorings. This exacerbates the existing rate discrimination in the Harbor.
We question why someone renting a mooring need to pay 50 times the rate a pier permit holder pays to berth the same 40-foot boat and cover the same amount of tidelands. And why has the Harbor Commission gone to such great lengths to create this new classification of moorings with an extremely high-rate fee scheme?
2. The California Coastal Commission has issued a “Notice of Incomplete Application” on the City’s proposed concept of pushing moorings and boats closer together in the C field. The full notice can be downloaded below. It is noteworthy that the City added several other mooring fields to the CDP application.
3. Concerned Newport Harbor users have been presenting these issues at Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission meetings for many months.
The State Lands Commission recently made an inquiry to the City regarding the City’s proposed Harbor Code change that would allow waterfront property owners to expand their piers and docks into the navigable channels to accommodate larger and/or multiple vessels, while at the same time densifying mooring areas and taking away the space in front or behind of moored boats that is needed to safely access moorings. Given the fact that the State Lands Commission retains oversight authority over Newport Harbor, with a primary focus of making sure Harbor users are treated fairly, without discrimination, we believe it is critical to bring their attention to both the current proposed discriminatory treatment in the unsafe shrinking of the area needed for the safe use of moorings and the historical discrimination in rates charged to mooring holders.
We will continue to update you as we watch these topics evolve. Thank you for your continuing help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
November 13, 2023
Dear Mooring Permit Holders,
We have been notified that the Coastal Commission staff deemed the City’s application to push moorings closer together as “incomplete.” We are thankful that Coastal Commission staff will seek further clarification on the details involved in the proposal to move moorings around in various mooring fields throughout the harbor. We will post the Coastal Commissions “incomplete” letter to the NMA website shortly.
Tomorrow night, City Council will be voting on a mooring rate scheme for handful of City owned moorings. The Harbor Commission has proposed an entire new rate scheme for these 14 moorings that will be based on Balboa Yacht Basin slip rates. Given that moorings and boat slips are two entirely different animals, we find it inappropriate to tie the two rates together. Also, we find it interesting that the Harbor Commission is creating an entire new rental system for these incidental moorings. We encourage you to read the material for yourself, which can be found here under Item #4 - Agenda. We encourage you to read up on this agenda item. The Council meeting will be November 14th at 6:30pm in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
Below is a snippet from the resolution (page 3) that shows the new rate scheme.
Thank you for your continued help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
October 27, 2023
Dear Mooring Permit Holders,
On October 8th, the City submitted an application for a Coastal Development Permit to change the mooring configuration in the harbor. We have posted the Coastal Development Permit and supporting documentation below. This is the same mooring configuration project that has been discussed all through this past year at the Commission and City Council Meetings. Now the project has moved to the State for approval. To summarize, this proposal will push mooring rows closer together which will make the moorings more difficult to use and less accessible for many. The Newport Mooring Association has obtained the application and supporting documentation and is in the process of analyzing the materials to provide a response.
The NMA has raised questions and concerns over the past two years on many aspects of the program, but a key concern is the lack of detail we have seen of how the pilot test and densified tandem mooring rows will be engineered, designed and implemented. We are especially concerned that there is no proper catenary or slack in this design to account for boat movement in currents and wind. We have only seen one image that describes the proposed design, and it is available for download below - "Proposed Mooring Engineering" below the CDP documents.
One of the Coastal Commission’s primary objectives is to preserve coastal access. The Coastal Commission will be very responsive to your concerns, as they tend to be a neutral body that takes the average person’s concern into account.
Please take a look at the materials and email the Coastal Commission staff TODAY to express your concerns regarding pushing mooring rows closer together in Newport Harbor. Your voice will be heard with the Coastal Commission.
Here is an example/template of what all mooring holders can email TODAY!
______________________________________
To: Jeffrey.Palm@coastal.ca.gov Zach.Rehm@coastal.ca.gov
CC: Karl.Schwing@coastal.ca.gov fernie.sy@coastal.ca.gov Kate.Huckelbridge@coastal.ca.gov
Subject line: Please reject the incomplete Coastal Development Permit application #5-23-0753 (unsafe mooring field arrangement in Newport Harbor)
Dear Coastal Commission Staff,
Please reject the incomplete application for an unsafe mooring row configuration in Newport Harbor for the following reasons:
Please reject this incomplete Coastal Development Permit application as it fails to include details regarding impaired and restricted access, safety, and testing.
Your name here
_______________________________
Thank you for your anticipated help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
Dear NMA Members,
The NMA Board hopes you are enjoying the summer, despite the recent tropical storm!
Here are three important updates relating to moorings:
1. Mooring Configuration Changes - Moving mooring rows closer together: As you are likely aware, a May the City Council approved several harbor code changes and the proposed pilot test involving moving moorings closer together in the C field. On the bright side, the City Council and staff clarified that existing transferability shall remain intact. Additionally, the City agreed that a Coastal Development Permit will be necessary prior to the pilot test and the safe use of moorings will be a critical evaluation factor. To the best of our knowledge, there has not been any safety evaluation for the mooring layout involved in the pilot test, which is a cause for concern.
2. Creation of new Mooring "License" agreement (and new mooring rates) recommended by the Harbor Commission: At the August Harbor Commission meeting, the Harbor Commission approved recommendations for a new mooring license agreement and new mooring rates for City- owned moorings. The City owns around a dozen incidental moorings. Historically these incidental moorings have been rented out by the city or used for incidental boat storage such as impounded vessels. Now the Harbor Commission has recommended a complex mooring "licensing" with several harbor code changes. Below is one page from Commissioner Beer's presentation that caught our attention. The NMA was not informed of this agenda item and did not attend the meeting. We are not certain what final recommendations were made regarding mooring licenses and associated mooring rates. The Harbor Commission used a new appraisal from Netzer to determine proposed rates for the City-owned moorings. The NMA Board is currently reviewing this appraisal and will give our membership comments soon.
3. City Council to consider $700k in funding for moving moorings around on 8/22/23: The City Harbor Master is asking Council to approve $700k in contracts to move moorings around. The NMA is seriously confused on this request given it is our understanding that no moorings would be moved until a Coastal Development Permit is approved (which generally takes a year or longer to be processed.) The NMA believes it is concerning for the City Council to be asked to allocate significant taxpayer dollars for a plan that may not be approved by the Coastal Commission. It is our understanding that City Council approved a budget of $270,000 for the yet-to-be-performed pilot test at the May meeting. We are concerned that City Council is now being asked to approve $700k in mooring relocation contracts today. The Staff Report and contracts can be downloaded below.
As a final note, we are looking for mooring owners to help with NMA committee and special projects. Please let us know if you can give us a few hours a month to help out.
Thank you for your anticipated help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
7-12-23
To the NMA members - The NMA Board sent this letter to the Harbor Commission yesterday morning, but it appears to not have been published with the public materials for tonight's Harbor Commission meeting:
July 11th, 2023
Dear Chair Scully and Honorable Harbor Commissioners:
We would like to thank the Harbor Commission for its innovative ideas and hard work in providing affordable public access by opening up moorings generally not in use and owed by the City, with the idea of opening recreational use of the harbor for owners of vessels which need to be in the water and are not generally trailerable.
The Newport Mooring Association has not had an opportunity to perform a complete review of the staff report for the proposed new “License” agreement for the 14 City owned moorings, but we did note a few very important omissions which should be included in this and future reports concerning the medium- and long-term rental or licensing of these 14 City owned moorings.
Reference to the Beacon Bay Bill Should be Included.
In our initial review we noticed the staff report references “fair market” mooring rates and various city rental rate policies, as if these moorings were not a recreational use of the harbor. What is omitted is any reference to the Beacon Bay Act that states that the marinas and “similar uses” are “recreational uses.” The Beacon Bay Act also requires the City in the management of the harbor not to discriminate in rates for such uses, and the City has established and published a rate schedule of charges for the use of given areas of the tidelands. At this time, we are not suggesting any particular rates, only that the relevant portions of the Beacon Bay Act be included in the Staff Report and future version of reports on the subject. Currently, the report only references one consideration, but as the Harbor Commission is aware, there are other considerations when it comes to recreational uses. Shown below are relevant excerpts from the more than 100 year old Beacon Bay Bill, most recently amended on this point in 1978 and again in 2001. (Please note that any reference in the Beacon Bay Bill to market value only applied to the small piece of land taken out of the tidelands to create the non-submerged lands to build homes generally off Bayside Drive, often referred to as the Beacon Bay homes, and the reference has no application in the Act to charges for recreational use of the submerged tidelands.)
The City Coastal Land Use Plan Should be Included.
Section 3.3.2-3 of the City Coastal Land Use Plan (shown below) indicates that the City will charge “low-cost” rates for moorings in Newport Harbor as a means of affordable access. This was and is, in effect, a promise made by the City to the people of the State of California and should be included as an important consideration. Indeed, one of the most important reasons for providing medium- and long-term rentals of these 14 City owned moorings is to help fulfill that promise and the NMA finds that very insightful and laudable, which we wholly support. Again, our concern is to have this important consideration shown whenever there is discussion of rates and charges for these moorings.
City Policy F-7E Should be Included.
The City Policy F-7E (also shown below) which clearly states the City can charge less than fair market rates for recreational amenities. This has long been a well-established practice of every City. For example, while the City has the right under the Beacon Bay Bill to manage the beaches, the City does not charge a fee to the public for sitting on the beach for the day, even though this is likely a “market” and many people would pay a fee in the crowded summer months. As noted in the Beacon Bay Bill and in many other documents, recreational boating and having a place to keep a boat that needs to be in the water is a recreational use and the City has the right to establish rates that are other than market rates. While this may seem obvious, we feel that it should be expressly stated, and reference to City Policy F-7E (which is no different from every cities’ policy in the state), should be included so there is no misunderstanding, and a balanced approach can be considered.
Initial Questions Regarding Possible Ambiguities.
Again, we have not had the opportunity to review the entire report and attachments. On a quick review we noted some questions, ambiguities, and concerns regarding the licensee agreement, which looks like a rental agreement. For example, it is unclear who will own and maintain the hardware, including very expensive inspection expenses. Does a renter on a month to month rental need to pay for the inspection or for replacement or addition to weights? For these reasons, we respectfully request the opportunity to meet with the Harbor Commission prior to any vote to moving this item on to City Council.
We again wish to thank the Harbor Commission and Staff with moving forward with your innovative ideas in opening up these 14 City owned mooring to the public for medium- and long-term rentals, when these mooring were not otherwise being used for other purposes.
Thank you,
The NMA Board of Directors
______________________________
Excerpts from the Beacon Bay Bill:
Statutes of 1978, Chapter 74, approved April 6, 1978 and restated in Statutes of 2001, Chapter 745 ( The same language first appeared over 100 years ago in the original bill Statutes of 1919, Chapter 494
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1. There is hereby granted to the City of Newport Beach and its successors all of the right, title, and interest of the State of California held by the state by virtue of its sovereignty in and to all that portion of the tidelands and submerged lands, whether filled or unfilled, bordering upon and under the Pacific Ocean or Newport Bay in the County of Orange, which were within the corporate limits of the City of Newport Beach, a municipal corporation, on July 25, 1919; the same to be forever held by the city and its successors in trust for the uses and purposes and upon the following express conditions:
(a) That the lands shall be used by the city and its successors for purposes in which there is a general statewide interest, as follows:
(1) For the establishment, improvement, and conduct of a public harbor; and for the construction, maintenance, and operation thereon of wharves, docks, piers, slips, quays, ways, and streets, and other utilities, structures, and appliances necessary or convenient for the promotion or accommodation of commerce and navigation.
(2) For the establishment, improvement, and conduct of public bathing beaches, public marinas, public aquatic playgrounds, and similar recreational facilities open to the general public; and for the construction, reconstruction, repair, maintenance, and operation of all works, buildings, facilities, utilities, structures, and appliances incidental, necessary, or convenient for the promotion and accommodation of any such uses.
…
(d) In the management, conduct, operation, and control of the lands or any improvements, betterments, or structures thereon, the City or its successors shall make no discrimination in rates, tolls, or charges for any use or service in connection therewith.
_________________________________
Excerpt from the City Coastal Land Use Plan
3.3.2-3. Continue to provide shore moorings and offshore moorings as an important source of low-cost public access to the water and harbor.
_________________________________
Excerpts from City Policy F-7E
E. However, in some circumstances the City may determine that use of a property by the public for recreational, charitable or other nonprofit purpose is preferred and has considerable public support, in which case the City may determine that non-financial benefits justify not maximizing revenue from such property. In such circumstances, the City has a vested interest in ensuring that the lessee of such property operates the activities conducted on or from the property in the manner that has been represented to the City throughout the duration of any lease or contract with the City.
F. Whenever less than the open market or appraised value is received or when an open bid process is not conducted, the City shall make specific findings setting forth the reasons thereof.
Such findings may include but need not be limited to the following:
1. The City is prevented by tideland grants, Coastal Commission guidelines or other restrictions from converting the property to another use.
…
…
…
5. The property provides an essential or unique service to the community or a clearly preferred use that enjoys substantial support in the community that might not otherwise be provided were full market value of the property be required.
___________
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
6-13-23
The NMA continues to ask for clarification on the language pertaining to transferability, and for more details on criteria used for the mooring test in the C field.
The Staff Report and related documents for the May 23rd meeting are available to download below.
We encourage you to email your thoughts to the City Council by using these email addresses – any emails you have already sent to the special email address “HarborFeedback” may not be made part of the official public record.
Email City Council Members: CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov
Email us at: Mail@NewportMooringAssocation.org
Donations welcome at: https://newportmooringassociation.org/membership
or send your check to our address below.
Thank you for your anticipated help and support,
Your NMA Directors
Looking out for the interest of all mooring owners
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118
Newport Mooring Association
P.O. Box 1118, Newport Beach, CA 92659-1118 Contact us at mail@newportmooringassociation.org
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