We're sorry we
were delayed delivering this good news, but unless you've also been at sea
you have probably already heard anyway: The California Coastal Commission has
extended the public comment period on the Dana Point Harbor LCPA "Land Use"
Plan. (Quotes used here because it calls out a loss of 477 slips and an
80% reduction in slips under 30 feet. Not exactly just a land use land is
it?!)
During the past few
days your board of directors has engaged in countless meetings with Commissioners,
Staff and others. Frankly it was political hand-to-hand combat in the halls of
the MdR Hotel on Thursday until the LCPA agenda item finally came up.
We need to inform
you that OC Harbor Now, the County, developer and merchant lobbyist group
is a worthy boater adversary, with very, very deep pockets. They had the money
to rent 3 buses, the entire hotel restaurant, all day, and furnish food and
refreshments for a large contingent, including many senior citizen harbor
walkers. We're not sure where all that money came from, but as we saw, a
lot was spent.
Regardless, many, many
Dana Point Boaters drove, car pooled and boated to MdR (like DPBA directors Steve Carpenter and Rodger Beard who also were there
on Wednesday to attend several key meetings). Plus those boaters attending knew
what the Commissioners were meeting about, boy did they know, and filled out
speaker cards so they could be heard. This served "as icing on the
cake", causing the Commissioners to do what we recommended in our letter
of June 5th
(To Read The Letter Click Here) that is, reschedule the public hearing in
Oceanside during the October 7-9, 2009 dates.
While boaters still
haven't been heard directly, delaying the hearing does provide several
benefits, including the opportunity to continue to work with the County on
boater issues. There has been productive discussion recently, as noted in
our most recent Boater Blast.
It also provides the
time needed to finalize the exciting MSC@SCWD proposal which turns a 126 dry
storage space LOSS (the OC DPH proposal) into a 600+ space GAIN (plus lots of
new marine services and temporary slips).
Please stay tuned for
progress reports and also watch for news articles in the OC Register, LA Times
and Dana Point Times, as well as next issue of The Log.
Please keep an eye on
the DPBA website too. We'll be providing all the tools you'll need to let
the commissioners and staff hear from you in writing.
