Allyn Rifkin to lead Small Craft Harbor Commission

MARINA DEL REY – Allyn Rifkin was reelected as Chairman of the Small Craft Harbor Commission during a Feb. 11 meeting. The five-member commission voted unanimously to reinstate the Los Angeles resident.

Rifkin, a former transportation planner/engineer for the City of Los Angeles, joined the commission in 2010 after his retirement as bureau chief of Transportation Planning and Land-use Mitigation.

This is Rifkin’s second year chairing the committee.

“I am quite happy to be asked to be chair of the commission for an additional year,” he said. “In the past 3-1/2 years serving on the board, I have gotten to know all of the fellow commissioners quite well and have learned to respect the different experiences and perspectives we each bring to the table.”

Rifkin has several goals he’d like to lead the commission in responding to a few important issues in 2014, namely the Department of Regional Planning’s “vision” statement for the marina.

“Early indications are that, while the planners have done a credible job describing a preliminary vision, some stakeholders are unhappy with the emphasis on land-side development,” he explained. “With my fellow commissioners I hope to provide more opportunity for input by the boating community and work out some policy statements for the commission to adopt as it forwards the “vision” to the Board of Supervisors.

“This new policy framework may serve to guide the commission on further actions and provide additional input to future updates to the Marina del Rey Plan, if and when it is reviewed for update,” he added.

The Visioning Process is an update of the Marina del Rey’s Local Coastal Plan. Regional planners are gathering input from the community on how they envision the city 20 years from now. Recommendations for an updated plan will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission by January 2015 and to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors by September 2014.             Additionally, Rifkin hopes to guide the commission on working with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board toward a compromise on copper levels in the harbor. The new regulations mandate the use of new hull paints in the maintenance of boats using the marina.

Earlier this month, the board voted to revise the marina’s water plan to require an 85 percent reduction in copper discharge from the more than 4,500 boats docked in the marina by 2024.

“This is a severe burden for the local boat owners and seems to conflict with the main objective of encouraging boating use in Los Angeles County,” Rifkin said. “I expect to work this year with my other commissioners and the boating community to find a compromise position regarding these regulations.”

His experience includes recreational harbor or port planning, management or operation with the L.A. Harbor Master Plan; real estate management; public or private corporate executive management and commercial or government construction.             Marina del Rey’s Small Craft Harbor Commission consists of Rifkin,  David Lumian, Vanessa Delgado, Russ Lesser and Dennis Alfieri.