Slip fee increase approved for Anchorage 47

LOS ANGELES — Monthly slip rates for Anchorage 47 in Marina del Rey ticked up a little higher last month when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an annual determination for renting slips in one section of the county-owned marina.

Regular slip fees were set at $14.17-per-foot-per-month for a 20-foot boat and gradually increased to $22.40-per-foot-per-month for a 42-footer. Boats between 25 and 74 feet and attached to a main channel slip would pay the county a monthly fee of $35-per-foot; an 85-footer would pay $40-per-foot-per-month. End-ties would pay $27.48-per-linear-foot-per-month; liveaboard charges would be 55 percent of related monthly slip rent (in addition to the slip rent fee).

County documents showed a 21-foot boat, for example, paid $12.33-per-foot-per-month for a regular slip at Anchorage 47 from July 2012 to June 2013, almost $2 less than the current rate for a similarly sized boat. A 74-foot boat was charged about $22.13-per-foot-per-month for an end-tie or special slip in 2012, substantially less than the monthly fee posted on the just approved rate sheet.

Anchorage 47 is currently being rebuilt and is expected to be completed by May 2016; the new marina would feature 247 regular slips, six main channel slips and 11 end-ties.

Two county residents told supervisors the slip rate adjustment would price out everyday boaters from the marina.

“The concern has always been with the recent developments in the marina that we are pricing out ordinary residents from the market to bring boats and keep them in the marina at a reasonable price in wet slips,” Eric Previn said. “This is the wrong idea for the charter of L.A. County. We are trying desperately to keep the remaining open spaces available and provide access for ordinary residents who come from across the district to have access to the water.”

Malibu resident Arnold Sachs predicted a slip fee increase would impact housing inventories on land.

“You keep raising the rent in the marinas. You’re going to drive these people onto the land,” Sachs told supervisors. “Where are they going to put their boats, then? Where are they going to live if you put them on the land since there’s no affordable housing in the county?”

Sachs asked if supervisors had a plan in place to help boaters stay in their respective boats and remain docked in Marina del Rey, especially costs associated with TMDL compliance would make it harder for boat owners to afford slip fee increases.

“This additional rent on top of this additional cost is going to drive boaters out of the marina in some way,” Sachs said. “Do you think you have a plan on somehow assisting the marina operators, the boat operators and the boat owners? If there are 4,700 boats (in the marina), let’s just say 90 percent of them have occupants on them. That’s more housing that’s necessarily affordable [or] unaffordable but it’s where they live.”

The county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors will make an annual determination of slip fees based upon rates charged at comparable marinas. Slip fees could be adjusted, county staff said, if such rates serve “in the best interests of the county to ensure fair pricing and adequate funding for professional management and maintenance of the Anchorage 47 marina for enjoyment by boat owners.”

Slip rate increases would be capped during the first year of implementation.

“Any increase in regular slip rental fees over existing rates will be capped at 15 percent for regular slips 35 feet and smaller, and at 25 percent for regular slips 36 feet and larger,” county staff stated. “Rate increases for the six main channel slips and the 11 end-ties will not be capped. Caps will be removed after the first implementation period.”

Supervisors approved a $15.5 million design-build contract last year to rebuild and upgrade Anchorage 47, which was built in the 1970s. The marina is managed by the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors and located at the end of Mindanao Way in G Basin.

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