O.C. Parks creates advisory council for Dana Point Harbor

The O.C. Parks Commission formally established a Dana Point Harbor Advisory Council at its May 11 meeting, giving boaters at the South Orange County waterfront a non-binding oversight committee to monitor harbor operations.

A statement issued by the Dana Point Boaters Association acknowledged the advisory council has been in the works since last year.

“The Dana Point Boaters Association proposed the [Dana Point Harbor Advisory Council] last year to 5th District Supervisor Lisa Bartlett and OC Parks leadership. We did this to create a forum for public discourse and consideration of issues affecting Dana Point Harbor,” representatives of Dana Point Boaters Association said in its statement. “We believe this to be especially important as the County prepares to hand over redevelopment and operations of our harbor to a private developer/operator under a 66-year master lease.”

The advisory council will be made up of 11 members – two commissioners from O.C. Parks and nine members from the community. The members would be selected from a pool of stakeholder applicants. Members would likely be made up of two wet-slip tenant boaters, two from an education or nonprofit entity, one dry storage tenant boater, one restaurateur, one landside merchant and one at-large.

Meetings are expected to begin in March.

In a separate matter the county received two proposals for the planned Dana Point Harbor revitalization. A final decision on the revitalization vendor could be made later this year.