Redwood City Attorney Tells Judge That Redwood City is NOT Closing Docktown

Contrary to what has generally been understood Kevin Siegel, outside counsel for the City of Redwood City, told Judge Marie S. Weiner that the City isn’t closing the Docktown Marina. In fact the only thing they are doing is removing the residents. Docks, homes and vessels that are not occupied are likely to be allowed to remain at the marina.

However, as argued by William Parkin of Wittmer & Parkin the attorney for SFBMFA, a local non-profit suing the City of Redwood City in San Mateo Superior Court; the fact is that although the City of Redwood City is claiming that they aren’t removing the structures which would trigger the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) they are simply planning to do that after the residents are removed. According to his brief: “CEQA requires the City to evaluate the direct and indirect environmental impacts of its plans to demolish these boats and removal of other structures. Failure to consider these impacts prior to its December 12, 2016 approval of the Docktown Plan constitutes illegal piecemealing under CEQA.”

The Docktown Plan clearly states on page 11 “there are an estimated 95 occupied berths at Docktown, of which an estimated 65 have Tenants and Sub-tenants; the remaining are non-live aboard Berths, vacant berths, and those berths used by persons for commercial purposes.” On page 6 the plan states: “the assistance described in the Docktown Plan is limited to those persons who meet the definitions of a Tenant, Tenant With Sub-tenant, or Sub-tenant.”

It was heartening to hear that the city did not plan to actually close the marina. When the issue was brought up that in fact the California State Lands Commission (SLC) and the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Commission (SFBCDC) allow between 5-10 percent liveaboards and that therefore it wasn’t necessary to remove ALL the residents; Mr. Siegel explained that they didn’t feel that there was a way to allocate those berths in a fair manner. In fact he mentioned that maybe the process would require a lottery of some type.

According to the Docktown Plan there are indeed 95 berths (some counts have the berth count as high as 105 berths) and allowing for ten percent live aboard berths; then somewhere between 9 and 10 residents should be allowed to stay. Essentially the argument I made in my own personal appeal as to my being interested in being one of those who is allowed to remain. In addition, by keeping the marina open this would allow homes that turn out not to be on granted lands to remain. (See my blog post on that subject.)

At this point, the arguments have been made to Judge Marie S. Weiner who will rule whether or not CEQA requires the City to file an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before removing the residents. Now we await her decision.

Photo credit: http://sirianniart.com/w/2004/...