DANA POINT HARBOR
THEME PARK
Surprise!

By Erlina Tulabut
DANA POINT NEWS

Tom Wilson assumed wrong. After noticing a decline in the public's attendance of the Harbor Task Force meetings, Fifth District Supervisor Wilson said he assumed the public had gotten over its fears that the county was out to transform the harbor into a theme park-like tourist magnet. A packed Monday night (5/18) meeting to unveil five possible plans for the harbor proved that fear, cynicism and suspicion are still brewing.

"I thought that we had assured the folks that are in the harbor, that are in love with the harbor, that we are not there to damage the harbor," Wilson said the following morning. "At each meeting we were getting less and less people, which said to me that we were making progress and had established trust." (Politicians always count on waning public interest to implement unpopular plans. DP Online)

Consultant Rick Espe's attempt to unveil five plans and explain features was disrupted by boisterous comments, questions and complaints indicating that the meeting would run longer than the expected four hours. The mood held throughout the evening prompting several reassurances from Wilson that nothing would be finalized that night. Instead, consensus items would be put together into a sixth plan to be unveiled on June 8. "This is not a plan put together to jam down your throats," Wilson explained. "We're going to put something together that we can all live with in the next 20 years." (Of course, the track record for the county's handling of the harbor in the past has been heavy-handed and ill-conceived. For instance, the attempt to charge visitors for parking that caused business to fall off in the harbor instantly; it was implemented with little public input, and was eventually largely abandoned due to public resistance. DP Online)

From the five plans, the task force assembled a list of consensus items to be incorporated into the sixth plan. They include: 1) The expansion of the Orange County Marine Institute by 40,000 square feet. (You know, the non-profit institution that had to be taken over by its trustees because its operations were run into the ground. DP Online). 2) Do not take away boater parking on the island. 3) Boats in storage would be stacked to create more space. 4) Guest slips would be moved toward the retail area.

As the consultants put these pieces together, only one thing is certain: There will be change. "Something will happen," Wilson said. "It's not a matter of leaving it alone because we are going out to re-bid the leases… We want to be ready. The leaseholders want some confidence. It's much easier to bid on a lease if you know what's being planned." The county hopes that whatever is planned will result in an increase in revenue. (After speculating and losing all the money, causing the 1994 bankruptcy, they naturally, need more money. DP Online) "The harbor's retail stores are operating 25% below operating costs," Espe said. "We need to increase revenue by 20 to 30 percent."

William Anderson, a sub-contracted economist said that all schemes increase lease revenue by 22% to 30%. (Which in plain English means that rents in the harbor for the businesses there are going up by a third. DP Online) While the county envisions dollar signs, some merchants fear their business might plunge into the red. Merchant Angela Richards said she believes that additional retailers may bring the end to Mille Fleurs, the woman's clothing store she and her fiancee, Thomas Kieran, have owned for 14 months. They estimate to have invested $40,000.00 in improvements.

"Our stores are places you go to when you don't want to go to the mall," she said during public comments. "Our stores cannot remain unique if there are 100 stores out there." During a break, Richards explained that she understands the county wants to increase its revenues, but the answer does not lie in the tourists. "We don't make off the tourists," she said. "The revenue down there is local based." This was the first meeting Richards and Keiran have attended. "We heard that the meetings were pretty brutal, so we basically stayed away," she said.

Like others, Kiernan said the Task Force should concentrate on solving the harbor's much talked about parking problems. "We've seen several fights out there because of parking," he said. "We've seen little kids jump out of cars to stand in front of parking spaces." Task Force members also took up the issue of parking, as well as a myriad of other concerns. "Plans A, B, C, D and E are too out of scope for what our people are saying they want," Councilwoman and Task Force member Toni Gallagher said.

Lee Buratti said he would prefer no improvements at all. "A lot of people say we should look toward the future," he said. "I don't see how our kids and their kids can't enjoy the harbor the way it is now." Bob Mardian was concerned about traffic. "How is the city going to handle the mass of people going into the harbor when the streets can't handle things now?"

But Tammy Kurez, who represents general recreational users on the Task Force, tried to discourage the outbursts of and acrimony. "I'm hearing a lack of trust for the county… I'm hearing a lot of fear," Kurez said. "For me it's unacceptable to be rude. We've been given an opportunity. That doesn't always happen." (No, in the past the corrupt cabal that has run Orange County as a dictatorship for the last 50 years simply did what they wanted, and the taxpayers who were expected to bear the burden were expected to just bite the bullet. For someone who supposedly represents the "general recreational user," Kurez sure sounds ambivalent to the public interest. DP Online)

Morrie Harrison, a Master Lessee in the group, agreed. "This could all be done in Santa Ana behind closed doors," he said. "I thank Supervisor Wilson for coming out here and taking the abuse." (Of course, the plan for the harbor probably has already been decided behind closed doors in Santa Ana, and the real purpose of the public meetings is to assess public sentiments, to give the instigators a strategy for implementing their objectives. DP Online) Despite the Monday's disharmony, Wilson said he is optimistic that the next meeting will generate more agreement. "On June 8 we should have something that is 80% complete or 80% consensus… maybe even 90%," Wilson said. "On June 8, we will try to wrap it up."

SOURCE: Reprinted from the 21 May, 1998, issue of the Dana Point News. Reprinted in the service of the public interest.

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