City eyes ‘floating RVs’

Newport Beach officials are drafting an ordinance that could limit how long boats may be anchored off Corona del Mar State Beach. A few recent water quality readings from the waters off Corona del Mar showed high levels of bacteria, and several boats have ended up adrift in the area, smashing into the rocks and washing up on the beach.

The growing number of boats anchored off Corona del Mar State Beach has turned the area into a “floating RV park,” Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said. Orange County health officials, who regularly monitor the waters off Corona del Mar, noted high levels of bacteria in the water over the summer.

“There were concerns that some of the boats were not behaving themselves, and people were using an area so close to swimmers as a toilet,” Gardner said.

While city officials cannot definitively say whether the boats anchored off Corona del Mar are responsible for the bad water-quality readings, there could be a connection, Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller said.

“It’s really difficult to point a finger in one direction, but it’s hard not to deny the fact there are several boats out there that have not been inspected, and a lot of them are not moving,” Miller said. “We look at those spikes in bacteria there, and it makes you wonder.”

As many as 15 boats are parked off the beach in Corona del Mar on any given day, Miller said. Two boats have broken loose from their anchors and washed up on shore in the last month alone, he said.

An unmanned 32-foot sailboat left anchored off Corona del Mar State Beach for several days wound up on the rocks earlier this week on a windy day, said Sgt. Steve McCormick of the Newport Beach Harbor Patrol.

The sailboat was the most recent of several unmanned boats anchored in the area that have broken free and wound up smashed on the rocks in the last few months, he said.

“We want to ensure the public safety of people who frequent the beaches, and we also want to minimize the environmental impact whenever a vessel sinks,” McCormick said.

The Newport Beach city attorney’s office is in the process of drafting an ordinance that would limit the length of time boats could anchor in the area to 72 hours.

“You can go ashore for a few hours and get groceries, but you can’t just anchor your boat out there and go to Palm Springs,” Gardner said.

The city would first have to get approval from the California Department of Boating and Waterways before passing such an ordinance. The City Council could consider the ordinance as early as January, if approved by state officials, Gardner said.

“We have to convince them [state officials] that this would be a good thing for boaters as well as residents,” Gardner said.

A call to the Newport Beach city attorney’s office was not immediately returned Thursday.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].