Sec. 17-35. Berthing and mooring licenses.
a. Assignment.No person shall berth or moor a vessel in the Harbor or Marina without first having been issued a berth or mooring assignment by the Harbormaster and signed a license agreement, been issued a temporary transient assignment and signed a transient vessel license agreement, or in the case of a mooring only, having been issued a sub-license permit. Unauthorized berth or mooring occupancy is prohibited. License fees shall be established by resolution of the City Council. The Harbormaster is authorized to move, secure, cite, and/or impound any vessel occupying an unauthorized berth or mooring. All fees involved in such action will be charged to the vessel’s owner.
b. Berth or Mooring License Issuance.
1. Waiting List.A chronological waiting list for berth and mooring assignments will be maintained and available for public inspection. A nonrefundable fee, established by resolution of the City Council, will accompany the request to be placed on the waiting list. At the time of the request, a person shall indicate if a Marina berth, Outer Harbor mooring, or East Mooring Area mooring is desired. An annual fee will be required to remain on the list. Each person on the waiting list will be billed annually according to their initial application date on the waiting list. It is the responsibility of the waiting list applicant to provide accurate contact information. Failure to renew by paying the annual fee will result in the applicant being removed from the waiting list. Members of the waiting list shall have the right to transfer their name from one slip or mooring size to another, or from a berth to a mooring or mooring to a berth, and will be placed on the new list in accordance with their original sign-up date. Waiting list applications are not transferable and only the name(s) listed on the waiting list application and their spouses shall be considered eligible to be a licensee.
Except as provided in subsection (b)(2) of this section, when a berth or mooring becomes available it will be offered first to that person highest on the waiting list for that size berth or mooring, and if refused, in sequence to the person next on the list. The person highest on the waiting list will be offered any available berth or mooring provided the vessel size will not be more or less than allowed for the size of the berth or mooring. Acceptance must be indicated within 10 business days of notification and must include payment of the first month’s berth or mooring fee and execution of a license agreement.
If, when offered a berth or mooring, the top person on the waiting list owns or wishes to own the vessel in partnership with others who are not listed on the waiting list application, the conditions found in Section 17-36(c) will apply.
2.The Outer Harbor mooring waiting list shall be divided into two subsets: (a) recreational vessels and (b) commercial vessels, which shall be California-resident commercial fishers. Both subsets shall be organized chronologically and by the size of mooring needed.
The commercial list shall always have priority over the recreational list; however, commercial fishers are required to verify on an annual basis to the Harbormaster at least an amount of fish catch, in dollars, as specified in the commercial vessel quota as set by resolution by the City Council.
3.Before a license agreement can be accepted by the Harbormaster, each vessel owner shall furnish a Certificate of Documentation from the United States Coast Guard or vessel registration from the Department of Motor Vehicles in the licensee’s name. No vessel other than the one specified on the license agreement shall be kept in the assigned berth or mooring by the licensee, unless the license agreement is amended as approved by the Harbormaster. If a vessel is rented, chartered or leased by a berth or mooring licensee, the vessel use shall be exclusive to the licensee and a copy of the rental, charter or lease agreement shall be provided to the Harbormaster.
4.A license for berthing or mooring may only be issued in one of the following manners:
i.In the name of an individual or a group of up to four individuals.
ii.For berth license agreements entered into after July 1, 1997, and mooring license agreements entered into after June 1, 1998, if a vessel is owned by a corporation, the largest individual shareholder shall be a named licensee under the berth license agreement. The corporation may designate up to three other individual shareholders as licensees.
iii.If the vessel is owned by a sole proprietorship, the license shall be issued in the owner’s name “DBA” the business.
iv.If a vessel is owned by a partnership or joint venture, the members shall designate up to four individual members to be named as licensees, provided they are all either listed on the waiting list application or are all listed as co-owners of the vessel at the time of license transfer, and as provided in Section 17-36(c)(3).
v.If the vessel is owned by a trust, the license agreement shall be in the name of the trust; provided, that it is the trust that maintains the waiting list application or it is the trust that purchases a vessel already in a berth or mooring and transfers the license into the trust. Licenses may not be changed into the name of a trust after issuance of the license except as provided in Section 17-36(a) or (b). (Ord. 3548 § 2, 2016)