Marina May Slip Away : Waterfront: A Newport Bay family business is threatened with eviction by the county over a big rent raise that has gone unpaid. The owner says he can’t afford it.

The Board of Supervisors gave the owner of an exclusive Newport Bay marina 60 days from Tuesday to settle up on $38,000 in back rent or face eviction from the docks where his grandfather opened the family business in the early 1900s.

Jeff Farwell and two partners operate the Swales Yacht Anchorage, a 56-slip marina for sporting boats and luxury cruisers on county-owned tidelands in the bay just north of Coast Highway. By county estimates, the marina received revenue of $295,000 in 1989.

Since 1971, Farwell and his associates have paid the county $251 a month for use of the tidelands that extend 75 feet from shore into the bay. Early last year, a consultant hired by the county to appraise the tidelands concluded that the fee should be nearly 19 times that amount--$4,750 monthly.

“We’re looking at the fact that we have a very valuable piece of property and that it’s generating (Farwell) a large amount of revenue,” said Barry Permenter, a county analyist. “We’re looking for our fair share.”

County officials began negotiating for a higher rent, and Farwell said he began paying $800 a month in March--a more than 300% increase to a rate that Farwell calls comparable to what the city of Newport Beach charges commercial marinas that stand on city-owned tidelands.

But Farwell refused to pay a penny more. So exasperated county officials began charging him the full $4,750 fee last July.

“I hope there’s a settlement in the winds that I can afford,” Farwell said Tuesday. “But I can’t afford to pay 50% of my profits (in rental fees).”

Farwell complained that county officials believe that every one of his customers is a “rich yachtsman.” Not all of them are, he said.

“They’re not struggling,” Farwell conceded. “But they’ve put out a lot of dear dollars to have a little fun. Now the county comes along and wants to jack up the price so high it’s not fun anymore.”

Farwell told supervisors Tuesday that his situation is different from other marinas that have agreed to pay the county 25% or more of their revenues. In those cases the county owns both the tidelands and the adjacent property, known as uplands, on which adjoining marine facilities are built.

The Irvine Co. owns the uplands next to Farwell’s marina and is already charging him 25%, he said. Farwell’s attorney suggested that the county negotiate with the Irvine Co. for a share of that.

But Supervisor Thomas F. Riley summarily rejected that suggestion.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Riley snapped, “that’s your client’s problem, not the county’s.”

The county has also rejected arguments from Farwell that his situation differs from other marina operators because his is a family-run business begun decades ago. Unlike other modern commercial marinas that rent county tidelands, Farwell said, his family’s facility was built and rebuilt with no help from county coffers. In Dana Point, for example, the county paid for construction of jetty walls for the harbor and roads surrounding the marinas.

Officials countered, however, that marina operators there paid entrance fees that reimbursed the county for those expenses.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton bruskly warned Farwell that the patience of county officials is running out.

“Staff has been overly generous,” Stanton said in rebuffing a request that the county consider sending the issue to outside arbitration. “If there were a motion on the floor to commence litigation (immediately against Farwell) I would support it.”