Fees Raised for Boaters at 2 Ventura Marinas

Despite testimony from a roomful of concerned boaters, Ventura Harbor commissioners have voted to raise fees for boat slip rentals and for sailors who live aboard their vessels in the harbor’s two major recreational marinas.

Beginning in June, more than 1,125 boaters who rent slips at Ventura Isle Marina and Ventura West Marina will pay about 5% more for their slips. And about 130 “live-aboards” at Ventura West will pay the 5% increase, plus 10% more to reside on their boats.

The fee for live-aboards at Ventura Isle Marina was not raised Wednesday because commissioners approved a fee hike of $25 per person in January. The slip fee increase approved Wednesday means that a couple living at Ventura Isle Marina on a 40-foot vessel will now pay $532, a $16 increase.

At Ventura West, the increase for live-aboards, including the hike in slip fees, means that a couple living on a 40-foot boat will now pay $487 per month, an increase of $31. Boaters at the marina pay extra for electricity.

Boaters jammed the hearing room to voice concern about the increases, calling on marina owners to improve security and maintenance. Many of them, however, praised Ventura West Manager Tom Kotal for running a ship-shape marina.

Though boaters took a more conciliatory tack at the meeting, in a five-page letter signed last week by three dozen Ventura West boaters, the marina was vilified as a “cash cow.” The boaters said that “a decision has been made to milk the facility for as much as possible and to put no more back into the facility than absolutely necessary.”

The boaters asked for better security in parking lots and improved maintenance in bathroom, laundry and other facilities. Boaters at Ventura Isle Marina also questioned the slip fee increases, saying maintenance needs to be improved.

In answer to the letter, Ventura Harbor General Manager Richard Parsons said port district officials have “walked the harbor,” and marina owners and managers “do a good job.”

Kotal defended his operation’s maintenance but said he plans to hire a private security guard to patrol parking lots at night.

Marina owners lease their property from the harbor, paying 20% of their gross profits as rent. Harbor officials retain the authority to approve any fee increases.

Though only one rate increase has been rejected in recent years, Parsons said, the commissioners are not rubber-stamping rate hikes. “These fees are not out of order,” he said, quoting a consumer price index increase of 6.5% last year in the Los Angeles area.

But some small boaters still say they are being priced out of the market. Ventura Isle boat owner David Webb, in a protest filed with the commissioners, said marina owners “seem intent on making the ownership of a boat totally impossible for all but the very rich.”