Redondo Evicts 7 King Harbor Boaters Before Storm Season

After six months of negotiations, Redondo Beach has evicted a small group of boaters who have been living--some for more than a decade--at the outer edge of King Harbor.

On a 4-1 vote Tuesday, with Councilwoman Barbara Doerr backing the boaters, the City Council decided that Redondo Beach could not afford to assume liability for the seven live-aboard tenants in the outer harbor, and that they should find new homes immediately because of the impending winter storm season.

The ouster was the result of the settlement earlier this year of the first of several lawsuits stemming from a series of devastating winter storms in 1988. Massive waves and high winds racked the harbor area in those storms, nearly destroying the Redondo Beach pier and causing millions of dollars worth of damages to harbor businesses.

The Redondo Beach Marina claimed in a lawsuit that the city failed to adequately protect the harbor against the storms. In a settlement earlier this year, the city agreed, among other things, to buy the outer harbor moorings from the marina for $1.5 million.

The city did not admit liability, but did agree to evict the 20 boat owners who were keeping their craft there, including seven people who had ridden out the 1988 storm and were living aboard their boats.

Tuesday night, Mayor Brad Parton said that, if the boat owners were to be hurt or injured in another winter storm, the city did not want to risk being found liable.

“We have so many lawsuits staring us in the face already that we have to be overly precautious,” Parton said.

“It would only take one lost life and this city is in deep, deep trouble,” Councilwoman Kay Horrell added.

But the boat owners have contended that the city could have obtained insurance to cover the extra risk. The boat owners said they had offered to pay higher mooring fees to cover the higher premiums.

“This city is just paranoid,” said boater Bob DeLoyd, 39, a student who has lived on a sailboat in the outer harbor for 15 years. “Nobody out there has ever been hurt in a storm or sued the city.”

Councilman Doerr agreed.

“These people aren’t getting a fair hearing,” she said, charging that the council’s position in the legal negotiations had been “a sellout to the harbor interests,” which carried more clout with the council because, unlike the live aboards, they had lawyers.

The accusation was hotly denied by Parton, who in turn accused Doerr of being pompous and self-serving. The councilwoman has been a frequent critic of harbor businesses.

Boat owner Bill Humphreys, a professional skipper and boat builder who has lived for 11 years in the outer harbor, said he had worked for six months with the city to try to forestall the eviction.

But his arguments that the area is safe for experienced boaters were overshadowed by a report from a city consultant. It said that, although a storm as severe as the ones in 1988 isn’t likely to occur for another 200 years, the area is nonetheless too unpredictable to guarantee the safety of live aboards.