Floating a Few Ideas : Coming Century Might Bring a Redesign of Dana Point Harbor

Imagine a prototype electric shuttle bus gliding passengers amid the marinas, restaurants, a new landmark lighthouse and an indoor aquarium.

Perhaps an even longer, rounder breakwater. Or maybe a second story of retail shops, an outdoor amphitheater, an in-line skating rink or a brand new, San Francisco-style fisherman’s wharf.

These are some of the blue-sky scenarios floating around Dana Point Harbor as the county, the city of Dana Point and the harbor’s merchants prepare to remake the aging harbor.

The recent opening of lease negotiations between the county and Dana Point Harbor’s marina owners and major commercial tenants has thrust the popular, 419-acre South County port into a midlife crisis of sorts.

Although most people consider the harbor a success--it brings in more than 5.8 million visitors a year and generates nearly $4 million in revenue--the new lease negotiations make it an ideal time to discuss the future, said Robert G. Fisher, director of the county Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks.

“Dana Point Harbor is nearing 30 years of age and, while it has certainly held up better than most other harbors of its generation, there needs to be some thought for renovation and perhaps some change and upgrading,” Fisher said.

For the moment, all proposals--no matter how outlandish--are welcome, with the final plans to be boiled down to reality in the coming years. Although most of the leases are not up until 2001, it is important to begin planning now, Fisher said.

“We are trying to get everybody involved and stimulated as to what they would like to see for the harbor in the 21st century,” Fisher said.

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For people such as Morrie Harrison, the president of Embarcadero Marina Co. and a man who controls a major harbor commercial center, the harbor’s second generation is welcome, but it also brings apprehension.

“It’s an exciting time, as long as we can do everything we dream up,” said Harrison, who has been at the harbor since it opened in spring 1971. “Listen, things have gotten old down here. I know because I’m here all the time and I know what’s on the other side of that coat of paint. We are all ready for some change.”

Others such as Geoffrey Lachner, one of the leaders of a recall campaign targeting Dana Point Mayor Karen Lloreda and Councilman Harold R. Kaufman, view change more warily. It will be up to the City Council to ensure that Dana Point’s small-town charm is not put at risk by new harbor development, he said.

“Any changes at the harbor . . . could have the potential side-effects of more traffic, more liability for the city, more people,” Lachner said. “No matter how benign change may appear, there is a limit on everything.”

No matter who is on the council in the years ahead, the city will be a major player in any decision over the harbor’s second generation. Although the harbor will remain under the control of the county, any new construction must be approved by the city, Fisher said.

“We all recognize that the city of Dana Point has a major stake in all this,” Fisher said. “We aren’t going to go wild with ideas that will impose major impacts on the rest of the city.”

If major changes do come, they will be the first since the then-controversial harbor was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1971. By that time, a valiant but futile protest by a group of surfers had been quashed and the surfing break known locally as “Killer Dana” eventually became home to 2,500 boats, an array of restaurants and shops and, since 1978, the Orange County Marine Institute.

Nowhere else is the second generation of Dana Point Harbor viewed more enthusiastically than by officials at the institute, a community-based marine research and educational facility which is planning its own expansion, with a price tag of $25 million to $30 million.

By the year 2000, the institute is expected to have evolved from a public facility to a private, nonprofit organization and to have expanded its current 5,500-square-foot building tenfold with an indoor aquarium, said Stanley Cummings, its executive director.

The institute, which anticipates 300,000 visitors annually through its expansion, has evolved as the harbor and South County have grown, Cummings said.

“The driving force for the harbor originally was the small boater. Everything else was secondary to that,” Cummings said. “But as time has gone on, Dana Point Harbor has become a destination for residents and visitors of all kinds. The focus goes way beyond the small boater now.”

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The harbor is today frequented by an eclectic mix of visitors, including in-line skaters, strollers, beach-goers, fishing enthusiasts, joggers and bicyclists. County studies show that most visitors come from within 50 miles.

State law dictates that all revenue generated by the harbor be invested into maintenance and operations. Although it is too early to estimate how much any changes might cost, all new development will be paid through the new lease negotiations or funds from the Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, Fisher said.

So what kind of development is needed? Many local business owners have suggested that a second story of retail shops, a conference center, an outdoor fish market and a new ferry boat shuttle to Catalina Island would be welcome additions. An earlier Catalina shuttle closed more than a year ago because of problems with the service in Avalon, Fisher said.

Fisher said an area along Puerto Place at the southeast corner of the harbor, near Doheny Beach State Park, offers spectacular views of the coast and could be an additional hotel or commercial site.

Steve Christman, the founder of the Nautical Heritage Society, a marine-oriented museum that is moving to Long Beach after 16 years in Dana Point, had hoped to get the county interested in such things as an outdoor amphitheater, an extension of the small harbor pier, and possibly extending the breakwater.

Christman said the most important thing the city and county can do now is open people’s minds to the great potential at Dana Point Harbor, which he describe as a “beautiful, beautiful asset.”

“Mainly, a diversity of uses is important in any facility like this,” Christman said. “The more reasons you can give people to come to the harbor, the better chance you have to get them there.”

But before anything can change at the harbor, a fix must be devised for what everyone seems to agree is its number one drawback: Parking.

“We need to do something about the parking. That’s the number one issue,” said Don Hansen, owner of Dana Wharf Sportfishing and president of the harbor’s merchants association. A recent experiment in paid parking failed when many of the harbor’s regular visitors complained vigorously and threatened a boycott.

“The locals really went ballistic on it and I don’t blame them,” Hansen said. “They’ve had it free for years.”

Fisher said a parking structure is one of the amenities being considered by the county. Others maintain that enough parking exists and what is needed is better transportation to the widespread parking areas, either by shuttle or perhaps by boat.

Dee Bower, a public relations specialist who has worked at the harbor for more than 10 years, suggested that an experimental electric shuttle bus, financed privately or by all the cities in the South County, might help. The entire area would benefit by being tied together by a shuttle service, she said.

“When somebody comes to Mission San Juan Capistrano, for instance, they need to be able to get to the harbor or to San Clemente,” Bower said. “That would be a great, great improvement.”

Bower has also talked about some sort of in-line skating area at the harbor, which would link up with the trail system being planned to connect Dana Point Harbor with San Onofre State Beach, about 10 miles to the south.

Fisher, a 22-year county employee, said the challenge offered in creating the harbor’s second generation is unlike anything in his career.

“I’d like to leave a legacy of a reinvigorated and updated harbor built on a solid financial foundation,” he said.