Lease Issue Rocks Marina Residents’ Boats

Like many in Southern California, Joseph Myers was looking for a nice home near the ocean.

Last year, the 25-year-old Navy boatswain based out of Port Hueneme finally found one.

He grabbed his belongings, packed them into his 30-foot Catalina sailboat and began a tranquil life as a live-aboard at Channel Islands Harbor.

But there is trouble in paradise.

Last week, Myers and about 50 people who call the harbor home were served 60-day eviction notices -- caught in a dispute between the county and the family that leases the property. More than 400 others who rent boat slips have been warned that they too will be evicted.

Myers and his neighbors are hoping for a quick resolution. Otherwise, the live-aboards will have to be out by March 5.

Some have already started looking for new places to drop anchor. But as with the rest of Ventura County’s rental market, there are few vacancies. Boats slips are also hard to come by in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.

“Let’s just say that unless something happens soon, I have nowhere to go,” Myers said aboard his boat, which he has equipped with a stereo system, 27-inch television and satellite dish. “I understand that this is about money, and I don’t have any problem with people trying to make money; but when it starts to affect innocent people, then there is a problem.”

The Farrell family, which has leased the marina property since the early 1960s, is embroiled in a dispute with the county over a new lease. Negotiations broke down last fall when the county sought to increase its charges.

“We wanted to charge them the same as we were getting in other marinas,” said Lyn Krieger, director of the Ventura County Harbor Department.

The two sides have yet to reach an agreement, and the Farrells’ contract is set to expire April 30.

A major sticking point is that the Farrells believe they should be reimbursed millions of dollars for improvements made to the marina property over the years, said Michael Case, the attorney representing the family. The county has the option to buy the docks and other facilities the Farrells built or charge the family for their removal.

But the county has only offered “salvage prices,” Case said, declining to give specific figures. “All we are saying is pay us what’s fair.”

Under their current contract, the Farrells are required to return the harbor to the way it was when the property was first leased 40 years ago. Once the contract expires, the Farrells will have 60 days to tear down the docks and buildings.

By law, Case said, the family has to give live-aboards 60 days’ notice and people who dock their boats at the marina 30 days’ notice. For demolition work to begin as soon as possible, he said, eviction notices had to be served now to give tenants enough time to move.

Krieger said the county offered the Farrells extra time to tear down the docks.

But Case contends that never happened.

“What the county is trying to do is play the tenants against the Farrells,” he said. “It’s an agonizing problem for the Farrells.”

As for the cost of improvements made to the marina, Krieger said the county has never received any documentation proving their worth.

“We’re still waiting for them to give us a value,” Krieger said. “We said, ‘Since you won’t give us a number, we’ll offer salvage price.’ ”

Because the Farrells’ lease runs through the end of April, Krieger said they should not be forcing tenants out of the marina until then.

“It’s my opinion that they’re in material breach of their lease,” she said. “They have an obligation to operate until the end of the lease.”

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up the issue in closed session Tuesday.

Supervisor John Flynn said eviction of marina residents is highly unlikely.

“No matter what happens, those people will not be evicted,” Flynn said. “No one would be so cruel as to remove those [boat] slips. There’s no place for them to go, especially in Southern California.”

But Myers, whose boat is named Trouble, is annoyed that his future rests in the hands of politicians.

“I got into the military to avoid politics,” he said, “and now I’m relying on the county.”