Yacht club seeks new harbor

It’s a classic California debate: Who gets the land on the waterfront?

This time, the setting is the home of the Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Club in Marina del Rey.

The Los Angeles County beaches and harbors department wants to nearly double the size of nearby Burton Chace Park, partly using the Windjammers’ land and clubhouse for community meeting rooms.

The county also plans to centralize its water training program for kids near the club’s 200 docks and build an aquatic center.

The club’s 30-year lease with the county expired in July 2002, and the county granted a multiyear extension while the Windjammers hunt for new digs.

“We didn’t want them to go away,” says Roger Moliere, the department’s asset development chief. “It’s a laudable activity, just in the wrong place.”

The problem, says club commodore Bob Falisey, is that the county would prefer the club to anchor on the adjacent parcel -- which has two buildings that need to be razed and antiquated docks that need replacing.

He says that could drain the finances of the not-for-profit club. The club -- with 400 to 500 members -- would prefer renting an open plot, moving its existing clubhouse to a new tract or staying put. Negotiations are ongoing.

-- Ashley Powers