Speak Up Newport Hosts Meeting on New Mooring Plan June 14 with Newport Harbor Foundation’s – William ‘Skip’ Kenny
By Christopher Trela – May 30, 2023
Source: Newport Beach Independent http://www.speakupnewport.com/mooring-plan-2023/
How will Newport Beach’s new Mooring Plan affect you?
On May 23, the City Council approved a pilot program to change the harbor mooring fields configuration and approved changes to the Harbor Code to accommodate the proposed pilot program and the long-term plan for all the moorings in the harbor.
Speak Up Newport is hosting a meeting on Wednesday, June 14 to discuss the mooring plan with guest speaker Bill Kenney, the former Harbor Commission Chair. He will describe the Harbor Commission’s Open Water Initiative and the reasons for the changes to the mooring fields.
According to Speak Up Newport, it will affect all users in the harbor:
- Boaters who use and do not use the moorings.
- Use of the water by stand up paddleboarders, kayakers and swimmers.
- Views from bayfront private and public properties.
Kenney will also provide an update to the Newport Bay Trash Wheel Project to intercept trash before it enters the bay.
The meeting begins with a reception from 5:15 to 6 p.m. Program is 6 to 7 p.m. the meeting is held in the Civic Center Community Room, 100 Civic Center Dr.
The meeting will be held in person and online. To participate in the webinar please register at: http://www.speakupnewport.com/mooring-plan-2023.
If you have a question you would like to ask the speaker, please send it to: qu******@************rt.com
About William ‘Skip’ Kenney
William J. Kenney, Jr., CLS has been involved in the shopping center industry for over 40 years, many of which were spent at Donahue Schriber, a well-known and respected Southern California based shopping center developer. While at Donahue Schriber, Kenney was intimately involved in the phenomenal growth of the company. He was responsible for the formation of the company’s leasing department, played an integral role in the company’s developments, and, prior to his departure, was Senior Vice President of Development with responsibility for all of the company’s development activities.
He is a past Chairman, President and Treasurer of California Business Properties Association, he is a past State Governmental Affairs Chairman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, (“ICSC”), a post that he held for 4 years, and he has served on that organization’s program committee. In addition, Kenney has earned the coveted CLS designation from the ICSC.
Kenney also has served on the Board of Directors of the Balboa Yacht Club and the Promontory Bay Community Association. He served for eight years on the City of Newport Beach Harbor Commission (three years as Chairman), and on the Program Committee of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Newport Harbor Foundation and is Chief Financial Officer for Balboa Yacht Club.
A graduate with honors from California State University at Fullerton, Kenney resides in Newport Beach.
By Christopher Trela – May 30, 2023
Source: Newport Beach Independent http://www.speakupnewport.com/mooring-plan-2023/
By Laylan Connelly – Orange County Register
Officials have secured $8.3 million to dredge Newport Harbor in the $14 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but sand replenishment projects for two stretches of Orange County coastline were not included.
U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel said dredging of Newport Beach’s harbor is long overdue in her announcement Wednesday, Jan. 19, about the federal funding, but also stressed the need for added sand along the coastline. Funding for the Surfside-Sunset Replenishment Project, which would seed beaches through Huntington Beach south to Newport Beach will have to hope for final approval from another Congressional appropriations bill, the timeline of which has been unclear.
So is the San Clemente Shoreline Project, which would replenish beaches in the southern city, including improving the buffer of shoreline along a key coastal rail line.
Both projects have been stalled for years, awaiting funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do the replenishments that help create a beach buffer that would protect roads, homes and infrastructure from ocean flooding, as well as keep beaches – one of the region’s major tourism draws – from disappearing.
In 1962, Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act, which required the Army Corps of Engineers to address the impacts of the constructed flood control structures on the sand deposits that should be happening naturally along shorelines.
The $23 million Surfside-Sunset project – $15.5 million in federal money and $7.63 from local agencies – would add 1.75 million cubic yards of sand to Surfside, which would then be pushed down the coast by ocean currents and waves, spreading it 12 miles south to Newport Beach.
The last time sand was added was 2010 – previously the replenishment happened every five to seven years.
“There is more work to do, and I will continue to demand action from the administration and the Army Corps to fully fund the Surfside-Sunset Replenishment Project because we are one natural disaster away from devastation,” Steel said in a statement.
San Clemente has been waiting about two decades for its big replenishment project. The city two years ago received a boost in the amount of $500,000 in federal funding for the design phase.
With no beach left, a wave crashes against the rocks and stairs just below the railroad tracks at North Beach in San Clemente on Wednesday, October 20, 2021.(Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The project would add 251,000 cubic yards of sand from Linda Lane beach to T-Street beach south of the pier. The sand has shrunk so much there in recent years, city leaders have discussed the possibly of moving San Clemente’s Marine Safety Headquarters off the beach. When big surf hits, the surf laps onto the railroad tracks.
About $9.3 million was requested in the bipartisan infrastructure bill by U.S. Rep. Mike Levin for the San Clemente Shoreline Project.
Levin helped secure $30.5 million in federal funding for the Encinitas-Solana Beach Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project and $1.8 million for the Oceanside Special Shoreline Study, his office announced Wednesday.
The Encinitas-Solana Beach project involves placing 700,000 cubic yards of sand along 7,200 feet of beach in Solana Beach and 340,000 cubic yards of sand along 7,800 feet of beach in Encinitas.
The Oceanside shoreline study will create a plan to mitigate erosion and other effects from the construction of Camp Pendleton Harbor and will restore beach conditions along the affected shores to the conditions that existed before its development.
Levin’s office said he is also “continuing to fight to finalize federal funding for the San Clemente Shoreline Project.”
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