Huntington Beach : City Cuts Back Plans for Boat-Launching Facility

The City Council has reaffirmed its desire to build a boat-launching facility at Warner Avenue in Huntington Harbour but, in a money-saving move, scaled back the proposal by deleting plans for restrooms and a launching ramp.

The latest plan is expected to cost about $295,000, which is $75,000 less than the more elaborate project.

Deleting the ramp from the project drew sharp criticism from some Huntington Harbour boat owners, who said the city systematically discriminates against the wealthy community.

Mayor Ruth Bailey, however, questioned the need for a launching ramp and was joined by other officials, who said a nearby launching ramp could be used. They also voiced a concern that a new ramp could create an early morning noise problem.

The ramp plans also call for dredging Huntington Harbour’s main channel of about 8,000 cubic yards of silt for a couple of hundred feet in front of the facility, said Paul Cook, the city’s director of public works.

An additional $1.5-million main channel dredging proposal is in “very preliminary negotiating stages” between the city and Orange County, Cook said. The Bolsa Chica and East Garden Grove-Wintersburg channels and a third, unnamed flood control waterway empty into Huntington Harbour, depositing silt picked up north and east of the coastal channels.

The dredging portion of the project should provide a “vast improvement (because), at low tide, the land is exposed,” Cook said. “There’s still a lot of other dredging that needs to be done in Huntington Harbour, but this is the very worst area,” he said.