City Sued over New Mooring Allocations in Updated Harbor Plan

For 16 years, Chris Pearson has been on the mooring waiting list, patiently watching his position rise slowly from the bottom after his wife put his name on the list as a birthday present.

Each year, he's checked the list. At the same time, his children, who were a combined three-years-old in 1998 became teenagers. It was like watching paint dry, he said, but slowly but surely, his name moved up and the family would celebrate with each step closer towards his dream of having a mooring in Newport Harbor.

Last year, he finally made it to No. 2 on the Brenton Cove list and would have been granted a mooring this year.

But along came a revision to the city's Harbor Ordinance, and with it, a change to the widely-known 3:1 ratio. 

At first glance, the change to the section of the ordinance would seem minor — semantics, really. But the truth is that the ratio is changing from a 3 to 1 ratio "off the list" to "on the water," which means that Pearson's lifelong dream of a mooring is all but dashed and any nonresident on the list should pay up for a gravesite long before a skiff.

Pearson, who said he believes Newport Harbor is finest in the state, has challenged the new rules in a Superior Court lawsuit.

Pearson alleges that the change means at least 200 moorings will need to be moved from the nonresident to the resident group. In Brenton Cove, of the 288 total moorings, 137 are resident and 151 are nonresident.

Under the three-to-one on the water ratio, the balance should be 216 resident and 72 nonresident. That means 79 moorings need to be moved from nonresident to resident before anyone from outside Newport will ever get a chance to get a mooring.

In the old system, moorings would be doled out to three residents, then one nonresident, then three more residents, and so on.

For people who've paid up to be on the waiting list and don't live in Newport, it means it could be decades — if not lifetimes — before a spot opens up.

In a letter to the city, Pearson said though he won't ask for a refund, "at some juncture the 399 people on the lists behind me are going to have a moment of clarity and want their money back."

"The application forms do state the funds are non-refundable but that caveat was designed for people that don't want to be on the waiting list any more. Legally I'm sure the town is not required to give refunds but ethically the money was taken under pretenses that no longer exist. Just keeping the money is problematic - you can do it but the question becomes is that really the way to handle the matter," he said.

Pearson said he was stunned to find out that his dreams were all but dashed when he checked with the Harbormaster's office earlier this year. He was told that the ordinance had been changed and his spot on the list was rendered meaningless.

Adding to the sting of the wound was the fact that the last nonresident to get a mooring in Brenton Cove put his name on the waiting list 58 days earlier in 1998.

"That's how close I came to realizing something I have dreamed about for 16 years," Pearson said.

Pearson isn't alone in his frustration. Other boaters have reportedly been in contact with the city after learning of the new ordinance, which was passed by the City Council earlier this year and was described as a major revision to improve the management of the harbor.