Residents and owners press Newport City Council for workshop on mooring insurance and reclassification

Councilors spent more than an hour on public comment and debate over recent changes affecting Newport Harbor moorings, including a requirement that rental mooring holders carry business liability insurance and a package of ordinance amendments that would create a yacht‑club mooring classification and permit voluntary conversion of some rental moorings to private status.

Charlotte Johnson, a mooring owner since 1976, asked the council to "rescind or at least delay enactment of the ordinance that requires all Newport Harbor rental mooring holders to carry business liability insurance," saying her mooring is managed by Old Port Marine and included under that company’s insurance. Attorney John Fulweiler, representing residents and commercial permit holders, told the council the change "is a substantive condition on a warrant" and raised procedural concerns about whether the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) had reviewed the city’s actions; Fulweiler said his clients had sent a Sept. 8 letter and had received no response.

Harbor Master Steven Land described the administration’s goals as an effort to correct misclassifications and move the harbor toward its long‑standing rental/private target: "We are supposed to, how it's written in our ordinance, 25% rental warrants, 75, private warrants," he said, and said modest reclassifications and other operational steps could yield additional usable mooring spaces. Land emphasized the conversion option is voluntary and that the reclassification would not remove existing rental moorings. Several commercial mooring holders and longtime residents told the council the changes have been handled in a piecemeal way and urged a public workshop and more time for stakeholder input.

Councilors were divided over procedure and transparency but ultimately approved the ordinance amendments on yacht‑club moorings and classification changes by a 3–2 vote; the council also agreed separately to hold a public workshop on the insurance requirement. The transcript shows repeated requests from residents for clearer documentation of waterfront‑commission minutes and CRMC concurrence; councilors who voted for the ordinance said the changes expand options for mooring owners rather than removing rights, while opponents said they want a single, comprehensive public process.