By Neil Farrell ~
A small new marina is taking shape on Morro Bay’s waterfront, as a long-time plan to replace dilapidated docks is finally happening.
Bob Fowler, owner of Morro Bay Landing, which is located on the north end of the Embarcadero, has been working on building the new floating docks for several weeks now, after years of trying to get the project going.
The new finger slips and side-tie dock, located between Harbor Hut and Great American Fish Co. run perpendicular to the shore out to the edge of the water lease area.
It was about 2006 when the first proposal was made to replace the parallel side tie docks there, it was going to run from the South T-pier all the way to what was then Virg’s Landing.
After years of trying to get that approved, which included several lease sites under different owners, it was finally abandoned, and Fowler, the new owner of the Virg’s site, has pushed on solo.
The docks going in now are structured very differently than what was proposed so long ago. “The original plans were different,” Fowler said. “But they are the same distance out [into the bay] as the new docks at Morro Bay Landing.”
Fowler last year also replaced the docks at the Landing, which were pretty tore up after decades of use and after a fishing boat rammed into them in a freaky accident.
The new docks have 16-inch diameter steel piles that are coated with an epoxy to protect them from seawater, so they should last a long time. Using wooden piles soaked in creosote is frowned upon these days.
Though the new docks, which were designed and are being built by Gene Doughty and his Land/Sea Interface Company, are in the Measure D zoning area, Fowler said there is enough leeway within the regulations to fill them up.
“The lease provides for a number of uses,” Fowler explained, “commercial passenger boats, commercial sport fishing and recreational fishing boats. It covers enough that there is plenty of possible users.” The lease requires him to spend at least $400,000 on the docks and Fowler said the costs would be pretty close to that.
Measure D reserves all docks, piers and lease sites north of Beach Street for commercial fishing uses or support uses, like the Coast Guard and Fish & Wildlife patrol boats. Boats like the Papagallo II and Chablis, which are dinner/party boats, have been allowed to stay in the Measure D area because of grandfathered uses from the distant past, when for-hire party boats were more plentiful in that area.
Such a bend in the rules has allowed these vessels to operate out of the waterfront area with the most parking and most accessible docks. The new docks will also have a new gangway that should be safer for passengers to traverse, too.
And Fowler isn’t done building on the waterfront. The final phase of the previous project that was approved back when it was still Virg’s Landing.
“For my project,” Fowler said, “this is the last phase for the water improvements. Next we’ll re-do the Morro Bay Landing building.”
That portion includes tearing down both the old tackle shop and the ship-shaped building where Tognazzini’s Dockside III is currently located (originally it was The Finicky Fish Market).
In their place will be a 2-story building with a new tackle shop and a new restaurant space upstairs. Though no tenant has formally been announced, the new restaurant space was always proposed to be the existing restaurant to get around Measure D’s prohibition on new non-fishing uses. After Finicky Fish, it was Thai Boat, which went out long ago and was replaced by Thai Bounty for several years until they moved to the other end of Embarcadero.
A small pocket park will be put in where the Dockside III is now.
They already have preliminary approval for that project too and Fowler said the plans are before the Coastal Commission for a compliance review. Both the City and the Commission have changed the project conditions, essentially to the point where the project must be reviewed again to make sure it’s the same project.
“The new plans incorporate the City and Coastal Commission’s conditions,” he said. He hopes to have the review done by January and to get started early next year.