Does This Look Like A Boat To You?

Spoiler: A boat is subject to Maritime Law and can be moved and evicted at will, while a floating home is governed by Floating home Law like they are in Sausalito.

Bob Helfer and JoAnn McDonnels floating home

Seems like a no brainer? Well Redwood City officials say it’s not a floating home because it has no sewer line. Instead a “honey barge” pumps us out a couple of times a month. But the reason it has no sewer line is because the city is unwillling to install sewer lines at Docktown until the status of the community is resolved.

Why does it matter? Because the owner of a floating home has property rights,  while the owner of a boat does not. A boat is subject to Maritme Law and can be moved and evicted at will, while a floating home is governed by Floating home Law like they are in Sausalito, similar to houses on land.

When the city took over management of Docktown residents after the Marina operator left (or was forced out) the residents were cautiously optimistic. The former management company had provided minimal repairs, and no improvements, blaming it on their own month to month leases with landowners and the city.  The city promised improvements.

But then the City presented everyone with a new 32 page lease that ignored the reality that Docktown is not a traditional boat Marina with boats coming and going, but rather a long-standing community of people who live on the water in a variety of structures, most of whom never leave the docks. Residents refused to sign it.

A public interest lawyer who agreed to help the residents told city officials it was the most one-sided lease she had ever seen. After months of negotiations with city attorneys she got them to remove or at least soften many of the more onerous clauses. But the city, to date, still doesn’t  acknowledge the residences as homes.

Their “compromise” was to call all dwellings the amorphous term “watercraft” instead of vessels, even though they are synonymous. “Watercraft” has no legal definition.

The city considers the home pictured above a “watercraft,” as it does this affordable floating apartment.

View towards the Creek

Apartment kitchen area

The stars lift up to access more space

Residents signed what the city now termed a “License Agreement” which after one  year reverted to a month to month agreement.

The City’s new position was that the future of the Marina would be decided by a task force created by the mayor to determine the future of the entire harbor by creating an “Inner Harbor Precise Plan.”

By then the Inner Harbor Precise Planning process was well underway, and we showed up in force and videotaped every meeting.

The task force adopted as Principle #6  for the Inner Habor Plan; “Preserve existing and accommodate new floating  communities,”  and public comments during the Inner Harbor Specific Plan were overwhelmingly in favor of floating communities. State Lands Commission representatives, however, said Docktown Residents were not authorized to live on the water, and recommended the City move us to a privately owned property called Ferrari Pond, leading the Task Force to recommend two alternatives to the City: (1) Move the floating community to Ferrari Pond, or (2)   Work with the  State Lands Commission to keep Docktown where it is.

With the Inner Harbor plan now written and plans being drawn it is decision time, and the Ferrari Pond option is not availabe.*

We now need to convince State Lands to that they should reconsider their decision that we must move because of legalities, and work with the City to find a way to change their policies and allow us to stay where we are on Redwood Creek.

And we need the city to give us sewer lines so our grey water does not go in the creek and start calling a floating home a floating home.

Looking downstream docks at Docktown Resident gardens and boats.

__________________ *due to (1) the lack of an actual plan, (2) the owner’s expressed intention to create a high end floating community that would not accomodate most the the houseboats and liveaboard boats at Docktown, (3) regulatory hurdles, and (4) challenges from Environmental groups that want the Ferrari Property to remain wetlands.