READERS RESPOND -- Boat plans leave residents with sinking feeling

I have owned my home at 117 Apolena Ave. on Balboa Island for the past

23 years. I raised my daughter here from the age of 5. She joined the

legions of children who have enjoyed many safe days of play at the beach

at the end of our street, and at the Balboa Island Yacht Club. This is a

traditional part of the essence of Balboa Island.

The request for a dock revision at 1106, 1108 S. Bay Front severely

threatens the safety of children, and restricts the public’s use and

enjoyment of the charming view from the bay front. I am very concerned

about the precedent being set for an eventual ring of large boats at the

perimeter of Balboa Island. I am especially concerned about the threat

that any large boat poses for:

* the safety of small children at play;

* the public’s loss of the current charming bay view from the

bay-front walk;

* the inability of the public to view the Christmas Boat Parade, and

other boating events from the bay front walk;

* the additional chemicals introduced into the air, water and beach

sand for the use and maintenance of these large vessels;

* the virtual loss of public beach area by creating what will amount

to a “private beach” in front of the residences with a view of the large

boat only;

* the setting of precedent for more large boats being docked on Balboa

Island.

Please work to preserve the safety, public access and charm of Balboa

Island. Do not allow this dock revision. Let us get legislation into

effect that does not allow any more large boats to be docked at the

island’s perimeter.

We were able to prevent more three-story homes from being built,

ruining the island’s charm and access to sunlight, even after precedents

had been set. So, too, we need to prevent further large boats from being

docked here, even with whatever precedents have been set.

Yacht clubs are appropriate places to dock large boats. If these folks

want to dock a large boat in front of their residence, there are many

other places to live where public safety and public access will not be an

issue.

VERONICA LORMAN

Balboa Island

So much for so few. How can a little person buy two lots and block 55

feet of the public beach area? What’s next? Full lots. Make the whole

block private, and just move in the wild goose? We definitely should have

some kind of regulation where this cannot be done.

DON DEPUTY

Balboa Island

If this boat is allowed to dock, it will negatively affect the beach,

where my children and others on our street -- Amethyst Avenue -- play

almost daily. The proposed new dock would eliminate a sizable portion of

the beach, virtually making it unusable for playing in the sand.

The beach would be too small for landing boats and the placement of

the large yacht would create a dangerous situation for the children

attempting to navigate around the boat and force them to swim into the

harbor traffic lanes.

Furthermore, moving the pier would require pulling and replacing

pilings in a very sensitive area. The ecology of the bay would be

affected by disturbing tidelands and sensitive eel grass. Needless to

say, I am strongly opposed to changing a place where lifestyle is so

important.

We should not allow big hitters to come to Balboa Island and change

the quaint and beautiful surroundings to accommodate something that was

never there and should never be there.

MITCH SIGBAND

Balboa Island

No, I don’t think that Cook should be allowed to park a 55-foot boat

in front of two homes that he owns on Balboa Island when in fact he

doesn’t even live here.

If he had to be the one living there in those home fronts, he would

not want his view and enjoyment of everything that’s great about the

harbor and the island to be destroyed by a 55-foot boat parked sideways

when no other homeowners’ boats are parked that way.

No, I don’t think it should be allowed.

CAROLYN CLARK

Balboa Island