The Inverness Association has hit a pricey roadblock in its attempt to lift deed restrictions it imposed on Brock’s Boathouse three decades ago, after a California Coastal Commission employee told the group it needs a coastal development permit to change or remove them.
The association’s president, Nick Whitney, told two-dozen or so locals last Wednesday at a special association meeting that the attempt to lift at least portions of the deed wasn’t over, and that the organization needed to “know as a board what we’re getting into” before moving forward.
“I’m not willing to let go of this in the sense of, ‘Well, kiss this off,’” he said. “If we do nothing, we know what will happen: it will collapse into the bay. We want the younger people to do something.”
The deed restrictions include a ban on residential use, but the building’s current coastal zoning only allows residential use; that conundrum has blocked attempts at a county use permit. (The coastal commission has indicated that, although it could be amenable to a permit application lifting some restrictions, it would almost certainly require public access to the beach, which the owners say they are happy to accommodate.)
Many of the attendees crowded into the Gables that evening voiced support for the owners’ attempt to get a use permit and stabilize the boathouse, though some were frustrated at what they said were large events for which the owners charged $6,500, bringing traffic and noisy people—four in the past two and a half weeks, one neighbor said, which impaired her quality of life: “To me, the usage issues are enormous.”
County enforcement officer Cristy Stanley said her department had received two complaints about events in recent months. Last month, the county also red-tagged the boathouse for unpermitted work that included a new guardrail and new pilings.
Co-owner Madeline Hope said that the events can come in spurts and they have started charging to help raise money for lifting the deed restriction, which would entail a $60,000 payment to the association. They have also installed decibel meters to try to monitor the noise, she said.