Richardson Bay Regional Agency’s progress in clearing the bay of illegal “anchor outs” has been impressive.
Last month, the agency reported that the number of vessels remaining to be cleared is fewer than 40, a dramatic reduction from the 240 counted in 2016. That number was an obvious reflection of tepid enforcement of the agency’s 72-hour anchorage limit. It set the stage for a critical state report and RBRA entering into a 2021 agreement with the state’s San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, giving it five years to clean up the bay.
The agency was formed by the county and bayfront cities to enforce the bay’s anchorage restrictions, but its history has been mired in controversy and lackluster progress. In fact, as other San Francisco Bay harbors enforced the anchorage rules, boat owners moved to Richardson Bay, overwhelming local enforcement efforts and leading Sausalito to drop out of the agency in frustration over RBRA’s failings.
Defenders of the anchor-out community said their vessels provided the affordable housing they couldn’t find on land or in marinas and that their lifestyle was part of the bay’s bohemian heritage.
The problem was the vessels, many of them dilapidated and marine hazards, were in conflict with efforts to restore the bay’s environment.
In fact, many of the remaining vessels are illegally anchored in protected eel grass areas – an ecological nursery for the bay – and face an October deadline to move.
Those boatowners have received numerous written warnings of the deadline and will be getting more notice as the deadline nears.
Besides diligent enforcement, the reduction has been advanced by the agency’s housing program through which it has been able to get anchor-outs’ boats off the bay and their owners into voucher-supported housing.
As more anchor-outs have made the move into housing, there appears to be more interest from others.
The challenge facing the agency is finding housing. RBRA hopes that within two months the number of those moved into voucher-assisted housing will total 20.
The staffing of case workers to help anchor-outs, many of whom have been living on the bay for decades, makes the transition has proven important to the effort’s success.
It has been costly, but there’s been progress where for years enforcement seemed to be treading water, if not overwhelmed by an out-of-control influx of long-term boat-dwellers and abandoned vessels.
A combined local, state and federal funding has helped move this initiative forward toward success in clearing illegally anchored vessels from the bay.
It took a bruising state auditor’s investigation, a state order and deadline and concerted enforcement to significantly reduce the numbers.
Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, an RBRA board member, and the other new members of RBRA leadership have made progress a priority. The state’s cooperation and funding have also proven critical.
There is more work to do and a commitment to continued enforcement to protect the bay from allowing this progress to be thwarted.
