Renewal of 1960s Marina Blocks Coveted Views and Irks Boaters

Correction Appended

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

Officials estimate the revenue from leases could double if new housing, promenades and shopping areas are built around the marina.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10 - From the dockside patio he often uses as an office, Don Davidson can hear waves lapping against pleasure boats just a few feet away and the answering creaks as the vessels shift on their moorings.

In addition to its proximity to the water, Mr. Davidson's second-floor apartment once had a view - a sweeping vista of the Santa Monica Mountains to the north and the iconic Hollywood sign far to the east. That view disappeared a year ago after construction began on a five-story luxury apartment complex on a neighboring dock.

Marina del Rey is changing, and many residents are already mourning the loss of their slow-paced boater's paradise, an oasis of relative calm on Los Angeles's moneyed, traffic-plagued Westside.

The unfinished building that blocks Mr. Davidson's view is just one of many new additions to the marina. Under construction or winding their way through a byzantine approval process, these include at least five other large apartment complexes as well as several hotels and retail plazas. Los Angeles County officials say that the new development, which they engineered as part of a plan to invigorate the aging marina, will attract more residents and visitors and generate as much as million a year in new revenue.

"The marina needs to be upgraded, but I hope that doesn't change the nice, casual, cozy, slower, eclectic lifestyle," said Mr. Davidson, 60, the owner of an Internet marketing company.

Marina del Rey has built the largest recreational marina in the world, according to the Marina del Rey Convention and Visitors Bureau - though it will be eclipsed by one under construction in Dubai. Its more than 5,000 boat slips and 804 acres of land and waterways are owned by the county. Aside from a few hundred condominiums, most housing consists of rental apartments.

But with its low-lying 1960s-vintage buildings and faux-Cape Cod shopping plaza, the marina is also a major financial underachiever. County officials expect the million or so a year its leases earn to double as the addition of about 3,000 high-end apartments, new Woodfin and Marriott hotels and businesses like the Cheesecake Factory enhances land values.

Only about 8,000 people live in Marina del Rey, which is an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County; about half its acreage is under water. The population would increase significantly as four- and five-story apartment buildings replace two- and three-story ones just off the water.

"Obviously, we've always considered Marina del Rey the crown jewel of Los Angeles County," said Don Knabe, a Los Angeles County supervisor whose coastal district includes Marina del Rey. "But it's one of those jewels that needs a little polishing."

For many local residents, the marina's slightly dilapidated look is part of its charm. They view the marina's original ring-based design, with smaller buildings unobtrusively blending with the clutter of boat masts in central areas and high-rise apartments at the perimeter, as holy doctrine. "I think it should be upgraded, but why should they have to make it bigger and higher?" said Don Klein, head of the Coalition to Save the Marina, a residents group that has filed several lawsuits to stop the new development. "If they want to build it, they should keep the heights the way they are now, limit traffic and cars and don't mess with parking lots. They need to keep it to a reasonable and sensible thing."

With more apartments and more tourists will inevitably come more traffic, which residents complain has already increased to intolerable levels as other large-scale housing developments go up in surrounding areas. A planned extension of the Marina Freeway to the marina itself would add to the congestion.

Boaters complain that wind patterns are being thrown off, as winds bounce off new, taller buildings and gusts weaken. Some say the county's new boat slip designs favor large boats at the expense of smaller ones.

"They have a cash cow and they want to exploit it as much as possible," Irving Beid, head of the 500-member Del Rey Yacht Club, said of county officials. "In my and other people's opinions, they should be more concerned with the boating community that supports Marina del Rey, versus the people who come in and use the services."

In the early days after the marina was completed in 1965, its bars and restaurants were a magnet for singles. The social scene now is mostly confined to locals, who include yuppies, 60-something bachelors, and sailing fanatics who pay only a few hundred dollars a month to live aboard their boats.

Some residents fear that with the increase in rents that new high-end housing is sure to bring, the marina's diverse mix of residents will disappear along with the unobstructed vistas of boat masts and Pacific sunsets.

"You'll have a much more homogenous population, a much wealthier and more exclusive community," said Nancy V. Marino, an anti-development advocate who has lived here for 18 years.

Even now, living at the marina is expensive. The going rate for a one-bedroom apartment is at least ,200 a month.

But county officials point to a state requirement that a percentage of new construction must be set aside as housing for low- and moderate income families. The marina belongs not just to the people who live there now, the officials say, but to those from other parts of the county who will be attracted to the area by an expanded oceanside park and a new mix of shops and restaurants.

"We have to create economic and physical viability," said Kerry Silverstrom, chief deputy director of the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors. "We just can't have these things aging. Plus, this is an asset for the county of Los Angeles and we need to maximize our return from the land and use this money to fund county services."

Mr. Davidson, whose view was blocked by the new apartment complex, is more sanguine about the changes than are many of his neighbors. After a few months of fuming at the loss of his view, he put his name on the waiting list for an apartment in the new building.

"I want to get a corner, high-up unit over the channel," Mr. Davidson said. "I was so mad watching them construct that I decided to go the other route."

Correction: Nov. 14, 2006

Because of an editing error, an article on Saturday about development in Marina del Rey referred incorrectly to the marina's construction. It was built by Los Angeles County with help from state and federal money - not by Marina del Rey, which is an unincorporated area of the county.

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