Harbor District’s future is under review

The fate of the Harbor District is being discussed by the county’s Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) and Board of Supervisors, reports the County Times.  The District is almost $20 million in debt, has numerous other delayed capital projects and is suffering a loss in revenue from the fishermen who are its primary customers. 

The Harbor District operates Pillar Point Harbor and Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco. In addition to fees from users, it collects $3 million in property taxes from the entire county. The fact that the district collects property taxes county-wide, but only serves in a limited geographical area makes some people wonder whether it should be absorbed in to the county government. LAFCO recently released a report that considered the fate of the Harbor District.

Dissolution of the district, which encompasses Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point Harbor and Oyster Point Marina in South San Francisco, was one of the financial remedies suggested by the LAFCo report, and it has been on the table before. The harbor district was dissolved in 1966 at the initiative of the County Board of Supervisors, but was reinstated on appeal by district officials in 1969.

Voters rejected another attempt by the Board of Supervisors to dissolve the district in 1970. Similar attempts to annex or dissolve the district failed in 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1991, according to LAFCo documents obtained by Peter Grenell, general manager of the harbor district.

The Daily Journal also covered the LAFCO meeting, and has a somewhat confusing discussion of the term of art "zero sphere of influence", which was used to describe the district.