Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Friday, April 8, 2022 @ 5:04 p.m.
CC Harbor Commissioners Approve RV Park Leases with Lemus, Urge Tenants to Take Their Concerns to Him
Alex Lemus, CEO of Renewable Energy Capital, hopes to upgrade Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV Parks in an effort to attract visitors to the Crescent City Harbor. | Image courtesy of NorCalfishmarket.com.
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Crescent City Harbor commissioners on Friday unanimously approved ground lease agreements with developer Alex Lemus for the port’s two RV parks, though they say a relocation plan for the parks’ current tenants is still forthcoming.
Commissioners also indicated that it would be up to tenants to hire an arbitrator who could represent their interests despite an assurance from Lemus, CEO of Florida-based Renewable Energy Capital, that he would be amenable to working with such a person.
“I don’t know if we want our counsel representing another individual,” Board President Rick Shepherd said. “I would think that’s something they would get themselves.”
Shepherd initially said the Crescent City Harbor District has a relocation specialist and a plan for the current Bayside RV Park and Redwood Harbor Village RV Park tenants. He said he and his colleagues wouldn’t move forward on construction at the two parks until they’re “comfortable with the relocation of the people there.”
But when one of the residents, Kamilia Arnett, asked who the relocation specialist was, Shepherd said the harbor didn’t have one.
Arnett, who has acted as liaison between her neighbors and True North Organizing Network, cited the California Relocation Act to commissioners, pointing out that it’s either up to the Harbor District or Lemus to provide a person who “will relocate us, find housing for us and will negotiate all of that.”
Shepherd said the relocation specialist would come from Lemus, who did not attend Friday’s meeting.
The lease agreements have an initial term of 25 years with the option for REC to extend the term for up to three periods of five years each. REC will pay a monthly rent of $33,333 for Bayside RV Park and $35,000 for Redwood Harbor Village, according to the harbor’s staff report. Any park improvements or changes that cost more than $10,000 would have to be approved by the Crescent City Harbor District.
The Crescent City Harbor District has been negotiating with Lemus since he answered the district’s request for proposals in 2020 for development projects that would help generate revenue. The leases are necessary for Lemus’s proposed project to move forward, Shepherd said, though construction won’t occur until the tenants are relocated and “relocated in a proper manner.”
In August 2021, Lemus unveiled a plan to upgrade Bayside RV Parks’ infrastructure and landscaping and to purchase Airstream travel trailers and cabins in an effort to draw more short-term overnight visitors. When Lemus presented his plan to commissioners, the parks’ residents, some of whom had been living there for five years, were alarmed. Many accused the Harbor District of planning to evict them despite multiple assertions from officials to the contrary.
On Feb. 1, 2022, Lemus and Shepherd stated they would create a written transition plan for both RV parks and individual plans for each resident.
On Friday, Harbormaster Tim Petrick added that the contract the Harbor District negotiated with Lemus included allowances for the District to withdraw from the leases if Lemus isn’t “performing to our standard.”
“He is not happy about it,” Petrick said, referring to Lemus, “But we protected the harbor and our constituents in this lease with the amount of defaults and the things we can do to protect the people from getting bulldozed by him.”
Harbor Commissioner Gerhard Weber urged residents to seek Lemus out if they’re “insecure about what’s going to happen.” According to Weber, Lemus said he couldn’t come up with a single plan because he doesn’t know if it would apply to every residents’ situation.
“Now for us, this creates a problem,” Weber told RV park residents. “We are not privy to every conversation he has with you so we needed to make sure that, as far as possible, if any one of you is totally dissatisfied with what is happening and you find a lawyer that is willing to sue the Harbor, the Harbor and community is protected from any lawsuit that will arise out of relocation.”
According to Arnett, True North has been working with the residents at Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village since about January. The nonprofit organization offered office space for Kay Fry, project manager for On-Site Development, who last month had attempted to offer a competing proposal for the parks that included provisions for the tenants, Arnett told the Outpost.
True North also hosted a lawyer from Legal Services of Northern California, who gave residents a presentation on the California Relocation Act and will provide office space to Lemus to use to meet RV park tenants, Arnett said.
“They are acting as impartial support to allow residents open communication with ‘the powers that be’ so their voices can be heard and they can have as much info as possible,” she told the Outpost.
Arnett said she agreed with Weber’s statement that residents need to speak with Lemus to find out what the next phase of the project is. She said Lemus is replying to True North’s emails within a day, but an individual resident might have to jump through hoops to reach him personally.
“That’s why I’m working with True North to get a residents meeting set up with Lemus to open that line of communication wider,” she said. “He has already requested a group resident meeting followed by individual times for one-on-one.”
In a Feb. 14. conversation with the Wild Rivers Outpost, Lemus has said he wasn’t out to make anyone homeless. He said he wanted to sit down with residents and ask them what they want.
As for Arnett, she said she’s not sure where she’ll go if she has to leave.
“That’s Lemus’s job and the relocation counselor’s job — to find the place that is equal to my current conditions per the California Relocation Act,” she said.
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