Thumbnail image: An example site plan from the Harbor District's request for proposals packet for Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks. | Courtesy the CCHD Crescent City Harbor commissioners said they wanted to continue seeking other options for redeveloping the port’s two RV parks despite a warning from Harbormaster Mike Rademaker that doing so might put an existing proposal in jeopardy. Rademaker said he was worried that the Board of Commissioners was turning its back on Orange County-based developers Sean McGraw and Scott Lawhon, who had presented a plan for revitalizing Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks on June 25. Rademaker was especially concerned about a potential performance bond that may be included with the Harbor District’s request for proposals, though it’s not finalized yet. He suggested making the inclusion of a performance bond in any proposal to redevelop the RV parks optional. “Somebody could propose a performance [bond] on it if they want or they could have some justification as to why they don’t and it’s up to the Board to decide whether that’s acceptable or not,” Rademaker said. “Because my understanding is that the McGraw group may withdraw their proposal if that’s going to be a condition.” Harbor commissioners still don’t have an approved RFP. On Thursday, the Board deadlocked over a motion from John Evans to accept it with changes he and his colleagues had asked Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr to make. Evans and Board Chairman Gerhard Weber voted to accept the RFP with the caveat that commissioners would see the final product with the asked-for additions. Their colleagues Annie Nehmer and Dan Schmidt dissented with Schmidt saying that he wanted to see a printed document before voting. Commissioner Rick Shepherd abstained. The updated RFP will go back before the Board of Commissioners at its next meeting on Wednesday, Bahr told Redwood Voice Community News via email Friday. The Crescent City Harbor District is presenting the redevelopment and long-term operations of “key waterfront parcels” at 750 U.S. 101 and 159 Starfish Way as an investment opportunity. But while the district is seeking proposals from developers who will continue to operate the RV parks, commissioners will also consider other uses, according to an RFP overview included in Wednesday’s agenda packet. The proposed RFP would include a 21-day period to review the proposals, though it states that the Harbor District can evaluate, negotiate and select a proposal at any time even before the 21-day window expires. In addition to managing CCHD’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program projects, Bahr and Community System Solutions is under contract to prepare RFPs for the Harbor District Board’s priority projects. Those priorities included the RV parks, though at meetings in March and February commissioners decided that CCHD should manage them, so CSS did not prepare an RFP, Bahr said. He and his staff were asked to move forward with an RFP for operating and managing the RV parks after McGraw and Lawhon presented their pitch to the Board. “This RFP did not come out of nowhere at the last minute,” he said. “And it does not contain any numbers or information from any proposal the Harbor (sic) has previously received.” During Thursday’s discussion, Schmidt went through the RFP packet and said there should be an opportunity for developers to do the project in phases so the Harbor District is receiving revenue from one park while the other is out of commission. Schmidt also suggested Bahr designate architectural standards or themes for the proposed redevelopment as well as what the property is zoned for and what the permissible and conditional uses are. “Somebody may want to put a sky scraper there,” he said. “If we can say these are the limitations, give us something within these limitations, we’ll zero in on what they want and what we want.” Schmidt also asked that if the developer was going to make monthly revenue projections that they cite their data so harbor commissioners can be confident that their projections are realistic. Though the Board of Commissioners can accept proposals from developers before the 21-day window has expired, the RFP window will stay open until a final lease is signed, Bahr said. This means people can continue to submit proposals, he said. Nehmer called for a Board ad-hoc committee to provide oversight during the redevelopment phase of the RV parks. She also pointed to a section of the RFP, which talks about the concept and improvement plan including a narrative of proposed operations, including identifying who the target customers are and preparing a marketing plan of the proposed activities. Nehmer said she’d like to know how the proposed activities support public access and avoids displacement of the current tenants. She also said the Harbor District should require a performance bond of at least one year to make sure that “the harbor doesn’t end up in the last situation we were in.” “I would like to move forward with the RFP to ensure whoever’s brought on board will make the harbor whole during the construction period if they walk away,” she said. “The last situation” Nehmer referred to concerned Alex Lemus, a developer with Renewable Energy Capital, who had spearheaded the installation of solar panel carports at the harbor and had submitted a plan in 2021 to revitalize Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village. Lemus’s plan had included purchasing Airstream trailers and cabins for short-term stays as well as making provisions for 86 tenants who lived at Bayside. But in December 2023, Lemus and CCHD agreed to terminate ground leases Lemus had held for the two RV parks and a third park he had established. Members of the public and harbor commissioners themselves brought Lemus’s name into the discussion with McGraw and Lawhon when they made their pitch on June 25. On Thursday, Tom Gruenbeck, an attorney representing McGraw and Lawhon, raised concerns about the RFP the Crescent City Harbor District was creating. Cities typically send out RFPs when it wants to do a construction project, Gruenbeck said, using a bridge project as an example. The requirement that the contractor post a performance bond to guarantee their work would be included in that RFP. If the bridge wasn’t built, the city could use that bond to find another contractor to finish the bridge, he said. “In this case, the square peg in the round hole is the [harbor] is asking a group to come in and spend their own money to help generate income for the city and the community,” Gruenbeck said. “And when I heard the committee talking about the amount of bond they wanted to have proposed, it sounded like they wanted to use the bond to guarantee a certain amount of income. And that’s not what a bond is for. The bond is to guarantee the contractor does his job.” Gruenbeck suggested that the RFP process and a performance bond may not be right tool for redeveloping the RV parks. According to Bahr, the language in the RFP regarding performance bonds refers to the project’s construction period. He told commissioners Thursday that he typed in the sentence “the bond must remain in effect for the duration of park improvements.” “This bond remains in effect to guarantee the lease holder will do that construction,” he said. Rademaker still took issue with the performance bond and whether or not it would prompt McGraw and Lawhon to withdraw their proposal. The harbormaster pointed out that the RFP states the developers could propose a justification as to why they don’t want to submit a performance bond. This includes an economic analysis on the cost of the performance bond or another justification, which the Board can reject, according to Rademaker. “These two investors are the most serious people we have so far,” he said. Lawhon and McGraw said they were planning to invest more than $1.2 million into Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village. Their goal is to attract visitors with larger motorhomes while reserving a percentage of the sites at Bayside and Redwood Harbor for the current tenants. Other amenities would include concierge services to guests to help with booking recreational activities as well as getting local vendors such as Local Boys Surf Shop to sell their products at an RV park store. They also envisioned partnerships with Port O’ Pints and Rumiano Cheese Co.