Marina, City Mend Fences Owners Remove Fence Posts Near Tubbs Hill, Will Resurvey

The owners of the 11th Street Marina are temporarily dropping plans to build a fence that city officials feared would block access to Tubbs Hill.

“We met with the city administrator today, we decided we were over (the property line) a couple of feet in some spots,” Kim Gittel, co-owner of the marina, said on Friday. “We didn’t have a good survey. It’s our mistake.”

“I’m not saying we won’t build a fence” in the future, Gittel said. But he said he will pay for a new survey before sinking postholes again and any fence won’t encroach on city property or block traffic to Tubbs Hill.

Meanwhile, the fence posts erected this week were removed and the postholes filled in, he said.

The marina started building a 3-foot high fence along its east property line Thursday - a line it shares with the city. The city property is the old waterworks land and the east side of Tubbs Hill.

Motorists buzz through the marina parking lot going to and from the east Tubbs Hill area, Gittel said. Last summer some marina customers were almost hit by motorists driving through to Tubbs Hill.

The marina saw the fence as a way to lessen its liability, he said.

The city met with Gittel and Kevin Bettis, the other marina owner, on Thursday and then sent them a letter outlining several concerns. Even though Gittel and Bettis were rebuilding a fence that was removed several years ago, “reconstruction would violate the City’s zoning laws and could result in a misdemeanor citation being issued,” the city’s letter said, because the fence is within 40 feet of the lake shore.

“Finally, you indicated … that the fence will be constructed in order to block public access to Tubbs Hill,” the letter continued. “If this is done, you will be in violation of the lease agreement” for the portion of city property that the marina occupies.

Gittel said it’s all a misunderstanding. “We weren’t trying to block access to Tubbs Hill,” he said.

Overall, Gittel is concerned people have the wrong impression of their intentions.

“Our main objective, when we bought that marina, was to stop development, preserve it, and keep highrises from going up,” Gittel said.

That refers to a proposal from developer Joe Chapman last year that the city give him the land next to the marina and allow him to construct condominiums and offices there.