Redondo Beach, CA Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

Redondo Beach Municipal Code § 12-1.402, in the Harbor chapter's article on anchoring, mooring, and security of vessels, bars anyone from placing a private buoy or mooring in the harbor, waterway, or maritime facility without first securing a permit from the Harbor Master. The permit holder is responsible for equipment that meets the Harbor Master's specifications, for accurate initial placement of the buoy and tackle, and for its ongoing maintenance, positioning, and eventual removal under the permit's terms. A permittee is also on the hook for any cost the City incurs recovering, repositioning, or resecuring the buoy or tackle in an emergency.

The same section requires periodic inspection: the Harbor Master can order an inspection of any approved mooring whenever safety warrants it, and any maintenance or repair the inspection turns up has to be completed to the Harbor Master's satisfaction, again at the permittee's sole cost. If a permittee will not comply with an inspection order, § 12-1.402 lets the Harbor Master cancel the mooring permit outright and have the mooring lifted and placed in storage. A stored mooring is only released once the owner proves ownership and reimburses the City in full for every cost the City incurred.

Subsection (c) carves out one water area from the permit requirement: a mooring area the code calls Parcel 8, described by a lengthy metes-and-bounds survey tied to Los Angeles County Surveyor benchmarks near Hermosa Avenue and Tenth Street, covering roughly 698,326 square feet of water. Companion sections in the same article, §§ 12-1.401 and 12-1.403, separately bar mooring to navigation aids without an emergency and require Harbor Master permission before anchoring or occupying any mooring buoy in the harbor. Because King Harbor sits in the Coastal Zone, a mooring or dock structure placed under a City permit can also fall within the certified Local Coastal Program, which is a separate layer of review from the Harbor Master's permit under this chapter.