Dalia Lugo's bedroom window overlooks the Shawnee's stern and portions of Holland's yard. Holland hauled Shawnee from Newport Harbor, where she had been foundering, to his side yard about five years ago. That was just after Lugo moved into her newly built home.
"We admire his love for what he's doing," she said. "It should just not be in the neighborhood."
Hill agrees: "A boat works construction yard should not be allowed in a residential district."
Some of Holland's friends started a petition to support the Shawnee project, and about 100 to 150 people have signed it, said Bill Dunlap, a Newport resident and past-commodore of the Wooden Hull Yacht Club, a group that promotes restoration of these boats.
Many signers are from the marine community, Dunlap said, but he didn't know if any of them were Holland's neighbors.
Holland says he intends to fight the city ordinance, possibly in court, and that the neighbors shouldn't complain.
