Residents waiting for an open spot to park their boat at the Santa Barbara Harbor may have an easier time in the future.

The City of Santa Barbara will be making changes to how it grants boat slips at the harbor, which is intended to make the waitlist easier to manage and prevent people from obtaining the spots to sell later.

“The Waterfront’s slip waitlist policy has been a source of public frustration for decades,” a staff report from the city stated. “Specifically, there is confusion as to why a public waitlist is closed to adding any new names, and again when slips received off this list are then quickly sold at a profit.”

As part of its plan, the city announced that it will get rid of its current waitlist for boat slips to create a more streamlined system.

The City Council approved the changes on Tuesday.

Under the new system, a lottery will be used to pick 10 names from submitted applications to create a waitlist, which will be refreshed annually to create a new pool of eligible residents.

The Harbor Commission will be responsible for managing the list and contacting applicants.

When a slip becomes available, the commission will offer it to the people on the waitlist in descending order. If no one on the list accepts the spot, the slip permit will stay with the harbor until the next year, when a new waitlist is made.

In addition to changing its waitlist policies, the city also has banned the private sale of boat slips. In the past, people have entered their name on the harbor waitlist with the intention of selling their slip pass for a profit.

“This ensures that anyone who receives a slip from the list must be ready to actively use it for boating rather than sell it,” according to a staff report from the city. “In the event a permittee from a waitlist slip gives up the permit, the slip would be returned to the Waterfront Department.”

The city says it will also waive the transfer fee to anyone who wins a slip through the waitlist. By doing so, the city hopes to lower financial barriers to the harbor, and remove the financial incentive to hold onto a slip permit.