Rules eased for bigger docks at condos
2/6/2006 5:42:45 PM by By MARC CAPUTO
The Florida Cabinet made it easier to build more and bigger docks for waterfront condos and luxury boats, loosening a 19-year-old construction rule in an effort to increase public access to the water. The revisions were approved by the Cabinet last August and took effect in October.
Despite their unanimous vote, Cabinet members initially hesitated to support the plan, opposed by environmentalists who fear it could allow for too much development as well as those in the boat industry, who fret that the rule would allow for too little growth.
The head of the states Department of Environmental Protection, Colleen Castille, took issue with a boater group called Standing Watch.
On one hand, she said, the group lobbies for more citizen access to the waterfront, but then urged the Cabinet scrap a rule designed to make developers provide access to the public if they want to expand the size and number of boat slips built on publicly owned bay bottom.
What Im seeing across the community, across the state of Florida, is a transition of our [public-access] waterways & to condominiums, privately-owned property and privately- owned docks that go with that, Castille said, noting that fishermen and tourists are losing out to the hot waterfront condominium market as it converts public marinas to private uses.
So rather than letting the genie out of the bottle completely, were saying lets kind of open the stopper just a little bit and see what happens, she said.
Along with a host of marineindustry lobbyists and workers, Standing Watchs Bonnie Basham said the group didnt oppose the language providing for more public access, but that she didnt like the new rules ratio requiring developers to seek Cabinet approval if they seek more than 40 square feet of dock space for every linear foot of shoreline they own.
Basham pointed out that boat sizes and the number of boat owners have increased while the number of available docks has decreased since 1984.
Now, a development with 29 housing units or more can only build one boat slip for every four units, meaning a 100-unit condo development can only have 25 slips.
But under the new rule scheduled to go into effect in the coming months, developers can build a slip for each unit if they dont harm threatened species and provide a use for the public good, which would be defined by the Cabinet.
Jim Kalvin, Standing Watch president, said the threatened-species language is a little ominous to us because ... virtually every species in Florida meets those criteria for protection. And, that would make it too tough for developers to build, he said.
On one side, the Marine Industries Association of Florida believes the revised rule can help alleviate the shortage of existing dock space. Environment groups like Save the Manatee, however, see it as placing more strain on the ecosystem. Both groups agree that the revised rule is not a giveaway to developers. The MIAF doesnt expect every developer will be able to meet the criteria for added dockage, says John Sprague, chairman of the associations governmental/legislative committee.
To Pat Rose, lobbyist for Save the Manatees, Standing Watchs comments showed that the organization is a stand-in for high-end developers, not ordinary citizens with small boats and a need for a public dock. Rose said marinas that provide widespread public access arent bound by the new restrictions, which would nevertheless lend to more private developments and fewer places for public waterfront access.
If youre trying to increase public access, you might consider doing the opposite from what youre doing, said Rose, who also disagreed with the industrys claim that theres a massive statewide need for more boats.
The Cabinet made up of the governor, the state CFO, the attorney general and the commissioner of agriculture wasnt so sure about Roses claim, with Chief Financial Office Tom Gallagher repeatedly noting the state has recognized the need for more and bigger docks for more and bigger boats.
Gov. Jeb Bush also fretted that a state study on dock needs wont be done for another two years. Uggh, Bush said. Well, somebody else will be governor.