Community Guide to Creating a
Managed Anchorage and Mooring Field
Conservation Clinic
University of Florida College of Law
Boating and Waterway Management Program
Florida Sea Grant
1
A well planned and executed Managed
Anchorage and Mooring field (MAMF)
can be beneficial to residents, boaters
and the local government by
encouraging tourism and providing for
the efficient use of waterfront resources
to enhance public access to the marine
environment.
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Overview
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2 Step Process in creating a MAMF
– Project Initiation
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Technical
Legal
Public (Educational)
– Project Development
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Legal
Technical
Public (Legal)
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Florida Sea Grant and Conservation
Clinic Experience
The Conservation Clinic and Florida Sea
Grant have worked with communities to
address harbor management around
Florida.
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Existing & Proposed Florida MAMFs
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Fort Myers (****)
49 moorings
Fort Myers Beach (2004)
70 moorings
Key West (2004/5)
49 moorings, 24.3 acres
Marathon Boot Key (2002)
64 moorings, 250 anchor
Sarasota (pending 2005)
109 moorings, 110 acres
Sarasota Sailing Squadron (pending 2005)
Stuart (2001)
69 moorings, 26.1 acres
Vero Beach (1988)
57 moorings, 9 acres
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MAMF Administration
Vero Beach – municipal
Fort Myers Beach – concessioned
Sarasota City Island – not for profit
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Matanzas Pass, Fort Myers Beach
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Vero Beach Municipal
• Mooring Field offers long-term and transient moorings.
• Anchoring limited outside mooring field by city ordinance (Length
of Stay Regulation).
• Fees support facilities including fueling facility, pump-out facility
and restrooms.
• Employees include harbormaster, assistant harbor master and
part time employees.
• Harbormaster resides at the anchorage.
• There is also an advisory board to the anchorage.
• Establishes Enterprise Fund – money that it earns goes back to
support the anchorage and harbor.
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Fort Myers Beach Concession
• 70 moorings
• Fees depend on size and length of stay –
vary between $6.50 and $10.00 per day.
• Facilities include dinghy docks,
restrooms, and garbage disposal.
• Private Marina manages mooring field
under concession from city.
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Sarasota City Island Not for Profit
• Sarasota Sailing Squadron seeking to
formalize its historic anchorage
• Membership based
• Still in the permit process
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Introductory Principles
• Two sets of introductory principles are useful to
keep in mind throughout the process of
creating a mooring field.
– Principles of Anchoring
– Principles of Harbor Management
• See Thomas Ankersen and Richard Hamann,
Anchoring Away: Government Regulation and the
Rights of Navigation in Florida, Sea Grant (August
1999).
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Principles of Anchoring
1. Federal, state and local laws apply to
anchored boats.
2. Boats must anchor so that they are not
harming any other vessels, damaging
property or injuring people, or
preventing access to boats or property.
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Principles of Anchoring
3. Boats should not anchor in sea grass or
coral areas because of the damage that
the anchors can do to these habitats.
4. Boats should be able to get underway
within a reasonable amount of time.
5. Safety of the crew and boat is a primary
concern.
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Principles of Harbor Management
1. A harbor management plan should be
developed.
2. The plan should be based on objective
data obtained by inventories of natural
and cultural resources.
3. The plan should be based on
consensus.
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Principles Harbor Management
4. A local board should be created that includes
boaters in order to create the local harbor
management plan.
5. The local board should appoint a
harbormaster to implement the harbor
management plan.
6. The harbor management plan should focus
on providing adequate space via moorings or
anchoring areas both for transient boaters
and for safe shelter during storm events.
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Principles Harbor Management
7. The harbor management plan should provide
for a dinghy dock and on-shore facilities for
boaters.
8. The harbor management plan should provide
for signage in the harbor.
9. The board should inquire into funding
mechanisms for harbor signs, moorings,
improvements and amenities (dinghy dock,
showers, laundry facilities, etc.).
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Principles of Harbor Management
10.Try to get Special Anchorage
Designation.
11.Create a dispute resolution mechanism.
12.Obtain the right to use the submerged
lands.
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Project Initiation: Develop Baseline
• First, a community should develop
baseline technical and legal data.
• This first step will determine the legal and
technical feasibility of going forward and
should provide for public input.
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Develop Baseline Technical Data
• Preliminary technical review. Develop baseline
information for the public process.
• Create maps of your harbor that:
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Locate current obstructions
Locate regulatory jurisdictions
Locate environmental restraints e.g., sea grasses, oyster beds
Locate access to channels, channel markers,
Show depths
Illustrate navigation constraints
Illustrate physical constraints e.g., bottom holding
characteristics
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Example St. Johns
River Water
Management District
Depth Data: St.
Augustine Harbor
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Boater Characteristics
• Boat traffic
• Types of patrons:
transient versus local
• Current use
• Expected use
• Seasonality
• Assess boater needs
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Consider Shoreline
Resident Needs and
Expectations
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Potential Recreational Boater
Needs and Wants
Services and Amenities
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Mooring Master (office)
Security measures
Hot showers and restrooms
Drinking water
Secure dinghy docks
Pump-out station (or boat)
Fueling
Groceries, ship stores
Boat yard for repairs
Laundry facilities
Trash pickup, recycling
Recreational opportunities
Shore-side transportation
Bicycle racks
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Develop Baseline Technical Data
Harbor Maps that:
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Show study area boundaries
Locate current obstructions (e.g., shoals)
Locate regulatory jurisdictions and zones
Locate environmental restraints e.g., sea grasses,
oyster beds
• Show navigation and anchoring constraints
• Localized damage (e.g., seagrass scarring)
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Develop Baseline Legal Data
• Determine jurisdiction of bottom land
– Political (local government authority)
– Regulatory (DEP, USCG, ACOE etc.)
• Determine ownership of bottom land
• Include these determinations in the maps
created in the baseline technical data
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OWNERSHIP
OF SUBMERGED LANDS AND
OVERLYING WATERS
• State of Florida owns the submerged lands
– administered by Governor and Cabinet sitting as the
Board of Trustees of Internal Improvement Trust
Fund.
• DEP serves as staff
• Overlying waters also subject to public trust
– Administered by DEP
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Permitting of Mooring Field
• DEP and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have permitting authority over submerged
lands and overlying waters
• Aquatic Preserve designation presents an
additional regulatory overlay
• U.S. Coast Guard – has authority over
navigation safety and signage
• US FWS & Fl. FWCC have authority over
protected species (e.g. Manatees)
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Aquatic Preserves
•
MAMF’s located within aquatic preserves will be
subject to the Florida Aquatic Preserve Act and DEP
Regulations.
– This will impose separate criteria for obtaining a permit.
– For approval of the project it must be found to be IN the public
interest.
– Public Interest determination is based on a balancing of factors
as outlined in 18-20.004(2) of the Florida Administrative Code.
– Projects in more pristine and less developed aquatic preserves
are subject to and even higher standard in the public interest
analysis.
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Aquatic Preserves and the Public Interest
Important Factors to Consider
• Benefits
– Public access.
– Improve & enhance public
health, safety,and welfare.
– Improve public land
management.
– Improve & enhance public
navigation.
– Improve & enhance water
quality.
• Costs
– Reduced or degraded
water quality.
– Reduced or degraded
natural habitat and
function.
– Harm to endangered
species or their habitats.
– Adverse cumulative
impacts.
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Other Important Aquatic Preserve
Considerations
• Activities in aquatic preserves with management plans
must be consistent with the preserve management
plan.
• Docking facilities (moorings included) are subject to
additional criteria in 18-20.004(5) of the F.A.C.
• Revenue generating docking facilities are subject to
additional criteria in 18-20.004(5)(d)of the F.A.C.
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So What About MAMFs in Aquatic Preserves?
• Public recreation is allowable within aquatic
preserves.
• Important Aquatic Preserve Goals
– Protect waters through regulation of human activity,
so that the public may continue to use the waters for
recreation including boating.
– Encouraging the protection, enhancement, or
restoration of aquatic preserves.
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The Lease is the Law
• The State regulates the MAMF through the
Submerged Lands Lease (and the DEP Permit)
• These are obtained through a joint application
process
• The Lease incorporates The DEP Permit, and all
local government governance documents
•These include
–The authorizing ordinance
–The Harbor Management Plan
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The Lease is the Law
•Key lease & permit provisions
encountered in MAMF’s surveyed
– Nearly all moorings must be made
available to public on a first-come firstserve basis (90% Sarasota & FMB)
– Commercial activities generally
prohibited
– Use of revenue may be restricted
– Manatee education plan must be put in
effect
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THE 2005 WORKING WATERFRONTS LEGISLATION
AND MAMFs
To address concerns over access to marine waters,
and the decline in “working waterfronts” the legislature
enacted Chapter 2005-955, Florida Statutes
Especially relevant aspects of the law:
– Requires DEP to develop a general permit for
mooring fields 50,000 sq. feet or less
– General permit is a simplified permit process
– 50,000 sq. ft. is a little less than 1 acre (43,560 sq.ft)
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Mooring Radius
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2005 WORKING WATERFRONTS LEGISLATION
The Legislature also requires coastal counties to include
“regulatory incentives & criteria” that encourage preservation
of recreational and commercial working waterfronts in their
future land use element
The express purpose of this is to “provide access to
navigable waters of the state for the public.”
Which is something a managed anchorage and mooring field
will help to accomplish
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Establish Parameters of Harbor
Management Plan
– Use principles of harbor management
– Determine whether mooring field will be
municipal, concession or non-profit
– Solicit public input
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Project Development
The successful establishment of a
mooring field requires the completion of
three concurrent processes once the
baseline data is gathered.
– Technical Process
– Legal Process
– Public Process
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Technical Process of establishing a
mooring field:
• Develop permit(s) application information
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Navigational
Biological
Water quality
Hydrology
• This may require a coastal engineering
consultant
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Technical Process: Signs
• Establish signage needs and permit
requirements.
• Federal Permits
– Rivers and Harbors Act, Section 10, USACOE
• State Permits
– “Uniform waterway markers” Fla. Stat. 327.40
• See Thomas Ankersen, Richard Hamann, Melissa Gross-Arnold,
Regulatory Requirements for Private Aids to Navigation (Aug. 1998).
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Legal Steps in establishing a managed
mooring field and anchorage
1.
2.
3.
4.
Confirm the ownership of submerged lands.
Confirm relevant political jurisdiction.
Review Local Government Comprehensive Plans to determine
whether a MAMF will be consistent with the plan.
Initiate Drafting of Proposed Ordinance or Resolution
see Thomas Ankersen, Christopher H. Pearce, An Annotated Model Municipal
Harbor Management Ordinance (Aug. 2001).
5.
Select administration option.
1.
2.
3.
Governmental - Municipal
Concession - Draft agreement between local government and
concessionaire.
Not-For Profit Organization
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Legal Steps in establishing a managed
mooring field and anchorage
6.
Obtain authorizations.
1.
2.
3.
4.
7.
Submerged lands lease
Environmental Resource Permit - DEP
Obstructions to Navigation – section 10 – Rivers and Harbor
Act (USACOE)
Special Anchorage Area Designation – U.S. Coast Guard
Resource Agency Consultations
1.
2.
3.
Fish and Wildlife Service
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Other
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Legal: Apply to be a Special Anchorage
Area
• Special anchorage areas are designated
by the U.S. Coast Guard and provide
certain navigational and regulatory
benefits.
– They become marked on nautical charts
– They eliminate the need to display an
anchor light at night
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Legal: Prepare Rules for Boaters that
would be appended to use agreement
• Examples from Fort Myers Beach
– Comply with U. S. Coast Guard regulations and safety
standards and Chapter 327 of the Florida Statutes
– Be in good operational condition, capable of maneuvering
under its own power
– Have current registration or acceptable documentation
otherwise
– Have Liability Insurance coverage
– Contain a U. S. Coast Guard approved marine sanitation
device, that complies with the U. S. Coast Guard requirements
governing the installation and use of such devices upon that
particular vessel
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Legal: Prepare Harbormaster’s
Operations and Management Handbook
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Public Input
• Provide two or three different opportunities for public
input prior to establishing a MAMF.
• The public should be provided the opportunity to sit
down with the planners with the maps and the Harbor
Management Plan created in the baseline step and
determine:
– Any information that is missing from the maps such as other
environmental constraints or user conflicts
– Location of amenities, e.g., dinghy dock, bathrooms, pump out
station etc.
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Public: Potential Issues
• Length of stay
• Live aboards
– You may want to encourage some live aboards in order to
foster a sense of community and increase security
(campground host)
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Fee structure
– Tiered fees – graduated downward according to length of stay
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Relationship between harbormaster and boaters.
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LENGTH OF STAY
• Many jurisdictions regulate length of stay
on waters within their jurisdictions
• However, this is not required in order to
have a MAMF
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LIVE-ABOARDS (& length of stay within the
MAMF)
•A MAMF may consider restricting & varying length of stay
within the mooring field
•The State generally discourage live-aboards but they are
allowed in some instances (e.g. Ft. Myers Beach)
•Pursuant to the FMB Lease a Live-Aboard is:
–“A vessel docked at the facility and inhabited by a person for any 5
consecutive days or a total of 10 within a 30 day period.”
–If allowed, “live-aboard status cannot exceed 6 months within any
12 month period”
•There can be significant benefits to at least some liveboards
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Fee Schedule Considerations
• Different Transient vs. Live-Aboard fees
• Reduced rate for off-peak season
• Monthly facility fee for amenities not included in
base rate
Ex.: Vero Beach fees support facilities including fueling facility, pump-out
facility and restrooms.
• Reduced rate or tiered fees, graduated down
for long-term stay
Ex: vary between $6.50 and $10.00 per day.
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Amenity & Service Considerations
• Included Services
– Are they covered in the basic fee structure?
• Services Provided at Additional Cost
– Will boaters expect the service to be at an
additional cost?
• Consider a monthly flat fee
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Regulating Activities Within the
MAMF
• Reference local noise ordinance in MAMF
Ordinance
• Reference Fla. Stat. Chapter 327 regarding
vessel operational requirements in MAMF
ordinance
• Prohibit other nuisance-like activities in MAMF
Ordinance (VB)
– Rowdy Conduct (VB, FM)
– Hanging laundry (VB, FM, S)
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Regulating Activities Within the
MAMF
– Hours for Repairs, or Not Allow Repairs (VB, FM, S, M)
• Consider Major or Refitting Vessels vs. Minor
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Limit For Sale Signage (FM, S)
No Advertising or Soliciting (FM, S)
Leashed pets only (VB, FM, S)
Operational Hours for Noise & Machinery (FM, S, M)
Prohibit grills on the dock (FM, S)
Fishing in designated areas, or not at all (S)
Swimming Prohibited (S, ??)
Feeding Wildlife Prohibited (S)
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Other Important Considerations In
Establishing a MAMF
1. Insurance Requirements
Proof of Insurance (M, S, FMB)
2. Clear Dispute Resolution Processes
3. Schedule Inspections & Maintenance
During Off-Peak Season (ie, September
for VB)
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COASTAL
ENGINEERING
CONSULTANTS
INC.
Technical Considerations
Vessel Types & Sizes
Subsurface Conditions
Tidal Parameters
Wind Exposure & Fetch
Mooring Radius Overlap
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COASTAL
ENGINEERING
CONSULTANTS
INC.
MOORING SYSTEMS
Anchors
Down Lines
Buoys
Pendants
Hardware
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COASTAL
ENGINEERING
CONSULTANTS
INC.
MOORING
COMPONENTS
Town of Ft.
Myers Beach
City of
Sarasota
Technical and Financial Resources
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Technical Assistance Team (FDEP)
Waterfronts Florida
Office of Boating and Waterways (FWC)
Florida Boating Improvements Trust Fund
Florida Inland Navigation District
Clean Vessel Act grant program (FDEP)
Florida Sea Grant (technical)
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QUESTIONS???
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