Our thanks to Kim Russo for sharing this good news via AGLCA‘s Forum and also to Mike Bodin of MTOA. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that in the future this law will stand up to the pressure on legislators from wealthy landowners to restrict anchoring.

Great news! I was just notified by our lobbyist that HB 7043 was approved by the Governor. It is law. As of now, no local municipality or county in the state of Florida may ban, restrict, or otherwise regulate an anchorage in Florida coastal waters.
Loopers’ interest in this issue and financial contributions helped prevent the enactment of any setbacks that could have resulted in the elimination of any existing anchorages state wide.

Congratulations to all Loopers, members of MTOA, SSCA, and others who supported this effort, stuck with it, and made your voices heard! You have made a difference to the boating community. Special thanks goes out to Jerry Paul of Capitol Access for his diligent efforts on our behalf. His guidance and hard work made all the difference.

Kim Russo
Director
America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association
krusso@greatloop.org 

And this from Mike Bodin, MTOA Public Affairs:

Thank you AGLCA, SSCA, MTOA and DeFever, for
your continued support. Florida’s anchoring Bill now
is law.
Florida’s new Mooring & Anchoring bill has become law. The Governor just approved HB 7043.
It is law. As of now, the new law explicitly states no local municipality or county in the state of
Florida may ban, restrict, or otherwise regulate an anchorage in Florida coastal waters. This
plainly worded section of the new law eliminates each community from setting its own
regulations. If this section was not plainly worded it would have resulted in many lost
anchorages over time with boaters challenging cities for the right to anchor. Instead, we got
the pre-emotion provision … preventing any local government from banning an anchorage.
It was important for us to ensure there were no unreasonable setbacks in this bill. But, as I have
said in the past, the single most valuable piece of this bill is the preemption provision. This seals
off local governments. The only way that a new anchorage can be banned is by an Act of the
entire Legislature and Governor. We can almost always kill such a bill. Moreover, we can likely
kill any future effort to overturn the preemption or add new band and ranges in state statute.
With the state level preemption and no local control, we are now in a position of strength. It is
a home-field advantage for our side. Without preemption, however, the entire issue is a home
game for all the anti-cruisers in EACH of their local communities… an infinite number battles
that we would not be able to fight piecemeal.
Moreover, SSCA, AGLCA, MTOA and DeFever prevented the enactment of any setbacks that
could have resulted in the elimination of any existing anchorages state wide.
Finally, you did a lot to rehabilitate some of the negative imagery about anchoring cruisers that
had made its way to the Capitol.
Congratulations to each of you, this team, and all the members of MTOA, SSCA, AGLCA,
DeFever who supported your effort, stuck with you, and made your voices heard… to protect
the freedoms of cruisers.
The above is from our Tallahassee “Boaters Rights” Lobbyists Jerry Paul of Capitol Access who
skillfully guided this legislation through six committee hearings with unanimous approval.
Of major importance was the fact this was the accumulation of Florida’s 9-year, multi-million
dollar, anchoring study resulting in a 256 page report. It was thought Florida’s new law may be
a precedent for other states along the waterway. This was a primary cause to eliminate as
much as possible harmful to boater’s language which would be in the new law. Counties, cities,
waterside home owners and condominium groups were for local control to establish nonanchoring
zones. Local control was totally defeated. Today the new law requires very high
standards for counties to satisfy to even approach the state to establish new non-anchoring
zones.
Another major accomplishment, within the original FWC report, waterside residents were
insistent for non-anchoring setbacks of 150’ up to 300’ along the waterway. This would have
eliminated many now popular anchorages. The new law eliminated these setbacks for boaters.
During this same time, we were instrumental with Florida’s new Derelict Vessel law, the
previous bill was defeated because we felt it was too harsh for the boat owner, fines to high
and did not give adequate time for owner removal. The new Derelict Vessel Law corrects these
items.
Mike Bodin
MTOA Public Advocate

And this from BoatUS

NEWS From BoatUS

Boat Owners Association of The United States
880 S. Pickett St., Alexandria VA 22304
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: D. Scott Croft, 703-461-2864, SCroft@BoatUS.com

Florida Bill Strengthens Derelict Vessel Fight,

Promotes Environmentally Sound Public Access

BoatUS thanks governor and legislature

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 27, 2017 – The results of an eight-year pilot program are in, and Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature have acted. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) congratulates the governor and legislators on Friday’s passage of HB 7043 that promotes environmentally sound public access and helps address the issue of improperly stored, abandoned or derelict vessels. “These are sound regulations supported by responsible boaters,” said BoatUS Manager of Government Affairs David Kennedy.

When the pilot program was enacted in 2009, a patchwork of local anchoring regulations sometimes made stopping difficult. Some boaters reported fearing a visit from law enforcement advising that they had “overstayed” their visit and needed to move on.

Conducted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and five local governments including the City of St. Augustine, City of Stuart/Martin County, City of St. Petersburg, City of Sarasota and Monroe County/Marathon/Key West, the pilot tested a variety of methods of regulated anchoring, while still protecting the anchoring rights of the active cruising public. It also sought to reduce the growing population of derelict vessels in the state.

BoatUS expressly thanks Gov. Scott, Reps. Matt Caldwell (Lee County) Holly Raschein (Monroe County), Sen. Lauren Book (Broward County) and the FWC for their work on the bill.

Some of bill’s measures include:

providing commonsense anchoring regulations in and around mooring fields and waterway infrastructure.
broadening the definition of a “derelict vessel”; for boats in use, adding new penalties for those whose vessel registration is expired beyond six months; and making it illegal to affix a vessel to an unpermitted, unauthorized or otherwise “unlawful object,” affixed to the bottom of the waters of the state. This could include an unpermitted mooring or an old engine block.
giving local governments the option to require proof of pumpout after vessels have been anchored for 10 days or longer in federally managed no-discharge-zones (portions of the Florida Keys and waters off Destin).

Our thanks to Kim Russo of AGLCA for posting this summary on Forum.

Here’s a very helpful summary prepared by our lobbyist, Jerry Paul, out-lining the action to date on the current bill and what it includes. [exoand title=”Read More!“]

HB 7043 – “Vessels”

2017 Florida Legislative Session

_______________________________________________

Pursuant to Florida Statutes adopted in 2009, Florida’s FWC (Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission) conducted an Anchoring & Mooring Pilot Program which concluded in 2017. The 2009 law also required the FWC to issue a report and required the Florida Legislature to act on recommendations from the pilot program. It is this mandate that HB 7043 addresses. The bill incorporates many of the findings and recommendations from the pilot program. As of May 1, 2017, the bill has been adopted by the Florida House of Representative and the Florida Senate. The bill has been “enrolled” and sent to the Florida Governor for consideration.

Summary of the bill:

Prohibits local governments (cities and counties) from adopting new laws that ban or restrict anchoring and mooring outside the boundaries of existing mooring fields.This regulatory authority is reserved to the State so that local governments cannot create a confusing patchwork that varies by location.

Provides more flexibility for removal of derelict vessels. For example, a vessel is at risk of becoming derelict if the vessel does not have effective means of propulsion for safe navigation within 72 hours after the owner or operator of the vessel receives notice of such from a law enforcement officer and cannot provide proof of purchase of parts necessary for repair.

The bill does not create any new anchoring restricted areas.The bill does not include the drastic anchoring “set-backs” had been proposed by some local governments and anti-anchoring activists.The bill does, however, include the following setbacks:

Prohibits a vessel or floating structure from anchoring or mooring within 150 feet of a marina, boat ramp, boatyard, or other vessel launching or loading facility, within 300 feet of a superyacht repair facility.
Prohibits anchoring within 100 feet outward from the marked boundary of a public mooring field. A local government may establish a distance less than this (but not more) upon notification to FWC.
Provides exceptions to these restrictions in situations such as when weather requires temporary anchoring for safety.

Note: As stated above, the bill does not create any new anchoring restricted areas. Remember, however, that a bill was adopted during the 2016 legislative session that established anchoring restricted areas in the following locations: (a) The section of Middle River lying between Northeast 21st Court and the Intracoastal Waterway in Broward County; (b) Sunset Lake in Miami-Dade County; (c) The sections of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County lying between: 1. Rivo Alto Island and Di Lido Island, 2. San Marino Island and San Marco Island, and 3. San Marco Island and Biscayne Island.

Prohibits a vessel or floating structure from anchoring, mooring, tying, or otherwise affixing to an unpermitted or unauthorized object that is on or affixed to the bottom of waters of the state.

Allows local governments to adopt the Monroe County/Florida Keys standard program for requiring proof of pump-outs within 10-14 days in certain locations such as no-discharge zones and mooring fields.

Kim Russo
Director
America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association
krusso@greatloop.org
843.879.5030

Wally Moran adds his thoughts on this legislation via his blog, LiveBloggin’ the ICW