Wally Moran is an experienced cruiser who fights continuously for boaters’ rights. Florida’s infamous anchoring bans and heavy handed marine police have endangered boaters for years. See Call to Action  and More on Florida House Bill 437.

Unfortunately, the city of Miami Beach is refusing to see reason and continue attempting to remove the legally anchored boaters within the city waters.
Following the defeat in the legislature of a bill creating 600 foot offsets from Miami Beach which would have made anchoring within the city impossible, the city then came up with a docking “contract”. This contract would have permitted, with certain conditions, more than the current 20 minute access to the only available dock for shore access in town. 

Note that the city has contracted with Sea Tow to remove dinghies anchored over this time, with a return fee of $600. Seems the company doesn’t recognize who its actual customers are. As a result of the time limit, the local boaters have been dropping off and picking up one another to get to and from shore.
The proposed contract, which would have been established via a city ordinance, mandated that use of the dock could be had for a monthly fee of $750. This got you access to the dock and a Porta potty in the parking lot, clearly one of the better deals we’ve seen lately /sarc off.
However, you had to anchor more than 1000 feet from the city. Since the water in this area shallows out to under five feet at this distance, that meant the nearest location you could anchor was well over a mile away, in Miami, or in Key Biscayne.
Now let’s not pay attention to the fact that this “deal” violated Fl § 327.60, which states that local governments may not enact or enforce anchoring ordinances. Let’s also not pay attention to the fact that a contract which contains illegal conditions is unenforceable. And let’s not pay attention to the other onerous conditions within the “contract” that also violated various Florida statutes. There were several.
Local boaters protested vigorously at the next city commissioners meeting, resulting in Commissioner David Suarez stating that if the boaters didn’t like it, then the city would just totally bar access to the dock for the boaters.
At a special meeting on the issue the following week, tempers flared as Suarez continued to push this piece of garbage. His only concession was to reduce the offset to 700 feet, creating an anchoring area that was on top of a major channel leading from Miami to Government Cut, thus creating a hazardous situation.
The USCG is investigating this proposal.
When all of his plans were explained to him as both illegal and unacceptable, Suarez blew those criticisms off. He then stated that the city would simply bar access to the dock by disallowing anchored boaters to pick up and drop off, and restrict dock usage to Miami Beach residents.
Brilliant strategy. Not!
The docks in question were funded in part by Florida Inland Navigational District, and when I informed the organization of this new policy, they quickly advised the city of Miami Beach mayor and commissioners that they couldn’t restrict the docks in this manner.
So here’s the scorecard for the city of Miami Beach, what they’ve done since December to remove the boaters.

First the city claimed the boaters were polluting the harbor. Turns out, that’s on the city and the Surfriders Foundation weekly tests prove – and they said publicly — it’s not the boats, it’s the city’s pipes. “The boats are not the problem” was the actual statement, and in any event, the harbor is among the least polluted sites they test on Biscayne Bay.

So the next claim was that the boaters were damaging the seagrass. Another no. FIU’s professor, marine patrol Sergeant Revende stated in a televised interview that there’s little to no seagrass on the bottom. Even the city’s own survey stated as much!

So next was state legislation. Nope, we beat the city there with the help of CruisersNet, Cruisers Rights Network of North America (of which I’m president), Boat US, and over a thousand emails from annoyed boaters to members of the legislature.

In December, they tore out the Collins Canal dock and Commissioner Suarez then went on tv to state that his goal was to force the boaters into “acting illegally” by “cutting their lifeline” for groceries, water, etc.
Next Suarez comes up with the aforementioned docking “compromise”, which includes at least four violations of the Florida statutes. And now the dock fiasco, barring the boaters from the dock in violation of the city’s funding agreement.

Suarez could be Barnum and Bailey reincarnated, and the rest of the commissioners his clown show, that’s how bad it looks.

Today, the city commission will table the docking proposal and introduce the ordinance to block local anchored boaters from using the dock. It will be interesting to see what happens today and how the city chooses to deal with the continuing farce they’ve created.—