Plans would defer dock owners' taxes

Public access to marinas would be required

BY AARON DESLATTE
FLORIDA TODAY

TALLAHASSEE - Coastal communities could offer property-tax deferrals to waterfront owners who keep their docks and marinas open to the public as part of a late-session legislative push to keep Florida's waterways accessible.

The House and Senate bills debated Tuesday require coastal counties and cities to adopt plans for preserving commercial and recreational docks in their comprehensive plans, and gives county commissions the option of deferring property taxes to encourage dock owners to keep their facilities open to the public.

It also directs the state Department of Environmental Protection to study where it could increase boating access within state parks.

Earlier this year, the state cabinet ruled the Whitley Bay Marina in Cocoa must remain open to the public until 2008. Developers hoping to make the marina a members-only club were told to keep 90 percent of its slips available to the public until its current submerged-land leases with the state expire.

Lawmakers have said Florida's $14 billion-a-year boating industry is threatened by the vanishing number of boat slips, as more public marinas are scooped up by condo developers and converted to private use.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has estimated only 1,300 of the 8,000 docks in the state are open to the public, while the number of registered vessels is skyrocketing.

"Florida's heading for a crisis in terms of access to waterways," Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said Tuesday.

Gone from the bill that cleared the House last week, and is nearing passage in the Senate, are provisions that would raise boat registration fees to pay for public waterfront construction.

Instead, the legislation would devote $1 from every registration to constructing marinas.

Bennett also tried to slip into the bill a provision to allow rural counties to dodge limitations on the amount of acreage they could approve for development without further state review.

Developers have tried to get the provision to bump up the cap on small scale amendments from 10 acres to 20 acres into different bills with a chance of passing the Legislature this year.

"And I got caught," Bennett said from the Senate floor.

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