Scuttlebutt: Boat Ramp and Parking Under Fire From City

The City’s Comprehensive Plan designates this site as a .01 Boat Ramp Facility, a classification that requires adequate parking to support public water access. Moreover, the ramp itself is open 24 hours a day a policy that implies continuous, unrestricted access for boaters at all hours.

Yet under Ordinance 78-77, the City imposes restrictive parking hours (5am–7pm) and bans overnight parking of trailers without a permit a permit process which is neither visible nor accessible to the public. This creates a legal and functional contradiction:

How can 24 hour ramp use be offered if trailer parking disappears after 7pm?

This inconsistency:

• Undermines safe and reasonable boat launching and retrieval well before sunset, night or early morning

• Potentially violates the Florida Boating Improvement Program or FIND access requirements (if funding was involved) the .01 boat ramp facility list “adequate parking”

• Creates the appearance of policy manipulation to favor certain users such as commercial tour buses over local residents and recreational boaters.

This is a critical red flag: you can’t claim 24-hour public access and simultaneously restrict the very infrastructure needed to use it.

recommend appending this paragraph to the earlier drafted request for action, under a new section:

The City’s own policy contradiction must be resolved:

• The .01 Boat Ramp Facility designation mandates adequate and compatible parking infrastructure

• The ramp is open 24/7, yet boat trailer parking is prohibited overnight;

• No clear overnight permit process exists despite Ordinance 78-77(d) allowing it.

This incompatibility results in de facto denial of late night access for boaters especially for offshore fishermen, nighttime gigging and emergency users despite the ramp being technically “open.” If parking isn’t available when the ramp is, the access is functionally denied.

This may constitute a violation of both local planning code and the public trust doctrine.

Capt. Jesse Clyde Stubbs