FROM THE HELM The Florida Anti-Anchoring Bill Goes to the Governor As we go to press in mid-March, SJ 980, the bill that restricts anchoring in some Florida communities, sits on the governor’s desk, waiting to be signed. It is expected to be signed and would become law July 1. It prohibits anchoring in certain communities in southeast Florida where wealthy waterfront landowners don’t like boats anchored in waters off their properties. The cruising community has been talking about it for over a year, when the idea was first proposed to become law, although for years these communities have complained that they don’t want boaters in “their” waters. It’s no surprise that these are wealthy landowners, since money talks in the United States and wields more power when you have more of it. The law goes against the very core of the law passed in 2009 establishing the Florida Mooring and Anchoring Pilot Program, which prohibited local communities from restricting anchoring until the program was completed in 2017, when the results of several years of study would help determine laws that would be uniform throughout the state— and fair to all. In other words, the legislature chose to ignore that ruling, even after all those years of work by the FWC and the boating community to try and find common ground on the anchoring problem. Will this be an indication of more to come? More laws all over the state that prohibit anchoring in navigable waters if they touch some homeowner’s property? The law needs to be tested. I think back to David Dumas, who, in January 2007 on his 42-foot Krogen motor yacht, Kinship, tested a law in Marco Island that prohibited anchoring closer than
STEVE MORRELL,
EDITOR
300 feet from shore. He was arrested, it went to court and he won. He had allies who helped him plan the event and his defense before he tested the law. I thought that was a landmark case. I am no lawyer, but has that ruling been ignored in passing this bill? Can a state legislature just pass a bill that is against the law? I was once told that a local community cannot legally pass a law if they know that it would be struck down by the courts, but that is almost never enforced as it is so hard to prove. They can always just say: “We didn’t interpret it that way.” Stranger still was what one legislator tried to add to the bill: Prohibit anchoring on a sandbar in the Panhandle where weekend boaters frequently gather—in large numbers— because they cause too much of ruckus. I’ve seen some of those gatherings at various locations and, yes, some do cause a ruckus. But is that the way to handle that problem? On top of that another legislator proposed adding more sandbars to the one proposed. Fortunately, the proponents of the bill that did pass stopped the amendment, saying it was too different of a situation to be added to their bill, which was about property owners. But what’s in store in Florida for the future of antianchoring laws when you get those kinds of ideas proposed? Scary. You can read more about the bill on page 24, which by the time you read this, could be law—unless Governor Scott had a revelation and vetoed it.
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April 2016
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