Notes from Waterfront Implementation Committee

A proposed dock expansion is planned for Grove Harbour Marina. The Waterfront Advisory Board met last week, and the committee's position has been to add more docks to the area as long as it does not have any adverse impact on current marine uses. After a lengthy discussion, a resolution was approved for distribution to the City Manager, Mayor, Commissioners, and Director of Facilities. The resolution says: "Please review the proposed dock expansion at Grove Harbour Marina. The current plan appears to create serious navigation and access issues for City of Miami leaseholders, entities with management agreements, and easement holders, including, Monty’s, Shake-A-Leg, the US Sailing Center, Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, and Coral Reef Yacht Club."

The permits for the mangrove trimming in Peacock and Myers Parks have been going back and forth with DERM (Department of Environmental Resources Management) for almost two years. The Parks Department certified arborist has revised the permits several times with the hope of finalizing the permits. The permits will grandfather in the windowing of the mangroves, so new permits will not be necessary and the mangroves can finally be opened up so the water will be visible from the parks. As you may remember, this all happened with a mitigation process where one sloppy, careless developer decided to destroy tree canopies in favor of planting the mangroves along the shore, which did not exist in the past, causing the problem today. The mangroves are not native to the area, or at least have not been native to the park shoreline for 100 years or so.

Floating docks planned for the area behind Scotty’s Landing and The Chart House have been stalled. FIND awarded a grant for design and permitting of the public pier, but construction funding is not available to start the project, so the City has put it on the back burner. FIND (Florida Inland Navigation District) however, redirected the grant funds to a series of floating docks, which will perform a similar purpose. One complication (there is always one) is that the State owns the bay bottom.