Boat Lift Covers One Step Closer to Final Approval

Over the last several months a considerable discussion regarding how boat owners might better protect their crafts from the ravages of the Florida UV rays has bounced around between Marco Island’s City Council, Planning Board and the planning staff. 

At the February 7 meeting of the city council, many were confused when city staff brought back a recommendation for rejection and maintaining the status quo. Many on the planning board believed they had given a thumbs up to approve the much simpler approach.

At the council meeting in February, over three dozen residents came forward to plead their case and found a sympathetic ear. Council agreed with staff’s recommendation to simplify the verbiage and make definition changes but agreed with the residents’ regarding their request. 

Daniel Smith, Marco Island’s Community Development Director attempted to make his point, until Councilor Rich Blonna, obviously agitated at Smith’s insistence on rejecting the canopy notion, finally said, “Enough. Let it go.” 

Councilor Greg Folley objected to creating an unnecessary bureaucracy to manage the issue and rejected throwing the request for a canopy into the “bureaucratic black hole” of a conditional use permit process, further financially punishing a person seeking a permit. The council agreed with the citizens and directed staff to create the parameters to allow the canopy option to be available to residents who desire it.

At the March 18 meeting of the Planning Board, simpler compromises were finally reached as Director of Community Affairs Daniel Smith coined the more simplified term of a “boat lift cover.” 

Board Member Geoff Fahringer made a motion, which was seconded by Board Member Nanette Rivera, to strike most of the sections of the proposed legislation that were seen as confusing and send it back to staff for their wordsmithing of the verbiage, and to obtain final approval of their board before transmitting it back to council for final approval.

In the end the motion by Board Member Fahringer and seconded by Rivera passed 7-0.