Who is Impacted? 

Residents of Lakeview Park and the greater Riviera Beach Community cherish our waterways. Every day members of the community sunbathe, swim, fish, kayak, snorkel, and enjoy the view. And, it's not just people - the manatees, sting rays, birds, and fish, among other marine life, live here too and are seen from the Blue Heron bridge and shorelines. 

The City of Riviera Beach wants to install a public mooring field with 56 mooring locations South of the Blue Heron Bridge from approx. 25th and 17th streets. 

 

 

 

 

 

What is at Stake ? 

The environment and quality of life are both at stake in this Project. The City contends that this initiative will benefit the environment and finances. On the contrary, the Project will likely do more harm to the environment and result in no gain to a net financial loss for the City. 

 

Environmental Context 

•  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) denied the City of Riviera Beach's request to use a general permit for this Project on three grounds: regulatory, proprietary, and federal authorization. The City failed all three reviews. File No. 50-0415265-002-EG dated January 9, 2023, provided a lengthy commentary on problems with the proposed plan. 

 

• The Riviera Beach City proposed the Project at a FIND Board of Commissioners meeting on June 17, 2022 for a ~ $800k grant. The Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) is a special State taxing district for the ongoing management and maintenance of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The Project was declined for funding. FIND said the proposed area was already sufficiently congested. When FIND asked why this area was presented and not an area North of the Bridge, which was more suitable, the response reportedly was "[Sugar Sands on Singer Island] didn't want it." Still, our Representatives have yet to ask the residents of Lakeview Park [ on the inland side] if they want it in their backyard - why not?  
• Note - FIND's ranking of this project was literally second to last out of 50 projects presented. It got a score of 28 out of 50! And, that was on empty fields; i.e. before the density was shown. All other projects except for a kayak launch were rated higher. 

 

• The City's consultant Mr. Sprague seemed to agree that the area in front of Lakeview Park is inappropriate for a Mooring Field. Now, it appears the City has hired new consultants. It should be noted the City has been working on this concept for years, according to them since 2018. 

 

• The City is well aware that community members are concerned about this Project. Yet, it moved forward with a Permit Request SAJ-2022-00332 (SP-CGK) to the US Army Corps of Engineers and opted not to provide notice to the community of Lakeview Park (not even as a common courtesy to allow their voices to be on public record as taxpayers who live and vote in this City!). The City also said it would notify affected residents of a proposed presentation of the Mooring Field Project on February 1st Council Meeting - though it has yet to follow through with notice to the residents in Lakeview Park. Why so? 
  • Palm Beach County has been moving to ban anchoring of floating structures. Where all those unsightly "structures" will be permitted to sit is in Mooring Fields.  https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2021/05/20/floating-structures-anchored-palm-beach-county-waters-may-banned/5164276001/
  • In 2022, the town of Palm Beach was also unnerved when they weren't informed of the project being planned near Palm Beach’s North End. It appeared those plans were withdrawn, now they may be back for a Town Hall Meeting on Feb 27 even though the diagrams still appear to grossly encroach on Palm Beach City boundaries. https://palmbeachcivic.org/august-6-2022/

 

• The City of Riviera Beach claims it will enforce mandatory pump out of mooring field boats via a floating pump out station in the water. Installing 56 boat "parking lots" doesn't guarantee water quality improvement. The pump out problem is ICW-wide. It's much more practical to declare an Anchoring Limitation Area than try to solve a pollution problem by permanently installing many more boats in a concentrated area and then "attempting" to force pump-out.  We must also consider the noise pollution and wind-borne debris from those 56 parked vessels. What happens when a hurricane comes through, and we have to deal with an additional 56-boat pileup on our shoreline or in our tourist-attracting reef? Is the City's insurance going to cover that? 
  • Learn about what happened in They Keys when a dozen City-managed moorings failed as Hurricane Ian brushed by on its way up the coast last year.  https://www.keysnews.com/news/hurricane-ian-shines-light-on-mooring-failures/article_18ab309c-464e-11ed-be3d-8bd0a3866a01.html

 

• The City of Rivera Beach also claims that these moorings will be safe for seagrass and better than errant anchoring. While hard evidence has yet to be provided to substantiate this claim, one must consider these facts: 1. Only a few boats anchor in this area now. Most vessels anchor on the Singer Island side, where they are better sheltered from the currents. 2. Other factors negatively affect seagrasses, such as increased motorboat traffic, shade, and environmental waste (gas, oil, and septic), whether voluntarily or involuntarily released into our waters.  

 

Financial context 

• The City claims this Project will bring additional revenue to the coffers - something like $200-500 per/month/mooring. So, the City is okay investing ~ $250k+ to install the moorings (In previous articles it was mentioned a mooring would cost $4,500 to install), which could take up to two years to break even, depending on earned revenue, and that doesn't factor in the managed fees the City will pay to a third party for operating the mooring field, nor any costs associated with the "land facility." The total project was estimated at $2.2M in prior council meetings.  There is a significant risk that the City will make no revenue from this Project. Instead, our hard-earned taxpayer money will be for the benefit of a third party to oversee the mooring field administration and operational expenses, including security, maintenance, software licensing for rental and payment processing, insurance, etc. 

 

 

Why is now the time to act? 

 

We all want to improve our City for everyone's mutual benefit. Jamming in a mooring field to fit 56 more boats in a heavily trafficked area doesn't achieve that goal. It's an expensive and high-risk project that will do more harm than good to an already overburdened natural resource. 

We, the Community, want our City Representatives to put this idea to rest, once and for all, and stop wasting taxpayer money on consultants trying to push this initiative forward behind our backs. The Riviera Beach Community is in dire need of infrastructure repair + affordable housing access for the safety and benefit of all residents. That message is loud in clear in Council Meetings. 

Please share this petition so our voices can all be heard together and our elected representatives can understand where we stand on this initiative.