- December 11, 2024
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When residents returned after Hurricane Helene, some found their boats in different places, and some damaged. Other residents couldn't find their boats.
The boats were resting on lifts designed to conform to the town's code, which restricts the height of the lift equipment. Some boat-owning residents want these regulations changed given what they experienced.
North-end resident Jim Haft was one resident whose boat was dislodged and damaged from Helene’s surge.
“It ended up in my neighbor’s yard in the first storm. There it sat safely through the second storm,” Haft said about his 30-foot boat. “But three other boats in our community either sank or just disappeared.”
Another resident, Steve Weyl, couldn’t find his boat after Helene.
Luckily, someone found his boat damaged and floating down a nearby canal. Like Haft’s situation, Helene’s storm surge moved Weyl’s boat from its lift.
Residents like Haft and Weyl say the issue is the town’s code which restricts the height of boat lifts.
“Longboat Key is very restrictive at 5 feet. Nobody else has that kind of restriction. It’s kind of unique to Longboat Key,” Weyl said.
The town’s current code restricts the top of the boat lift equipment to 5 feet from the highest walking surface of the adjacent dock.
Chapter 158 of the town’s code regulates structures over water.
“No part of the boat lift structure, except boat guides, shall exceed a height of five feet, measured from the highest walking surface of the dock,” the code says about boat lifts adjacent to a dock.
The same rules apply to lifts that are built adjacent to a seawall cap if there is no dock.
For areas under Sarasota County’s code, Chapter 54 “Environmental and Natural Resources” outlines the same type of regulations, but with a higher maximum.
“Boathouses and vessel lifting devices must have open sides, and shall not exceed 15 feet in height as measured from mean high water,” the code reads.
And in unincorporated Manatee County, the county code lacks specific language to regulate boat lifts. Only covered boat houses and boat hoists are regulated to a maximum height of 20 feet above the mean high water line, or 10 feet above the ground, whichever is higher.
Given the more lax restrictions in neighboring areas, Weyl and Haft feel that Longboat Key should give residents the ability to replace boat lifts higher, especially after what many experienced in Helene.
“Clearly, our boat lifts are too low,” Haft said.
Haft and Weyl both speculated that the current regulation may have been written from an aesthetic standpoint, to prevent boat lifts from being too high and blocking views.
“That was probably an aesthetic thing, and I get it,” Weyl said. “And that was probably established many years ago…we never really had properties getting wet like they have been.”
Weyl argued, since the lifts are on canals that are adjacent to property owners, the higher lifts would only impact the views of those property owners.
“The aesthetics only affect the people who really have boat lifts,” Weyl said. “Not the general public.”
Weyl is confident a few extra feet granted for boat lifts would make a big difference.
While his boat on Longboat Key was floating away in a canal during Helene, his other boat was on a higher lift in Bradenton Beach. This one survived both storms.
The high surge caused more damage to the Longboat lifts than moving boats.
“It destroyed the lifts,” Weyl said. “But so many of the lifts got wet, the motors and controllers got wet. It just wasn’t high enough.”
Replacing the electronics of a boat lift, and the boat lift itself, could be a costly endeavor. Raising the height allowance for boat lifts by a couple of feet may prevent boaters from having to replace the equipment the next time a high storm surge rolls through.
According to Weyl, replacements for basic lift motors and the controller could range from $5,000 to $8,000. If the lifts require larger motors for different boat sizes, the cost could climb.
Aside from the damages incurred during Helene, Weyl said raising the boat lifts also has a safety component.
With the equipment only allowed to be 5 feet from the dock, that leaves less room than a standard door frame, which is about 6 feet 8 inches. There’s often a beam on the lift equipment that Weyl said people often hit their head on.
“If you just raised it up two feet, to seven or eight feet, you wouldn’t bang your head,” Weyl said. “Which is really kind of nice from a safety standpoint.”
Both Weyl and Haft feel adding a couple of feet to the height allowance would be the best route. Weyl suggested raising the allowance to at least 7 feet above the dock, but ideally, it would be up to 8 or 9 feet.
Haft said another possibility is to measure the allowance from the mean high water line as Sarasota County does. This would make the water level a factor in the regulation, whereas now it’s only related to the dock height.
“Let us go at least a couple of feet higher than the seawall if we want to give people the flexibility to make their own decisions as to how high to go with this stuff,” Haft said.
Weyl said he was ready to install another boat lift on the island for his second boat stationed at Bradenton Beach. Now that the issue is on the Planning & Zoning Board’s agenda and could result in a change, he’s going to wait.
“I’m in limbo now,” Weyl said. “I was ready to do a 5-foot lift, but I’m going to wait and see.”
The town commission and Planning and Zoning Board are aware of the concerns residents raised about the boat lifts, and an ordinance is in the works.
According to an email from Director of Planning, Zoning and Building Allen Parsons sent to Mayor Ken Schneier, the item will be a part of the Planning and Zoning Board’s workshop discussion on Dec. 17.
The workshop will allow the P&Z Board to discuss potential issues and options for the ordinance.
Then, the ordinance would be expected in January following recommendations from the Dec. 17 meeting.
Once the P&Z Board has an ordinance and recommendation ready, the ordinance could be ready as soon as Feb. 3 for the town commission’s meeting. If the commission chooses to move forward with the ordinance, it could be expedited with a special meeting on Feb. 18.
Residents interested in sharing input on the ordinance can attend the P&Z Board’s public meeting at 9:15 a.m. Dec. 17 at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.
