More than 100 people live aboard sailboats and other vessels anchored off Miami Beach. For years, some members of the affluent beach community have resented the presence of people offshore.
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — For Carlos Leon, living on a boat anchored off the coast of this upscale beach community is the ideal lifestyle.
The weather is nice, aside from a few hurricanes, and the water is welcoming. During the COVID pandemic, he and his girlfriend, now wife, bought a 41-foot sailboat and anchored it in Biscayne Bay. “It’s about 400 or 500 feet off the land of Miami Beach,” he says. They share their floating home with a long-haired German shepherd.
But because of some new policies adopted by Miami Beach, for Leon and more than 100 other people who live on their boats, getting ashore to shop, work or just hang out is no longer an easy proposition.
To get ashore in Miami Beach, Leon explains, “I have to bring my canoe with a paddleboard, tow it 150 feet from land.” His wife takes the paddleboard and “my dog and I swim to the dock.”
When he wants to go to Miami Beach, Carlos Leon leaves his canoe 150 feet from the shore and swims to the city-owned boat launch.
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Under a recently passed Miami Beach ordinance, Leon and other boaters cannot leave their canoes or even paddleboards on a city-owned boat launch or face a $1,000 fine.
This small community is anchored in territorial waters and legal, as long as it stays 150 feet from shore. Leon explains: “Obviously, our tanks, our toilets, our anchors, our anchor lights, everything has to be up to code. But if everything is up to code, we’re good. We’re here legally.”
But being legal doesn’t mean being welcome. For years, some Miami Beach residents have resented the presence of small community boats offshore.
In December, Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez initiated an action that cut off a vital lifeline for boaters.
At his request, the commission voted to remove a public dock next to a supermarket. At the meeting, he said: “I’m going to try to limit access for people who live on these boats and come to the mainland. Because they can’t live on a boat forever. They have to come to the mainland to get food, water and supplies.”
With boaters losing their docks, they began using a city-owned boat ramp to park their canoes while they ran errands or other errands. But the commission quickly responded by banning the canoes and imposing a hefty fine on violators.
This makes life difficult for boaters, Leon says, especially those who are elderly or unable to swim 45 metres to the only place where they can now legally disembark. “All the other areas are illegal,” Leon says. “So I become a criminal just to be able to reach dry land.”
Boater Barbie Wynn can’t leave her paddleboard on a city-owned boat launch for more than 20 minutes without risking a $1,000 fine.
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Suarez calls cruise ships “boat squatters” and said in an interview that the regulations are “justified and necessary.”
Members of the West Avenue neighborhood association agree.
The group represents Miami Beach residents who live in condominiums that line Biscayne Bay and overlook the boating community that lives there. The association is concerned about pollution from boats that illegally dump waste in the bay, damage to seagrass beds from their anchors and the cost of managing vessels abandoned by their owners.
Susanna Purucker, a condo owner who is part of the group, says boaters who live aboard a boat get the benefits of living in Miami Beach without the responsibilities that come with it. “You don’t pay property taxes. You don’t even pay to keep your boat in the water. It’s just, if I can use that word, profit, because it is.”
Boaters have formed their own group, the Miami Beach Boaters Association. Carlos Leon says they are considering suing the city for what they see as a violation of their civil rights. He says an entire way of life is at stake. “Because if we move, then Key West, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, everybody’s going to say, ‘Okay, let’s follow what this guy did because it worked.’ And then guess what? No boaters are going to be able to get to the mainland,” Leon says.
Miami Beach is in talks with the state about a proposed docking area for boats in the bay. Depending on how it goes, it could bring regulation to the boating community or it could be used to drive them away.
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