UPDATE, MAY 1, 2014: The anti-anchoring proposal was re-introduced late in the day on April 30 for the Florida Senate to vote upon on May 1. BoatUS once again launched an email and publicity campaign to encourage boaters to contact their legislators. BoatUS says that about 3,200 comments resulted, which it attributes to the Senate’s decision to pass the Fish and Wildlife Bill “clean,” meaning without the amendment. Read on for the original story.
The Gonzales Amendment, a last-minute amendment that would have restricted anchoring throughout Broward and Miami-Dade Counties in Florida, was defeated this week.
The Gonzales Amendment was made public just this past Monday. Florida Senator Gwen Margolis and Representative Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzales introduced it. It was attached to both a Florida House of Representatives bill and a Senate bill. The proposal was voted down for the House of Representatives bill on Wednesday. It’s worth noting that this specific bill had nothing to do with yachts or anchoring. It pertained to community associations, such as condominiums. The Senate bill, still to be taken up, is a Fish and Wildlife Bill.
The Gonzalez Amendment would have permitted 64 municipalities in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties to regulate overnight anchoring outside of established mooring fields as they saw fit. The amendment raised concern among yacht owners and boating-advocacy groups like BoatUS. The reason: A current statute prohibits counties and municipalities from creating individual regulations. BoatUS believed the Gonzalez Amendment risked making the statute a “patchwork of exceptions that defeats the goal of having one statewide set of anchoring regulations in Florida.” The organization also cited an ongoing Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission anchoring pilot program.
In an open letter to BoatUS members and the media sent the evening of April 22, Margaret Podlich, president of BoatUS, wrote:
For a number of years BoatU.S. and our Members have worked tirelessly to prohibit localities from enacting a patchwork of laws and ordinances that restrict the anchoring of non-live aboard vessels outside permitted mooring fields. We want to ensure that active, responsible, cruising boaters continue to have an array of options, including anchoring out, using moorings and tying up at docks. We do not want to go back to the old, and broken, system of confusing local laws which make legitimate cruisers unwelcome in local waters.
BoatUS states that more than 2,500 members of the public called or filed comments regarding the Gonzalez Amendment with their legislators in less than 24 hours.
As of this writing, the Florida Senate’s website shows that the amendment was withdrawn on April 23. That’s the same day the House voted it down. However, the Gonzalez Amendment can be reintroduced. BoatUS and other organizations are continuing to monitor developments. “We are not out of the woods until the session closes in early May,” Podlich says. “Select municipalities should not get special treatment. There is a program in place now to address some of the issues raised, but the amendment’s inclusion in the Fish and Wildlife Bill would jeopardize this significant effort to develop a uniform, transparent, and sensible state anchoring policy that doesn’t leave boaters guessing if they are violating the law and are subject to fines or a visit from local law enforcement demanding they move.”
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