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Clearwater Beach developer downsizes proposed mooring field and clears another approval

 
“We don’t want it,” says City Manager Bill Horne.
“We don’t want it,” says City Manager Bill Horne.
Published May 17, 2017

CLEARWATER — A local developer has cleared another hurdle for building what could become the first mooring field in the high-traffic waters of the Mandalay Channel.

After securing approval in June from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for his 20-acre, 42-boat mooring field, William Blackwood said he listened to the fierce backlash from beach residents and downsized his proposal into a four-boat buoy system instead.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday approved Blackwood's four-boat mooring field, which would take up just eight of the 26 acres of submerged lands he owns in the channel. But now he'll face what could be his toughest critic yet: the city.

"I don't know if it matters to us if it's one or four or 40 boats," City Manager Bill Horne said. "We don't want it."

With the proper state permitting secured, Blackwood, owner of the Cove apartments on Clearwater Beach, must now clear local approval, which could be complicated given mooring fields do not exist in city code.

Blackwood's Army Corps application states his Cove Apartments' "commercial marina" with five boat slips and dinghy docking for 15 vessels will function as the mooring field's support facilities. In the application, he also said mooring field customers could use the city's nearby Clearwater Beach Recreation Center marina restrooms and facilities.

Assistant City Attorney Camilo Soto said the structure at Blackwood's Cove Apartments is not a marina but rather a commercial dock. Soto said in order to build his project, Blackwood would have to receive the Community Development Board's approval to build a marina to accompany the four-boat mooring field.

The city's development code would also have to be amended to expand the definition of a marina facility to include the servicing of a mooring field, Soto said.

After the city process, Blackwood's project would require a water and navigation commercial dock permit from the county, according to Pinellas County environmental program manager David Walker.

In what began as a large-scale business venture for his 42-boat mooring field proposal, Blackwood said he scaled back the scope in response to residents' concerns. Now with his more modest four-boat system, Blackwood said his primary goal is to help prevent abandoned vessels and boaters anchoring in inconvenient locations in the channel.

"Primarily it's a solution to the derelict boat problem in the Mandalay Channel," Blackwood said. "If I have a permitted and built mooring field, then the city of Clearwater and my neighbors can rid our neighborhood of unregulated anchored boats."

There are no laws preventing a boat owner from anchoring in state waters, but following a pilot study concluding in July, state officials are expected to recommend legislation that will restrict anchoring and allow local governments to craft their own ordinances.

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But mooring fields remain controversial because of the environmental and navigation issues they can pose. Blackwood's application to the Department of Environmental Protection last year was met with complaints from residents opposing the project.

The mooring field's outline in the channel is bordered by private docks and used daily by boaters, with Island Estates condos to the east and the residential north Clearwater Beach to the west.

"All it's going to do is bring problems for the environment because people mooring out there are going to dump all their waste," Frank Dame, an Island Estates resident and executive vice president of Clearwater Marine Aquarium said Monday. "Then you've got a navigation issue at night time. A lot of boats don't light up like they are supposed to and that means you have hazards out there. I don't think it's a good idea, especially in a closed channel."

Blackwood said he will require all mooring customers to have marine sanitation devices on board to deal with waste. He said he believes it's safer to have boats anchored in a designated mooring field than in the middle of the channel.

Blackwood acknowledged he could apply to the state to increase the capacity of the mooring field to accompany additional vessels in the future, but he said starting small will help quell community concerns.

"You have to give me credit for flexibility and listening to my neighbors," Blackwood said. "I want to accommodate not only cleaning up the waters here, but I want to accommodate yachts. I want to raise the standards of how we're treating our waterway."

The city, however, is trying to limit how far Blackwood's mooring field might be able to expand in the future.

Blackwood filed a legal motion last year to officially claim a 6-acre portion of his submerged lands the city also contended to own. Both parties had deeds tracing back more than 80 years to an entity called the Clearwater Island Bridge Co.

On April 18, a Pinellas County circuit court judge ruled Blackwood is the rightful owner. But the city will appeal, City Attorney Pam Akin said.

The 6-acre portion is directly south of Blackwood's proposed mooring field.

"It would shrink the mooring field if we prevail, at least from his original application, but it's really about who owns the submerged lands," Akin said. "In our case, it does matter who owns it."

Contact Tracey McManus at tmcmanus@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4151. Follow @TroMcManus.