Palm Beach is appealing the state’s decision to issue a permit for Riviera Beach to establish a mooring field in the Lake Worth Lagoon near Palm Beach’s North End shore.
The Town Council on Tuesday, May 13, told the town staff to proceed with a formal appeal of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s May 1 issuance of the permit.
The appeal means the case will go before an administrative law judge, who will hold a trial and gather evidence and make a recommendation to the Florida DEP, which will decide whether to accept the judge’s decision, Palm Beach Public Works Director Paul Brazil told the council. If the DEP upholds the permit, Palm Beach could then appeal that decision to an appellate court.
Palm Beach had until Thursday, May 15, to register its appeal with the DEP. Brazil said the town would meet the deadline.
The permit signifies state approval of three managed mooring fields Riveria Beach wants to designate and operate in the lagoon.
Riviera Beach also needs a federal permit and a submerged land lease from the state before the mooring fields could become a reality. It has applied for the federal permit, which is being considered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and it is expected to pursue a submerged lands lease from the Florida Governor’s Board of Trustees for Land and Water in the coming months, Palm Beach Town Manager Kirk Blouin said. Gov. Ron DeSantis chairs the four-person trustee board, which oversees 12 million acres of state lands.
A mooring field is a legally defined area within a body of water, established by a local ordinance so a government can regulate activities within it.
Riviera Beach officials say mooring fields would help address the problem of derelict vessels and boaters’ dumping of waste into the lagoon. The proposed mooring areas are currently filled with vessels that anchor above ecological areas and seagrasses.
But Palm Beach has since 2022 registered its objections with the state and federal agencies, stating that Riviera Beach should not be permitted to operate a mooring field in Palm Beach’s jurisdictional waters. Palm Beach hired the Akerman law firm to represent it.
According to its application, Riviera Beach is proposing to set up the fields in three locations. The two northernmost fields would be near Phil Foster Marine Park and near Peanut Island. Palm Beach has not opposed those fields.
Palm Beach objects to the third location – the “South Mooring Field” that would be about 500 feet from Palm Beach’s North End shore. The field would extend from the southern turning basin of the Port of Palm Beach southward to the Safe Harbor Rybovich Marina cross channel. The 129-acre field would accommodate up to 100 boats and be managed by the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina, Brazil wrote in a memo to Mayor Danielle Moore and the council.
The DEP issued the permit for all the mooring fields on May 1 without responding to Palm Beach’s objections, and without requiring Riviera Beach to show that it was capable of addressing Palm Beach’s concerns, Brazil said.
“The objections with the DEP are many, but most notably that the mooring field is outside of their jurisdiction and within [Palm Beach’s] jurisdiction,” Brazil said. “Riviera Beach doesn’t have legal authority to come into the Town of Palm Beach’s jurisdiction to provide law enforcement. One of the requirements of the mooring field is that it be policed. They simply don’t have the authority to do that.”
Riviera Beach also lacks the necessary resources, including showers, laundry facilities and a sufficient dingy dock, to support the mooring field, Brazil said.
Keith Beaty, a North End resident who is chairman of the Palm Beach Civic Association’s Intracoastal/Lagoon Committee and a member of its Executive Committee, told the council he agrees with the decision to enter the DEP’s formal appeal process.
Beaty also said, “I can confirm that some private individuals in Palm Beach are looking at appealing this process privately,” and that they can get an extension from DEP allowing them until May 22 to file the appeal.
But Beaty said it is most important for Palm Beach to focus on the federal permit and submerged land lease reviews by arranging meetings with the leadership of the Governor’s Board of Trustees and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“This whole thing can be stopped by one or two guys in Tallahassee who sit on the Board of Trustees,” Beaty said. “You can stop it instantly on that level.”
Beaty said the jurisdictional aspect carries huge ramifications for North End residents.
“If this thing were approved and built, we would have a foreign government in charge of a Palm Beach resource and asset – a public body of water that all of us have used freely,” Beaty said. “If I had an issue with anybody in that body of water, who would I call? I would have to call the city manager of Riviera Beach or whoever they designate as operator of this mooring field. As a resident of Palm Beach, that’s a terrifying thought.”
North End resident Brad Gary also urged the council members to voice the town’s opposition through face-to-face meetings with state government officials.
“We are asking you to take some pretty substantial action to defeat this,” Gary said. “Council members need to have that conversation with the highest levels of government, starting with the governor and his cabinet.”
Town Manager Kirk Blouin replied that Palm Beach is already taking that approach as part of a carefully coordinated strategy.
Palm Beach is closely watching the federal permit review process, in which the Army Corps of Engineers is waiting for an opinion from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before reaching a decision, Blouin said.
Palm Beach officials have been told the Governor’s Board of Trustees could hear the submerged lands issue in August or September, he said.
“We still have an opportunity to appear before the Governor’s Board of Trustees … to state town’s objection to the submerged land lease,” Blouin said.
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