Belle Isle Florida Boat Dock Regulations

Call Fender Marine Construction for the best designs and prices! 407-481-2750  http://www.fendermarine.com/
Sec. 48-31. - Application process.
(a)Permit and review. Any person desiring to construct a boat dock, regardless of whether it is made of wood or another material, within the city shall first apply for a permit to construct the boat dock. Applications shall be made to the city. Upon receiving the application, a city administrative officer shall perform a site review of the proposed dock location. The city shall review the application and shall contact the applicant if the application fails to meet any of the requirements set forth in this section.

(1)City's administrative review fees. An administrative review fee of $165.00 shall be paid at the time the application is submitted. The administrative review fee does not include the Orange County building permit's processing fee.

(2)Application. The applicant shall submit a city boat dock application, a county boat dock application, a survey and three sets of plans showing the dock. These forms shall be available in the city hall office. The survey and plans shall provide accurate information as to all of the following items:

a.An arrow indicating the northerly direction and an indication of the scale to which the drawing was prepared;

b.The dimensions of the property, and the length and location of the proposed dock;

c.The exact distance between the existing shoreline, at the point where the dock is to be constructed, and a permanent object or construction (e.g., house, tree) to be used as a reference point;

d.The exact distance of setbacks from adjacent property lines, and an approximation of the distance from the closest dock on each side of the property;

e.The floor and roof elevation of the proposed dock, boathouse or other structure connected to the dock;

f.The depth of water at the end of the proposed dock; and

g.A survey, performed within the last three years, of the property indicating the normal high-water elevation of Lake Conway (86.9) as established by the county on October 25, 1982.

(3)Building permit. Following the approval by the city of a boat dock application, the applicant is also required to obtain a building permit from the county building department prior to commencing construction. In the event electricity is run to the boat dock, the proper electrical permit must also be obtained from the county building department.

(b)Commencement and completion of construction. All construction must be commenced, or completed, or both, within the guidelines established by the county building department. The applicant is responsible for all fees associated with the procurement of the necessary permits.

(Ord. No. 92-6, ch. V, art. A, § 1, 12-15-1992; Ord. No. 04-03, § 5, 3-12-2004)

Sec. 48-32. - Design criteria.

Boat dock applications shall be reviewed under the following rules and regulations:

(1)Setbacks. Boat docks shall have a minimum side setback of five feet from the projected property lines of all abutting shoreline properties.

(2)Length. Consideration will be given to the length of other docks within 300 feet on either side of the proposed dock and to any previous length restrictions that the city council may have established. For comparison, the length will be measured from the existing shoreline, with reference to a fixed object or structure on the lot. If there are no other adjoining docks in the vicinity, then the maximum length of the boat dock shall not exceed 40 feet measured from the 86.9 normal high water elevation contour line of Lake Conway, as marked by a registered surveyor, to the lakeward end of the dock.

(3)Total area. A boat slip, platform and any other portion of the dock, covered or uncovered, collectively may not exceed 500 square feet in total area.

(4)Height. Except for floating docks, the minimum height of boat dock decks shall place them one foot above the normal high water elevation of Lake Conway. The maximum height, which is to be measured from the top of the structure, shall be 13 feet above the normal high water elevation of Lake Conway. The minimum height of a floating dock deck shall be one foot above the water level.

(5)Walkway. That portion of the dock lying waterward of the 86.9 feet contour line of Lake Conway as established by the county on October 25, 1982 and extending to the juncture of the slip or platform, whichever is closest to the shore. A walkway shall be a minimum of four feet in width. The area for a walkway shall not be included as part of the total area for the structure unless the walkway exceeds four feet in width. In such cases, the excess square footage generated by the width in excess of four feet shall be included in the total area for the platform and/or slip.

(6)Number and location of boat docks.

a.No boat dock construction permit shall be issued on a lot or combination of lots that does not have a principal building first located thereon.

b.Only one boat dock per principal building that is located on a lot or combination of lots shall be allowed on any such lot or combination of lots.

c.Boat docks shall only be permitted on lots or combinations of lots zoned or used for residential purposes, and no boat docks shall be permitted on any lot or combination of lots used for agricultural, commercial, professional-office and/or industrial purposes.

d.Boat docks on public property and/or homeowners associations lots shall be exempted from provisions of subsections (6)a and b of this section. However, only one boat dock per parcel may be located on public property and/or homeowners association property. The term "parcel" shall mean all contiguous property owned by a homeowners association or by a public entity.

e.All boat docks shall be permanently affixed to the lake bottom, and shall be subject to the provisions of this article except where noted.

(7)Restrictions. All boat docks shall adhere to the following restrictions:

a.No work shall be within areas which constitute easements for ingress or egress, or for drainage.

b.No structures having flat roofs will be permitted. The pitch of the roof shall have a minimum slope of 2:12 and a maximum slope of 5:12.

c.No structure having enclosed sidewalls shall be permitted. This includes areas for fueling and/or storage facilities. The term "enclosed" shall be defined as, by way of example but not by limitation, screen enclosures, chainlink fencing, lattice fencing and any form of paneling.

d.Under no circumstances shall a permit for the construction of a boat dock to be utilized for residential purposes be issued.

e.No permit applications will be accepted unless there is a principal building established on the property, or a building permit has been issued to construct said building.
(Ord. No. 92-6, ch. V, art. A, § 2, 12-15-1992; Ord. No. 95-4, 4-18-1995; Ord. No. 98-2, 4-21-1998)

Sec. 48-33. - Variances.

In the event the applicant wishes to construct a boat dock in excess of any of the criteria mentioned in section 48-32, a variance must be applied for to the board. There shall be a $100.00 application fee for the first variance and a $50.00 fee for each additional variance requested at the same time. The board shall not approve an application for a variance unless and until each of the following criteria have been met:

(1)The boat dock shall not create conditions hazardous to navigation nor any safety hazards;

(2)The location and placement of the boat dock shall be compatible with other docks in the area, and the shoreline contour of the lake;

(3)The current level of the lake shall not be a factor in deciding whether to approve or deny a variance; and

(4)The requirements of section 42-64(1) except for subsection 42-64(1)d.

(Ord. No. 92-6, ch. V, art. A, § 3, 12-15-1992; Ord. No. 04-03, § 5, 3-12-2004)

Sec. 48-34. - Boat docks not on Lake Conway.

(a)Any person desiring to construct a boat dock in an industrially zoned district shall be subject to the provisions of this article except as follows:

(1)A boat dock constructed in an industrially zoned district shall not be required to comply with the provisions of section 48-32 except that all boat docks shall be permanently affixed to the water body bottom; and

(2)The survey required by subsection 48-31(a)(2)g. shall indicate the normal high water elevation (if any) of the applicable body of water.

(b)Zoning approval for construction of a boat dock on a waterway other than Lake Conway shall be subject to the following criteria:

(1)The boat dock shall not create conditions hazardous to navigation.

(2)The boat dock shall not create any safety hazards.

(3)The boat dock shall not interfere with the riparian rights of any adjacent property.

(4)The boat dock shall have a minimum setback of five feet from projected property lines of all abutting shoreline properties.

(Ord. No. 06-04, § 1, 4-4-2006)

Secs. 48-35—48-60. - Reserved.

Aluminum Floating Dock for Haines City Park

 

Fender Marine Construction We have been working as a subcontractor for Welbro Constructors for a long time doing their marine construction. We designed and built this aluminum floating dock through Welbro for a Haines City park. It was ADA compliant and required State permitting as well as local. Here you can see the upper portion of the fixed dock, the gangway and the floating dock.

Fender Marine Construction Another photo of the Lake Eva- Haines City floating dock featuring our President Lucy Fender!

Our customer Welbro Constructors and thier customer Haines City are very happy with the project.

Boathouse Orlando with difficult soils but great results!

Fender Marine Construction Started a new boathouse in the Isle of Catalina Orlando on a canal that leads to Clear Lake. The soil was very hard and the piles could not be jetted into place. We used our auger to drill the pile holes to a 6' depth.

Here on the Isle of Catalina boathouse you can see the piles set into position and at the required depth. It took a long time to get the piling right, but "you have to build upon a good foundation"!

This is a photo of the Johnson boathouse almost finished. Here we are working on the installation of the aluminum boat cradle.

Just got this photo of the Johnson boathouse- Giant 30' long for the hugh 28' float boat. We upgraded the lift system to 6,000 lb capacity boat cradle, lift motor and gear assembly. Great marine construction project for really wonderful customers!

Cloud 9 Services, Inc. forms dba Fender Marine Construction

Fender Marine Construction We appeared before the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board 2 weeks ago to get the subsiiary of Cloud 9 Services, Inc., Fender Marine Construction approved as a Florida State Certified Marine Contractor. We were approved unanimously. See the new logo!

Florida Marine Contractor's Association Uninsured Enforcement Success

We are pleased to report that after months of discussion, break through changes were confirmed on a conference call this past Friday that will positively affect the Marine Industry. Below is a summary of the conference call for your review.

Until recently, uninsured marine contractors were able to build docks and seawalls on “non-navigable” waterways with no repercussions from the State of Florida’s Division of Workers Compensation if that contractor had no Workers Compensation coverage (code 6006F) in force. Past case law prohibited the State from pursuing violators and issuing “Stop Work Orders” because of a loop hole concerning enforcement jurisdiction of State Act coverage (regulated by the State of Florida’s Division of Workers Compensation) and United States Longshoreman and Harbor Worker's Act (USL&H) (regulated by the Department of Labor).

Bottom line, marine contractors who have been losing work due to the under priced estimates of uninsured contractors can now seek assistance from the State to issue “Stop Work Orders” at jobs that are on “non-navigable” waterways.

This is a huge step forward for the marine industry in getting the State to step up to assist on this matter, because up until now, they would only refer frustrated inquiries to the Department of Labor. As many of you know, due to funding and government cutbacks, the Department of Labor does not proactively enforce the need for USL&H coverage for “jobs in progress”.

At an upcoming FMCA Central Florida Chapter meeting being held on Wednesday, October 14th, we hope to address enforcement of USL&H with the Department of Labor of uninsured contractors working on “navigable” waterways.

In the meantime, violators can be reported via the web by going to: www.myfloridacfo.com/wc Go to the area located on the center right of the web page entitled: Report Suspected Workers’ Comp Non-Compliance. People can check their local phone listings to their local representatives. In Central Florida, Terence Phillips can be reached at 407-835-4467. In Tallahassee, William Dorney can be reached at 850-413-1825.

FMCA continues to work hard to benefit its members and looks forward to pressing forward on the challenges the marine industry faces.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Dalrymple, CPIA, CMIPFMCA Chapter Director, Central Florida(407)998-4108 Fax: (407) 788-7933Email: Rick.Dalrymple@IOAUSA.comWeb: http://www.ioausa.com/

For the finest in Marine Construction in Florida, call Rick Fender @ Cloud 9 Services, Inc. 407-481-8383

Seawall and retaining Wall Repair Solutions

Seawall and retaining wall problems in Central Florida.

Following the hurricanes back in 2003 and 2005, there was a flurry of dock and seawall reconstruction in Central Florida. When there is so much opportunity for work, every guy with a pickup truck becomes a marine contractor. The problems with hiring an inexperienced licensed contractor to perform marine construction such as docks, seawalls, retaining walls, boardwalks, boathouses, channel markers, mooring piles and marinas. There are special skills and techniques as well as specialized equipment required for marine construction repair and new construction projects to be successful.

Today I met with a customer in Phillips Landing on Sand Lake. She had a non-marine contractor install a 5’ high and 250’ long aluminum seawall after the hurricanes. She called me because the wall was falling over into the lake. Not only is the damaged seawall dangerous to walk around but the beautifully landscaped yard is about to be destroyed. This wall needs to be repaired immediately.

It appears that the seawall or retaining wall failure was a result of a combination of mistakes made by the contractor. The wall did not have any ports in the face of the wall to allow water to flow from behind the wall. This causes the seawall to fail as a result of the hydrostatic pressure building behind the wall.

The homeowner did the right thing by requiring the contractor to be licensed and to procure a building permit. However, the contractor was fly-by-night and is now out of business. There is no company left to stand behind the wall construction. The customer did not require that the seawall contractor be a member of the Florida Marine Contractor's Association which requires its members to not only be appropriatley licensed but also carry the required United States Longshoreman's Insurance.

The solution we suggest is costly but effective. We would remove the soil from behind the wall where the wall has begun to lean and bow. We would then install new deadmen and tiebacks between the old tiebacks. We would then use a mini-excavator to pull the wall back into a vertical position. We would replace portions of the seawall cap where it cannot be reused. After the wall is straight, the original deadmen and tiebacks will be adjusted to pick up a portion of the load exerted on the wall by the soil. After the deadmen and tiebacks are right, we would carefully backfill against the wall. Once the wall is backfilled, the tiebacks are adjusted again and the yard is cleaned up and sodded.

We would install vents in the seawall face to allow water to pass from behind the wall into the lake through the wall. This will limit the hydrostatic pressure building up behind the wall during the wet season here in Florida.

There are other solutions available that do not require digging up the yard to install deadmen. We will go into that system in another entry to my marine construction blog.

If you need help with marine construction anywhere in Florida, feel free to contact Cloud 9 Services, Inc. We are State Certified Marine Contractors. 407-481-2750.

Unlicensed and underinsured contractors

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation writes a lot about their efforts to stop unlicensed activity. I appreciate their efforts although they are severely limited by a lack of funding which results in less of an ability to enforce the law. When they write about unlicensed activity and what consumers can do to protect themselves, they mention checking the contractor’s license of the person performing the work. They should also inform you that consumers should make sure that the company or person that they are entering into a contract with is the same person or company listed on the license. This is because some unlicensed contractors use another contractor’s license to pull the permit. This is illegal and is called aiding and abetting an unlicensed contractor. The DBPR should also educate the consumer and the local building departments that they should never pull a permit for anyone to do work on their home. The exception which never happens is if the consumer follows the law and covers that unlicensed worker as an employee with workers compensation and withholds payroll taxes.

If the consumer knows that that is the requirement, homeowners would never pull the permit. This can best be stopped at the building department level. The other day I was attempting to procure a permit for an extensive dock repair with one of my customers. He and his engineer had prepared the plans for the permitting. I took my customer who is over 80 years old with me to get the permit in case the plans examiners had questions for him. When we appeared at the permit intake desk, the lady assumed that I was an unlicensed contractor helping the owner to pull the permit so that I could illegally repair his dock. She directed us to fill out the Homeowner’s Affidavit form that the building departments supply that basically states that the owner is going to perform the work himself or with family or with insured employees withholding payroll taxes. It was apparent that there was no way that the owner was capable of installing the piling for the dock as was required in the permit and the permit intake lady knew that. But she sent us over to fill out the form fraudulently. When I advised her that I am a Florida State Certified Marine Contractor, then of course the form was not needed. But had I not indicated that I was a licensee, we would have gotten the permit and if I were unlicensed and uninsured and performed the work, the project would have been performed illegally exposing the customer to great risk.

If the DBPR educates the building/permitting departments and gets their cooperation on this, we would cut unlicensed activity in the State by at least 70%. This would mean a lot less ripped off consumers. There would be significantly less docks and seawalls being built over neighbor’s property lines, built incorrectly and a lot less pain and suffering associated with such things.

Another way to view this issue is to consider an unlicensed doctor. By being unlicensed, he is showing that he lacks the ability to become licensed and exposes the consumers to great harm. Unlicensed doctors go to jail. In fact all the licensed doctors who went to school, passed their tests, performed their internship and became a part of the medical establishment would be up in arms if they knew of an unlicensed doctor seeing patients and performing operations. What of the consumer? If he did not know that the doctor was unlicensed and perhaps there were forged documents on the wall or websites showing the doctors fine work, well then the poor consumer has been duped and could suffer greatly. But what about the consumer that goes to the doctor knowing that the doctor is unlicensed and breaking the law? For the illusion of saving money, they are willing to help the doctor break the law that was designed to protect the consumer?
I don’t feel that the consumer deserves the bad workmanship or lack of exposure to loss without recourse that they receive working with the unlicensed doctor. They may have not been educated on the serious ramifications of dealing with an unlicensed professional.

For marine construction, United States Longshoreman and Harborworker’s Act insurance is required. Through our work at the Florida Marine Contractor’s Association, we have gotten the cost of the coverage reduced significantly. It is now an additional rider on top of the normal worker’s compensation insurance. Our code for Workers Comp for dock and seawall building is 6006F. While we are training the building/permitting departments about the unlicensed activity, we hope to also train them to reject contractors from permitting docks or seawalls if on or adjacent to any water body unless they have the 6006F on their policy. This further protects the consumer in case one of the workers is injured. Learn more about worker's compensation fraud.
If we can stop unlicensed contractor activity, the consumer will be better off, the economy will be better off and the contractors who have paid their dues by procuring the experience, the licensing and the insurance to work as professionals for the public will be better off. Everyone wins except the criminals who should not win. Crime should not pay, but until we can stop unlicensed and uninsured and underinsured contractor activity, crime does pay.

For a licensed marine contractor with the appropriate insurance to protech thier employees and customers, contact Cloud 9 Services, Inc. at 407-466-9952