Mooring field ready for boaters

81 slots ready for liveaboards in the city,
but some amenities still need to be installed

By Alyson Matley
amatley@keynoter .com

After nine years of planning, the Key West City Marina Mooring Field is opening with more of a whimper than a bang.

The city announced this week that it is accepting applications for liveaboard boaters for the 81 moorings in the 200-acre seaplane basin, just north of the island.

Boaters can sign a 30-day lease for $4 a day. That rate includes a mooring, three pump-outs per month, and parking at Garrison Bight.

"The only concrete thing we have to offer right now," said Assistant City Manager John Jones, "is pump-out and parking. Right now we don't have a dinghy dock or restrooms."

Those amenities are on the way.

The city has wrangled with state and federal agencies over the dinghy docks necessary to support the boats moored in the field. Citing negative environmental impact, the state departments of Environmental Protection and Community Affairs have denied the permits necessary to put the dock at Garrison Bight's Barracuda Pier.

"We had a good meeting with the DCA and all of the other regulatory agencies," said Jones, "and we have hit a compromise. They're permitting us to put the docks by the Dolphin Pier. We intend to put some steps up the side of the bridge so they can park on Barracuda Pier."

Jones said he expects the docks to be completed by the first of the year. In the meantime, he said, "We just wanted to open the field up. It's a good opportunity for the liveaboards currently in the seaplane basin. The whole purpose of this is to get people to pump out."

Jones said that once all the amenities are in place, the rate will probably run $8 per day. He said the city is trying to entice liveaboards rather than transient boaters that may just be passing through. If the field does not fill up with locals, though, he said that some transients may be allowed to tie up on a day-to-day basis for $12 a day.

The mooring field is part of the larger Garrison Bight Management Plan drafted by the city to address commercial, recreational and liveaboard boats. The field was approved more than a year ago, along with funding to provide a pump-out facility. That approval coincided with the creation of a 600-foot, no-discharge zone surrounding Key West.

Jones said he expects a good response to the opening notice.

"We will probably get a waiting list real quick," he said. Once the other services are available, Jones said the liveaboards currently anchored in the area will have to leave. "Once we do implement the [Garrison Bight] management plan, we will evict everyone in the seaplane basin — that is part of the plan. We're still looking at the legalities."

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