Boat & Motor Dealer, December 2002

International Trends in Marina Development
by Ron Stone

Judging by papers presented at ICOMIA’s 4th International Marina Conference in Sydney, Australia, several trends in marina development, already well established in previous years, grew even stronger in 2002.

Environmental Restrictions

Obtaining necessary permits is often the most painful aspect of a building project. Permitting agencies are often flooded with letters of objection, not to mention protests at public hearings from people concerned about negative impacts on water quality, fish and wildlife, shoreline stability, aquatic vegetation, and natural aesthetics. Such protests can kill a project outright or cause costly delays. Even after a developer makes a good-faith effort to eliminate or mitigate the grounds, the environmentalists refuse to relent, either suing to enjoin the project or forcing the developer to sue for a permit and help recoup the costs of the efforts to address the complaints.

EU Leads

If you thought the situation was getting out of hand in the U.S. with the Save the Manatee group, look what’s happening in Europe. Marina development has been effectively blocked in habitat-sensitive areas of many EU countries after the European Commission sued their national governments for failure to comply with the EU’s 1992 habitat protection directive for fish and wildlife preservation. Of course, marinas are small fry compared to industry and agriculture in the battle between nature and the growth of civilization, but because of the marine industry’s relatively small stature, they risk becoming casualties.

Bucking this negative trend, marina advocates argue that marina operators are in the vanguard of clean water efforts, voluntarily pledging to follow EPA-recommended best management practices. It is ironic that marinas and marina users, as a result of their high visibility on the water, often are falsely accused of being the source of pollution that often is traced to industry, agriculture, and municipal sewage plants. Isn’t it time the marina industry took the offensive by documenting that they are more the victims than the perpetrators of pollution?

U.S. Supports

On a more encouraging note, governments continue to show interest in marinas as a way of capitalizing on their natural resources and boosting the economies of underdeveloped or industry-poor regions.

The Boating Infrastructure provisions under the Wallop-Breaux Act authorize federal aid to marinas willing to invest in transient dockage for cruising yachts that bring visitors to areas of cultural interest. This will likely be reauthorized in the next session of Congress. Authorization of a pilot program to open federally managed man-made lakes to boating and fishing as part of a system of National Recreation Lakes is also favored. Continue »