Bluebelting: Useful government initiatives

Long before Naples, a 1990 nationwide survey of state boat access administrators was performed by the States Organization for Boating Access (SOBA). It concluded that the primary culprit in the development or conversion of waterfront property to uses that are not water dependent is a lack of comprehensive land-use management planning.

SOBA research discovered several ways that state and local governments could help. Collectively, these approaches are described as “bluebelting.” It is a term borrowed from greenbelting: the practice of providing farmers ways of preserving agricultural land. The concept is to provide some form of protective zoning to enable marina developers to gain priority status in competing for waterfront property, and providing some form of tax relief or economic incentive for existing marina owners.  

In Oregon, for example, the state has a comprehensive, statewide zoning plan that identifies appropriate land uses. It serves as a model for local planning and zoning.  

At one time, Florida enacted a Comprehensive Planning Act, dictating that priorities should be established to provide for siting water-dependent uses such as marinas. To what extent this has been superceded by environmental protection law, such as manatee protection planning requirements, is not clear.

Preservation efforts

In 1986, the Massachusetts Legislature went so far as to pass a Boatyard Preservation Act. The act authorized the state to purchase future development rights to waterfront property currently occupied and in use by a marina or boatyard rather than risk its sale for a non-water-dependent use and the erosion of Massachusetts' maritime heritage.

Government would pay the difference between the fair market value of the land and the water-dependent value of a marina or boatyard. To the marina or boatyard owner’s advantage, this offered instant liquidity that could be reinvested elsewhere and allowed him/her to keep the profits presently derived from all marina assets even though the government may have bought 80 to 90 percent of such assets. Unfortunately, the legislature did not appropriate funds necessary to implement the act.  

New Jersey also has a law to protect boatyards under historical preservation measures and “in the public interest.”

In addition, many state regulatory agencies, through their own program statutes and interpretations and for that of the federal Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZM) have the authority to regulate development of coastal lands. This incorporates the concept of appropriate use.

Also, at the federal level, there are currently two pieces of legislation pending in Congress that could be significant for the acquisition and use of waterfront land for marinas and other public boat access purposes. First, the National Recreation Lakes Act of 2001 would authorize pilot projects on 25 “demonstration lakes” under various federal agencies’ jurisdictions where marina concessions and other innovative public-private partnerships would be encouraged. The other is the Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act of 2001, would make it easier to clean up contaminated, former industrial sites located on navigable waterways, and convert them to recreational boat use.

Ron Stone is a senior advisor with the National Marine Manufacturers Association and chairman of the ICOMIA Boating Facilities Committee. He served as NMMA’s director of facilities and government relations for more than four decades. He is the founder of the States Organization for Boating Access.