Ken Stead works to preserve public docks and marinas

EVAN WILLIAMS/FLORIDA WEEKLY Ken Stead, executive director, Southwest Florida Marine Industry Association. Public docks and marinas in Southwest Florida are a dwindling amenity as private developers buy them up.

Many aim to build condominiums in place of the marinas that offer water access, rent boat slips, sell bait and tackle and offer service and repairs to local boaters. Because condos are worth millions more, it's easy for developers to offer marina owners more than their business is worth, buy them out and sell condo units for upwards of $500,000 apiece.

"It's hard for someone staring at that big check to say, 'I'm going to save this marina,'" said Ken Stead, executive director of the Southwest Florida Marine Industry Association.

To make matters worse, marina owners were taxed as if their properties are already high-rise condos — "their highest and best use," instead of what they were actually used for. That fact made it even more likely for a marina owner to lose the business — until election day last week, that is.

Mr. Stead and the marine association, along with the Working Waterfront Coalition and others, worked to change the tax law. They succeeded when 70.5 percent of voters said "Yes" to Amendment 6 on Nov. 4. The amendment says marina owners shall pay taxes based on the current use of their property.

"It was a real grassroots effort," Mr. Stead said. "It was a clear mandate from the citizens of Southwest Florida that they want to preserve water access. What we're trying to do is slow down these conversions to keep public access to the water. When it's gone, it's gone."

Marinas in downtown Fort Myers and elsewhere have been lost to condo development. There are only three public marinas in Collier County. Some, like Cedar Bay Yacht Club on Marco Island, have become private clubs in which members pay around $100,000 to purchase a slip instead of renting one for hundreds of dollars each month.

The conversion of public marinas and docks to private clubs or condominiums caters only to the wealthy, Mr. Stead said. He noted 80 percent of boaters own boats 25 feet or smaller, as evidence that boating is a recreation for people in low- and medium income brackets as well as for people in high-income brackets.

"What we're striving for is equality," he said. "We're striving for that balance to serve all segments of the market. Boating is family recreation at its finest. That guy in the little 18-foot sailboat that he just pulled off a trailer is going to go out and have just as much fun as the guy who has a yacht."

Based in North Fort Myers, the Southwest Florida Marine Industry Association has promoted the rights of all boaters, dealers, dock builders or anyone in the marine industry for 29 years. Over time, the association has played an increasingly larger role in shaping rules that impact boaters.

Until recently, a federal rule required all boaters have a permit to discharge waste water. Aimed at large vessels, the law became an unintended nuisance for most boaters. Mr. Stead worked with leaders including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and lobbied successfully to change the law.

"These issues came about with a growing population," Mr. Stead said. "… There seems to be an increasing burden of government regulation (on the local marine industry), some of which is appropriate due to the growing number of boats, some just for the sake of regulation."

During 10 years leading the marine association, Mr. Stead has seen the local boating industry grow along with nearly 1,000,000 residents who now live in Lee and Collier counties. About one in 10 own a boat.

"Boating is a part of the fabric of Southwest Florida," he said. "Go through Miserable Mile (near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River) on a pretty weekend and you'll really see how many boats are out there."

It's easy to see why boaters like the Sunshine State. There are 620 combined miles of gulf-front property in Lee and Collier (590 and 30, respectively), nearly 14 percent of Florida's 8,246 miles of shoreline. That's more oceanfront miles than any other state besides Alaska (33,904), according to www. boating-industry.com.

Florida also has more square miles of inland water (11,761) than any other state besides Michigan (40,001) and Alaska (80,050).

Mr. Stead, 54, is a lifetime boater who enjoys canoeing, waterskiing and offshore powerboat racing. He has cruised on sailboats in the Great Lakes and in the Bahamas, built boats and managed marinas. He lived on a boat for four years in Fort Lauderdale with his wife and two schipperkes, Belgian dogs bred to live on the water. Their name means "little boatman" in Flemish.

As he prepares for the Fort Myers Boat Show, which the marine association hosts annually, in downtown Fort Myers Nov. 13-16, Mr. Stead said the next step to keeping Florida's shoreline accessible to the public is in the works. "(Florida legislators) are working on a water access study," he said. "And the marine association is working with the Sea Grant Program at the University of Florida Extension Service to do a study of boatyard space in Southwest Florida."