Plans to build an enclosed boat-storage facility at a Haulover Beach Park parking lot have prompted concerns among some beach goers.
Patrons of a nude beach in Haulover say the proposed boathouse will attract boaters who will take parking spots at the already overflowing lot.
“It’s going to create user conflict between boat people and beach people by reducing the parking spaces,”48-year-old naturist Paul Friderich Jr. said at a public meeting the county held Monday night at the Pelican Community Park in Sunny Isles Beach to introduce residents to the logistics of the boathouse and other projects coming to the county park.
The boathouse will be 656 feet long, 165 feet wide and 83 feet tall, and it will house 508 boats.
It will be situated on the west side of the northernmost parking lot at Haulover – the one closest to the nude beach.
Currently there are 498 spots available. Friderich said even those are not enough for beach patrons, as he has to get there at 8 a.m. on a weekend to get a spot. By 10:30 a.m., he said, the lot is full.
Another 103 parking spaces will be added to the north lot to accommodate the increased demand once the boathouse is built.
Richard Mason, another patron of the nude beach and president of the nonprofit South Florida Free Beaches that started the clothing-optional beach in 1991, said 103 extra spots will not be enough.
“What if more than 103 boaters show up? What about parking spaces for guests of boaters?” he said.
But the county says there will be enough parking for everyone.
Kevin Asher, special projects supervisor at the Planning and Research Division part of the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department, said that the county has done studies at all its marinas that show only 12 percent of people who keep their boats at an on-site rack show up at one time.
That makes for about 60 boaters parking at the northernmost lot in Haulover at one time.
“That’s how we can say that the use of that area is not going to impact the beach goers,” said Asher.
The construction of the boathouse is part of a Master Plan county commissioners approved in 2000 meant to improve and provide new facilities at Haulover Beach Park, including restaurants, a fishing pier and extra boat-launching stations. Marina-management firm Westrec Marnas has leased the land for the boat storage from the county and has estimated it will spend about $14 million on the project, said Gary Groenewold, vice president of Westrec Marina’s southern regional office. Next to the boathouse, Westrec plans to open a convenience store for fishing and boating supplies.
The company still needs to obtain permits from the county, state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Edward Swakon, president of EAS Engineering, a consultant for Westrec on the project.
According to preliminary estimates, construction is expected to be completed in May 2015.
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