It has become apparent that certain private seawalls have been constructed beyond their property line. Analyzing the extent of this practice and providing staff with policy direction will ensure expedited permitting, approvals and consistency.

At its January 17, 2018 meeting, the City Commission referred to the Land Use and Development Committee a discussion item to set policy direction for privately owned seawalls and docks adjacent to City-owned public submerged lands.

On February 2018, the Land Use and Development Committee discussed policy direction for privately owned seawalls and docks adjacent to public submerged Land and directed the Department of Public Works to provide additional information so that a proper direction can be provided. The Public Works Department informed the Committee that the department had maintained, during permit reviews, that no seawall structure shall be allowed to extend further than 4 feet beyond property line into City-owned submerged land. This is in addition to the rule that the new seawall wet face shall not be constructed more than 18 inches from the wet face of the existing seawall. Current boundary and topographic survey used in the permitting shall be no more than 2 years old.

The City has approved 182 seawall permits from 2014 to 2018. Out of this number, 43 permits were issued for seawalls on City-owned submerged lands. These include repairs and replacements. A review identified 5 of the 43 permits, about 11% of these seawall permit applications, showed encroachments and were initially denied before revisions to the plans were made. The City of Miami Beach has approximately 63 miles of seawall, with approximately 14 miles on City-owned submerged land.