Naples Bay boat-speed hearing wraps up

The two sides got in their last licks Tuesday on the final day of a hearing on a challenge to new boat-speed zones on Naples Bay.

Attorneys wrapped up their cases after three days of testimony in February and less than two days this week at Naples City Hall. The hearing had been scheduled to last all week.

Opponents are challenging the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s intent to issue a permit for signs to mark the new speed zones approved by the Naples City Council in 2004.

The hearing has focused on whether the city has proven a need for the speed zones and whether the state agency has the power to second-guess the City Council’s determination.

Administrative Law Judge P. Michael Ruff is not expected to issue his ruling, called a recommended order, for weeks. The recommendation then goes to the Fish and Wildlife, possibly this fall.

The Marine Industries Association of Collier County called witnesses Tuesday to refute the contention that Naples Bay is unsafe and to testify about the economic effect of the slower speed zones.

Outgoing Naples Police Chief Steve Moore, who is retiring from his post in October, city police Lt. Ed Traczyk and Marine Officer Russ Ayres testified that they don’t consider Naples Bay to be unsafe.

On cross-examination, though, they agreed that slowing down boats on Naples Bay would make the bay safer because boaters would have more time to avoid a potential collision.

Naples Boat Mart owner Phil Osborne and Phil Jentgen, co-owner of Naples Marina, testified that slower speed zones on Naples Bay will hurt their businesses.

Osborne said he has had more than six customers hold off buying new boats because of the possibility of the slower speed zones becoming effective.

“They feel like this is coming down the pike, this is going to happen and they boat in the Naples Bay area and they’re not going to endure it,” Osborne said.

He said slower speed zones also would require more time to get back to port to escape an approaching storm. Speed zones do not have to be obeyed in emergencies.

Jentgen and Osborne also said slow speed zones would make the bay more dangerous because boats are harder to control at slower speeds.

Jentgen said some boat owners selling their vessels at Naples Marina mentioned the speed zones as one of the reasons.

Slower speed zones will make boating a less attractive pursuit, he said. He estimated the speed zones would add between 20 minutes and 45 minutes to a trip to the Gulf, depending on the tides.

“Twenty minutes (of additional travel time), when you’re going out to watch the sunset or for a quick fish (trip) is, to me, a long time,” Jentgen said.

The additional travel time also means a longer trip to the Gulf to test boat repairs, Osborne said.

The city’s proposed speed zones would mean boats that now can travel 30 mph along a stretch of Port Royal would be slowed to traveling fully off plane on weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Heading south from there, boats that now have to travel fully off plane on weekends and holidays would have to do so every day between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Opponents of the speed zones say they are designed to please bayfront property owners, but supporters say they are necessary to protect boaters and endangered manatees.

The challenge pits the city, Fish and Wildlife, The Conservancy of Southwest Florida and Citizens to Preserve Naples Bay against the marine industries group, Collier County and a group of charter boat captains and boaters.

The Conservancy, represented by Naples attorney Michael McDonnell, presented its case Monday with testimony from former policy director Gary Davis and a Conservancy scientist.

James Fox, an attorney for the city, said during a break in Tuesday’s testimony that the city will ask Ruff to rule that the marine trades group and individual boat captains did not meet their legal burden to prove that they will be harmed by issuance of the speed zone marker permit.

Charter boat Capt. Eric Alexander addressed the issue in a closing statement, saying he can’t afford to hire an economist to prove his point — and he can’t afford to just cross his fingers.

“It’s my livelihood on the line and I can’t take a wait-and-see attitude,” Alexander said.

Fox said the city also will petition Ruff to have charter boat Capt. Allen Walburn, a leader in the fight against the speed zones, thrown out of the case because he failed to appear at this week’s hearing.

Walburn is out of town on business, according to a petition filed on his behalf by Collier County, asking Ruff to excuse Walburn from the hearing. Ruff has not ruled on the issue.