Clam Bay manatee speed zone challenge set for September hearing in Tallahassee
Eric StaatsA judge has cleared the way for a September hearing on a petition calling for a boat speed zone for manatee protection in a North Naples waterway.
The Pelican Bay Foundation, a master homeowners association, filed an administrative challenge earlier this summer to a new manatee protection rule for Collier County because it left out Clam Bay.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which approved the new rule, asked an administrative law judge to dismiss the Pelican Bay challenge on the grounds that the foundation does not have legal standing in the matter.
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At first, Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter agreed but gave the foundation a chance to amend its petition to prove its legal standing.
Earlier this month, after the revised petition was filed, Canter rejected another FWC motion to dismiss the case and set a hearing for Sept. 26 to Sept. 28 in Tallahassee.
The FWC argued that the foundation had not shown how its interests would be affected by lack of a boat speed zone in Clam Bay, a conservation area that borders the Pelican Bay neighborhood.
Canter also rejected an argument by the city of Naples, which intervened in the case on the side of the FWC, that the case should be dismissed because the foundation petition seeks to add to the rule rather than challenging something that is in it.
The foundation petition amounts to an extension of a long-standing feud between Pelican Bay and the Seagate community over boating in Clam Bay.
Pelican Bay leaders have said they don't want to stop Seagate boaters from using Clam Bay to get to the Gulf of Mexico but only to require that they go slowly to avoid hitting manatees.
The foundation petition argues that the FWC should have enacted a slow-speed zone in Clam Bay because it has similar numbers of manatees and boats as other waterways that have speed zones.