Coconut Creek, FL Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

Section 17-76 of the Coconut Creek Code sets the standards for waterfront structures in the City. Docks, boat slips, piers, boat shelters, boathouses and their appurtenances are allowed as long as they do not restrict or endanger the passage of another boat or vessel. The projection cap counts the moored vessel too: a boat, or a boat combined with the pier, slip, dock, boathouse or shelter, cannot reach more than twenty feet or twenty percent of the waterway width from the nearest right-of-way line, whichever is less. Waterway width means the right-of-way width, measured perpendicular from the property line on one side across to the other.

The owner hires a professional engineer registered in Florida to design the structure. The design covers soils, topography and water elevations and comes with structural calculations before a construction permit issues. The city engineer can waive the calculations when the design was approved by a competent public or regulatory agency with similar site conditions. The City takes no liability for design, construction or repair, and adequacy stays with the design professional who certifies the plans.

The permit itself is an engineering permit under section 13-88, which lists docks among the work that needs one. It becomes invalid after 180 days if work has not begun. Construction fees run 8 percent of the first $900,000 of estimated engineering cost and 4 percent above that, and minor maintenance work estimated at $5,000 or less carries a $100 minimum. Before the permit issues, the owner signs an agreement to indemnify and hold the City harmless for any claim arising from a structure extending into or abutting a public waterway, binding heirs, assigns and successors and recorded in the public records of Broward County. Under section 17-77, owners keep docks, slips, piers, seawalls and landscaping in good and working condition, and plantings that project over the waterway are trimmed to leave eight feet of clearance above the seawall cap or bank. Section 17-74 puts motorized boats in City waterways on slow speed and minimum wake.