Melbourne, FL Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

Article VII, Section 2(F) governs any dock, pier, boat lift, marine platform or pavilion built as an accessory use outside a licensed marina. Before the city will accept a building permit application as complete, the owner must submit a Florida-registered land surveyor's survey showing water frontage, mean high or ordinary water lines, riparian right lines under the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Land Boundary Information System, and waterway width for up to 2,500 feet, along with construction plans for every proposed structure. Separately, the owner has to obtain a dock permit and submerged land lease or exemption letter from the St.

Johns River Water Management District, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. 5 feet, whichever is greater; a marine facility's total length into the water is capped at the lesser of 25 percent of waterway width, 500 feet, or the point where water depth reaches minus four feet mean low water, and it must stay 25 feet from any marked navigation channel; decks run three to six feet wide; and no marine facility deck may sit higher than five feet above the mean high water line, with boat lifts, covered mooring spaces or pavilions capped at 14 feet, except in the Indian River Lagoon where 20 feet is allowed.

Single-family and duplex through four-plex lots are limited to two boat mooring spaces, larger residential and nonresidential uses scale up to a maximum of six, and anything beyond that is treated as a marina. A final as-built survey certified by a Florida surveyor has to go to the code compliance division before the dock is approved for use.