Miami Beach, FL Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

City Code Sec. 66-113 limits marine structures to 10 percent of a canal's width measured from the seawall (or the recorded plat line where no seawall exists). If the waterway is more than 100 feet wide, a structure may extend up to 15 percent of the width, capped at 40 feet. On Biscayne Bay or other waterways over 1,000 feet wide, a residential lot may extend a dock up to 125 feet, and a business-zoned lot up to 250 feet, subject to state and county review.

Any structure proposed to extend more than 40 feet from a seawall abutting the WD-1 or WD-2 waterway districts needs conditional use approval from the planning board under chapter 118, article IV. S. Army Corps of Engineers approval is required where the structure abuts navigable streams (Sec. 66-113(b)). Sec. 66-114 layers on a nonrefundable up-front processing fee for the marine structure permit application, credited toward the final permit fee, plus reinspection fees equal to four times the initial inspection cost when repeat code violations require extra visits.

Sec. 66-115 requires docks and piers that have deteriorated more than 50 percent of their original dimensions to be replaced, removed or reconstructed, with removal or reconstruction within ten days if the structure sits below mean high tide (with a carve-out for part of Pelican Island). Docks extending 20 feet or more into a waterway must carry lighting visible from dusk to dawn from all water approaches; shorter structures need reflectors at least three inches in their smallest dimension.