LESLIE WILLIAMS / Staff

The 166 docks currently in place at the South Seas club are sorely in need of repair or replacement. The boardwalk and sea wall, at right, would also be replaced under the plan. Lengths of the docks include the 6-foot protrusion of the sea wall and boardwalk together. Currently, the sea wall, boardwalk and docks jut a total of 30 feet into the water. The residents objecting to the plan say 50-foot docks are excessive, and might be acceptable if located closer to the inside of the bay.

LESLIE WILLIAMS / Staff

At its widest point, Clam Bay is more than 500 feet across. This photo was taken from a lot on the cul-de-sac at the end of Swiss Court, across the bay from the proposed boat docks. A number of residents across the bay, in addition to the Wolterses, have registered their dissent toward the plan with the city in writing and before City Council.

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Little more than a month after it was approved by Marco Island City Council, a boat dock extension is coming under fire again as the subject of a suit alleging its illegality.

An attorney for Marco residents John and Diane Wolters filed suit in Collier County Court March 20, challenging the legality of the dock extension against the city’s own comprehensive plan.

City code limits boat docks to a 20-foot protrusion into a waterway, but also outlines the method by which a petitioner can request an extension. Article IV of city code outlines 10 criteria under which the city’s Planning Board and council are expected to evaluate a request, and states that property owners “must demonstrate justification for extension requested and/or special conditions relative to the subject property.”

The complaint filed in Collier County court argues, among other things, that the Wolters’ property will be “directly and adversely affected” if a series of 140 docks, some as long as 50 feet, are constructed along the shore of Clam Bay, located in the northwestern corner of the island. The suit also alleges that the City Council did not examine any evidence that the longest dock extensions were consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan.

City Council approved the dock extension in February on behalf of the South Seas Club, an association representing a cluster of four condominiums, after a lengthy public hearing on the subject. An initial vote defeated the request by way of a tie vote, with Councilor Terri DiSciullo abstaining due to a potential conflict of interest and councilors Ted Forcht, Chuck Kiester and Bill Trotter voting in the minority.

After allowing a brief break so the attorney for South Seas could confer with his clients, council took a second vote to pass the request with the stipulation that boat lifts only be permitted on a limited number of docks located at the innermost part of the bay adjacent to the club’s tennis courts. Council also included the stipulations that jet skis be prohibited from parking at the docks and that no boats extend beyond the footprint of their docks.

Among the many residents there to voice opinions for or against the request was Patrick White, the attorney representing the Wolters. According to the Collier County Appraiser’s Web site, the Wolters’ home at 358 Century Drive is registered to their official address in Londonderry, N.H.

“The Wolterses do not object to a reasonable riparian use,” White told the council at the Feb. 19 meeting. “They object to the degree to which some of these requests are being made ... The one thing your staff has told you repeatedly in their own report, about the 50.2-foot docks, is they don’t comply with your own plan.”

The plan calls for 18 docks at the 50-foot length, 90 docks at 40 feet, 24 docks at 35 feet and another eight slips for personal watercraft such as canoes and kayaks. The city’s Community Development Department recommended approval of all but the 50-foot slips.

The city’s planning board, like the City Council after it, voted to approve the request by a 3-2 vote. However, even that vote came with a recommendation to reduce the size of the largest slips to resemble the footprint of the 40-foot slips.

The South Seas project seeks to replace a set of 166 dilapidated docks reaching 30 feet into the waterway. Many of them were damaged during Hurricane Wilma and are no longer usable, according to the South Seas Club.

The majority of residents who objected to the plan expressed no qualms with replacing the docks to match the original blueprint.

Among the stipulations City Council is expected to consider when addressing a boat dock extension are whether the facility is of minimum dimensions necessary to provide reasonable access to docked boats and to minimize the impact on views of nearby property owners. Also, facilities are expected to extend into no more than 25 percent of a waterway.

At the narrowest point where docks would be placed, the waterway is listed as 156 feet across. At that point, the club’s plans call for the 35-foot docks, extending into 22 percent of the waterway. At its widest, where the 50-foot docks would be built, the bay is 560 feet across.

The Wolterses joined a handful of residents in neighboring single-family zoned properties that were appalled at the changes on tap for the bay. Many made reference to the facility being overhauled into a “marina” for large boats, in spite of assurances by South Seas that the slips would be for the use of private condo owners only, and would not be leased or used for any commercial activities.

“South Seas is taking advantage of this small bay for their own selfish reasons — to make it into a commercial/marina so some boaters don’t have to pay to dock and store their larger boats in a marina elsewhere on the island,” wrote resident Howard Olnowich in a letter to City Council before the request was approved.

Olnowich, like the Wolterses, lives on Century Drive, across the bay from South Seas.

“Frankly, I find it offensive that such a request was not overturned unanimously,” wrote resident Steven J. Riddle in a letter to the City Council following the Planning Board’s approval. “I purchased my property specifically for the waterfront view and tranquility of the bay. I in no way ever thought I would be looking at Clam Bay being turned into a marina for large boats ... I can’t imagine the precedent for dock expansions throughout the island that this would precipitate.”

White said his clients talked to their neighbors at one point to discuss a possible class action suit against the city, but said his clients were “going it alone” at this point.

White said the Wolterses believe their qualms with the plan could be resolved easily — namely by locating the longest docks closer to the inside of the bay. The body of water is shaped like a trapezoid, with a wide span across the middle that narrows to the northwest and southeast.

Attempts to sit down and discuss the conflict with the South Seas Club have been stymied, White said.

“We’ve sought to try and work with the applicant, and regretfully have been left with no choice but to try the courts,” White said. “We feel that there’s a reasonable way to work things out, but at this point they haven’t created the opportunity.”

The suit is the only one City Clerk Laura Litzan can recall that challenges a boat dock extension approved by council. Litzan has been with the city for 10 years, nearly since the city’s formation.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened,” she said.

She pointed to other extensions approved with no subsequent appeals or lawsuits, including one extension by the Marco River Marina and an even more recent approval to the Marco Island Yacht Club.

The yacht club extension sought approval for two docks extending a total of 319 feet into the Marco River. That request was actually approved in the council meeting directly after the Feb. 19 meeting where the South Seas request was approved.