Biscayne Bay Park Masterplan
Biscayne Bay is a polluted, dangerous and lawless place. At the rate that users of our city’s greatest natural asset are destroying its safety and marine habitats, in short order it will become our collective greatest liability. An analogy for thinking about how to regulate and organize Biscayne Bay (at this point in its history) would be Central Park in New York City. Central Park is part of the city and has been shaped by the city’s development. The park is a highly designed space that considers all users of its spaces, whether its residents looking to go for a walk, exercise or picnic and more, as well as tourists wanting to see historic sites or just taking in its natural beauty. While Biscayne Bay is partially considered a national park, it doesn’t give users the impression that they are within a natural preserve. With a significant portion of the bay’s coastline fronting dense urban areas, the bay should be given a similar level of design, no different than its predecessor, Central Park. Biscayne Bay needs a masterplan.
In light of recent fatal and tragic events in Biscayne Bay, resolutions need to be put forth to make the Bay a safe place for people to enjoy. These accidents are a direct result of a systematic failure that created the conditions then to happen.
Below is a multidimensional outline of ideas to help achieve safety and enjoyment in Biscayne Bay.
Legislative measures at the Florida state level should require and enforce that all boaters are required to pass a licensing test (written and driven) to operate a boat. Driving a boat should be no different that driving a car, and the licensing process should be as strict or even more regulated. The current law states that only boaters born after January 1,1988 are required to obtain licenses, however this is not taken seriously or enforced.
Maximum vessel draft limits should be implemented of 4.5 feet for boats operating in the bay outside the channels and a maximum of charted depth for channels themselves. Biscayne Bay is a shallow body of water and should only allow boats of a relatively shallow draft operating freely throughout. This rule would protect seagrass beds and sensitive bottom conditions in areas that are otherwise unmarked.
Speed limits should be set for areas of the bay beyond manatee zones and marinas. The bay has a lot of boat traffic with vessels of various speeds operating in the same space. On land, we don’t allow racecars to speed on our streets. There are ‘street legal’ cars. Similarly, Biscayne Bay needs limits on speed and the boats that can operate within it.
Designated swim zones should be defined clearly with official Florida state signage denoting their boundaries. Additionally, mooring balls should be strategically placed to safely enjoy the swim destination as well as project the bay bottom from consistent anchor damage. These swim zones can be created around natural features such as current day popular sandbars, but also man-made, not unlike the rock pools of Australia or the harbor baths of Copenhagen.
Water skiing areas also need to be defined and clearly marked. Boaters engaging in waterskiing must be certified to operate the vessel for that purpose.
Launch areas for watersports and non-motorized vessels are also important for creating an accessible bay. This includes convenient and designed access points for kayaks, small sailboats, paddleboards, windsurfs, kite-boards and others.
Fishing piers should also be designed and strategically placed for comfort and ease of access. They should be safe to access without the need for its users to be fishing adjacent to high-speed vehicular roadways.
The development of the Biscayne Bay waterfront is also an enormously important aspect of allowing residents to enjoy the bay without having to be aboard a vessel. The development of the Miami Riverwalk and Baywalk, a 50ft wide pedestrian promenade along all of the the City of Miami Waterfront has lagged for too long. Many individual properties that have not yet been planned for new projects and therefore stand in the way of creating a continuous waterfront link. A design needs to be put forth and executed with urgency to create this tremendous feature for residents. All major waterfront cities (including rivers) have excellent pedestrian infrastructure for these spaces (look no further than Havana, New York City, Santander, Paris, London, etc.) Virginia Key is another crucial aspect.
The upkeep of marine habitats is vital for the health of Biscayne Bay. This can include recreating native habitats, or re-wilding, to make up for the loss of these habitats over the years. For example, the planting of new mangrove islands and recreating the natural flow of freshwater via springs would reestablish the former Biscayne bay. Furthermore, the red tape preventing these projects from being built should be removed to expedite the implementation of these projects. Nature takes time to grow and establish itself. Many trees won’t mature for 20 years.
Historic and architectural landmarks should be made outstanding features of Biscayne Bay and reprogrammed to invite the public to visit and experience them. This includes rebuilding Stiltsville to the original 27 structures and possibly adding more re-envisioned ideas of them in appropriate locations. The Miami Marine Stadium is also a prime structure to be renovated and put back into use as a waterfront theater. The recreation of the Dresden old city is an example to look at.
Art interventions are attractions for locals and tourist alike but can also support aspects of the maintenance of the bay environment. One recent proposal by Colin Foord envisioned the abandoned Venetian Islands as planted mangrove labyrinths for kayakers and paddleboarders. The project would be an aesthetic improvement to the area while also serving as a recreational and marine habitat area. The locations for these interventions should not be limited.
Public Transit and alternative means of transportation, such as bike lanes, to all beaches and waterfront access points is also critically important for the user’s safety and enjoyment of Biscayne Bay. Granting residents and tourist of the city access to the bay in a safe and egalitarian manner without the need to get out on motorboat will improve the experience of the city’s waterfront. Furthermore, building waterfront parking lots is not an efficient use of space and is not environmentally beneficial to the health of the bay.
Biscayne Bay can become the world’s leading example of a municipal park within a body of water that coexists with a coastal marine environment. This transformation will require collaborations among various authorities having jurisdiction and the private sector, but the result with be a generational transformation of the city.