Rose Marina: Important Questions Remain Unanswered

The Marco Island Planning Board recently voted to recommend approval of the Rose Marina site development plan. The proposal is scheduled to come before the City Council on September 10 at 5:30 p.m. This is an unusual City Council meeting date, so please mark your calendars.

I support responsible improvements to Rose Marina. It has been part of Marco Island for decades and provides valuable services to our boating community. However, this proposal is not simply about a new restaurant, improved landscaping or modernizing an aging marina. It carries and implied approval for cruise ships to become an established part of Rose Marina’s operations without first addressing serious questions about water and air quality, diesel emissions, manatee protection, seagrass and marine habitat destruction, traffic, parking, development intensity and the effects on nearby neighborhoods.

These questions should be answered before approval is granted, not after the use becomes firmly established and perhaps impossible to reverse.

Allowing Bussing to Replace Parking Could Eliminate the City’s Ability to Control Intensity

Rose Marina is located along Bald Eagle Drive, a critical transportation and evacuation route for residents living north of the marina. The proposal would add a restaurant of approximately 200 seats, increased commercial activity, passenger loading and unloading, and the potential for multiple large commercial vessels. That could mean more cars, buses, delivery vehicles and passenger traffic at an already important location.

There are many unanswered questions about whether the City’s infrastructure can support the additional intensity proposed for this property. The traffic impact study does not fully incorporate the findings of the Level of Service study completed in April. It also does not provide corresponding Level of Service data for potable water, sewer or stormwater management, the standards the City relies upon to determine whether it can adequately provide these essential services. Those questions should be answered before the project is approved.

The proposal also raises a much broader concern for the entire island: allowing off-site parking and bussing to accommodate customers who cannot park at the property.

The City’s parking requirements are not arbitrary. They help determine how much activity a property can reasonably support. A business that cannot provide enough parking for its customers is normally limited in the number of people it can accommodate. If customers can instead park at the Marriott, the Hilton, Walmart or another location in Naples and be bussed to businesses and beaches on the island, parking would no longer provide any meaningful control over the intensity of the use.

Once that precedent is established, it may not remain limited to Rose Marina. Other restaurants and businesses could argue that they should also be allowed to bus an unlimited number of customers in from off-site locations. Rose Marina could also bring passengers to the island by water, bus them to beaches or other businesses, and then return them to the marina. While this may enrich some local entrepreneurs, it creates a new level of intensity for the island and our infrastructure in the absence of an evaluation of the impact to the island as a whole.

The result could be a defining precedent that would allow businesses to accommodate as many people as they can transport rather than the number their properties and parking facilities were designed to support given their CLUZA certifications. This precedent should not be established, as it could effectively eliminate the City’s ability to use parking requirements to prevent over-development and troublesome levels of intensity in the future.

The Potential Environmental Consequences Have Not Been Examined

The vessels currently bringing cruise ship passengers to Rose Marina are approximately 243 feet long, which is nearly the length of a football field. They are in an entirely different class from the recreational boats most residents associate with a neighborhood marina.

A recently circulated video appears to show one of these vessels grounded near Marco Island and violently churning the bottom while attempting to free itself. The person who posted the video stated that similar groundings have occurred countless times. At a minimum, the video demonstrates why the environmental effects of regular large-vessel operations cannot simply be assumed to be harmless or inconsequential.

Large vessels maneuvering in shallow or confined waterways can disturb bottom sediment and create turbidity. Increased turbidity reduces the amount of sunlight reaching seagrass, while propellers and vessel groundings can directly damage seagrass roots, stems and leaves. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection warns that severe or repeated propeller scarring can completely destroy seagrass beds and that damaged areas can take years to recover.

Seagrass is not merely underwater vegetation. It stabilizes sediment, supports fish and other marine life, and provides essential food and habitat for manatees.

Key West’s cruise-ship monitoring program provides a warning that deserves attention. Monitoring there found repeated spikes in suspended sediment associated with cruise-ship arrivals and departures. In some instances, turbidity approached or exceeded levels recorded during hurricanes. Rose Marina’s vessels are smaller than the largest ships studied in Key West, but Factory Bay is also a very different and highly sensitive environment. The comparison demonstrates why local study and monitoring are necessary rather than simply assuming there will be no impact.

Factory Bay and the surrounding waterways are known manatee habitat. Increased large-vessel traffic raises concerns not only about direct collisions but also about the cumulative loss or disturbance of the seagrass on which manatees depend. Further, federal wildlife authorities identify watercraft collisions as the largest known human-related cause of manatee deaths.

Shore power is another important unanswered question. Without adequate shore power, cruise vessels may need to run diesel-powered auxiliary engines or generators while docked. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identifies marine vessels as a significant source of port-related combustion emissions. This is especially concerning because homes are located directly next to Rose Marina. Residents have raised concerns about the effects of cruise-ship emissions on their air quality, as well as the persistent generator noise that prevents them from peacefully enjoying their homes and outdoor spaces.

Marco Island is preparing to spend millions of dollars on Advanced Wastewater Treatment to reduce nitrogen and improve the health of our waterways. It makes little sense to make that investment while approving a more intensive waterfront use without first evaluating its potential effects on air quality, water quality, sediment, seagrass and wildlife.

To my knowledge, the City has not required an independent environmental assessment of recurring cruise-vessel operations in Factory Bay. I do not believe anyone involved in the City’s review has even raised the broader question of how cruise ships and other large commercial vessels may affect the environment. That must be corrected before any approval makes these operations more permanent.

Is This Cruise-Ship Use Properly Authorized?

There is also a fundamental legal and regulatory question: Is the docking of cruise ships even authorized at Rose Marina?

Marco Island’s Code describes marina uses primarily in terms of recreational boating and related marine activities. A vessel carrying overnight passengers from port to port and bringing them ashore for excursions is a different operation. It functions more like a cruise terminal than a traditional recreational marina.

Rose Marina also operates facilities over state-owned submerged lands. Those lands are controlled by the State of Florida through a sovereign submerged lands lease administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The most current Rose Marina submerged lands lease available online indicates that the marina cannot contract with third parties for the docking of cruise ships without first obtaining a modified lease authorizing that use, along with any state permits that may be required.

Based on the documents currently available online, the docking of cruise ships at Rose Marina does not appear to be a permitted use. More research is needed to determine whether Rose Marina ever obtained the required lease modification, permits or other authorization, and that investigation should be completed before the City approves a site development plan that could facilitate or expand this use.

While these issues do not necessarily establish that a violation has occurred, they do establish that a thorough investigation is needed.

Before the City approves this redevelopment, it should obtain the complete state file, including every lease, amendment, modification, permit, consent, compliance review and related communication. The City should also request a written determination from FDEP explaining:

• Whether cruise ships are authorized under the existing submerged lands lease or through any separate written consent or permit. Rose Marina should be required to provide documentation from FDEP confirming that cruise-ship docking is an authorized use.

• Whether the current vessel operations and docking arrangements comply with the lease and all environmental permits.

• Whether a lease modification, environmental review or additional state or federal authorization is required.

• Whether any groundings, bottom disturbances or other environmental incidents have been reported, and how those events should influence whether or not cruise ships should be allowed in the future.

• Whether the documentation presented to planning board still reflects reality in terms of passenger counts and docking agreements.

• Whether Rose Marina should be required to repeat the Neighborhood Information Meeting in order to fully disclose their plans to the community.

A use with this level of potential impact should not be allowed to quietly become established simply because it may have occurred for several years without adequate scrutiny.

My Position

I do not believe the City Council should approve the Rose Marina redevelopment proposal in its present form. At a minimum, the decision should be postponed until the major transportation, environmental and legal questions have been independently investigated and answered in writing.

Before reconsidering the proposal, the City should absolutely prohibit bussing customers and passengers as a substitute for required on-site parking, obtain a complete determination of the marina’s lease and permitting status, and require an independent environmental assessment addressing vessel groundings, bottom disturbance, turbidity, seagrass, manatees, water quality, air quality, sewage disposal and shore power.

This is not about refusing reasonable improvements to a property. It is about ensuring that decisions with lasting consequences are made carefully and transparently, with the long-term interests of Marco Island residents and our environment as top priorities.

Once an intensive use is approved and firmly established, it may be impossible to reverse. Marco Island deserves complete answers before that happens.

If you are concerned about this matter, please attend or watch the City Council meeting on September 10, 2026 at 5:30 at City Hall, and speak up and make your concerns known. Please also email all members of City Council at city_council@cityofmarcoisland.com and ask them to get answers to all of these questions before they begin to consider approving these plans.

It would also be helpful to share what is happening with your neighbors, as many residents are currently elsewhere and may not be following the important decisions coming before City Council now that could have damaging consequences for the island in the future.

Thank you for caring for Marco,

Teri

Learn more about Teri, her background, and her vision for a brighter future for all who call Marco Island home.

(C) 2026 Teri Sommerfeld
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