By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

NAPLES — The Town of Naples is proposing to establish impact fees triggered by the rentals of boats and boat slips to help to offset the cost of a beefed-up marine safety budget. The impact fee is an idea suggested by the Naples Budget Committee.  

There will be a public hearing on the proposed impact fees before any action is taken. 

There was some discussion about the town’s elected officials being fair to taxpayers by passing on the cost of a service to the percentage of people who benefit from it, rather than the whole population. 

Already, mooring registration fees have risen so that section of the population (people with boats in the water) assist in paying for marine safety on the lakes where they live. 

The discussion took place during the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday. It was the first in-person meeting since Nov. 9. Since late November, the board had been holding its bi-monthly meetings via Zoom. 

First, Naples Town Manager John Hawley presented the topic of impact user fees. 

“So, at budget committee meeting that was held last Wednesday [Feb. 17] the Marine Safety budget was reviewed by the committee. It was determined that, at this point, the committee would really like to see that department more funded based on user and impact fees,” Hawley said. “It was suggested that we revisit the marine resource management enforcement fees that were recommended last year.”

He said that in June 2020, the Naples Marina and Waterfront Committee, chaired by Selectman Jim Turpin, approached the marinas with the idea of an impact fee. 

“It was met with such resistance, it was dropped,” Hawley said. “It was brought up again during last week’s budget committee meetings. To move forward, I need the opinion of the full board.”

Chairman Jim Grattelo said not only did the budget committee recommend it, but he and Jim Turpin supported it.  

“The two proposals that were put forth last year — one was a dock rental fee that would have been imposed on the marinas. The other was watercraft rental agent fee, which again would be imposed on marinas,” Hawley said.

Grattelo said the originalproposal of $50 per boat was not very palatable to marina owners. But, the new proposal of $20 per boat, which is on same scale as mooring fee.

Hawley clarified the mooring fees. This year, the fee to re-up an existing mooring registrationis $25, he said. In 2023, it goes up to $40 and in 2025 it goes up to $60 for re-registrations. To register a mooring for the first time is more expensive than the yearly renewal of a mooring.

Everyone who has an existing mooring is paying $25 in 2021.

“The thought process is real simple: We are asking 800-some-odd people who have moorings to pay $25 for their mooring but we’ve got these boat slips on all these marina and they aren’t paying anything,” Grattelo said. “The second argument is there is no reason in the world, the marinas have to pay for this.”

Before citing statistics, he said he had checked with the marinas to find out about boat rental customers. 

“Over 80 percent of boats rentals and slip rentals are from out of town residents. They are not residents of the town of Naples So, there is no reason in world why they [the marinas] can’t simply say the town has a fee. It shouldn’t cost the marinas anything. Again, over 80 percent of all boat rentals in the Town of Naples are nonresidents. So, adding a $10 fee to a boat rental for somebody is going out of town is no different from [when] you go on vacation, and you pay all kinds of taxes. You pay for your hotel rental and when you get there is a lodging fee or whatever,” Grattelo said.  

“In my opinion it is unfair to ask local taxpayers to pay a fee they don’t participate in. It is a directresult of all the watercraft being sold,” he said. “These additional costs should be spread out.” 

Turpin had a comment and a question. 

“In terms of consistency, we are charging folks for their moorings. We should consider it for private docks,” he said. 

He asked if their had been a discussion about it being outside the town’s authority to tack a fee onto rentals.

Hawley answered, saying he needed to confirm with legal counsel. 

“When we looked at this last year, the state informed us we are not allowed to piggyback on any of the registration fees collected. We have to word this in a way, it is not part of rental but it is a separate impact fee. You are doing this to offset the overall impact on the lake,” he said.