Maritime Hammock Preserve in Cocoa Beach, Florida

The Maritime Hammock Preserve is a city-owned natural area at 1225 North Atlantic Ave. in Cocoa Beach, open 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day of the week (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The posted hours differ from what the city expected when it planned the Cocoa Beach preserve. The management plan adopted in 2004 anticipated that the site would be closed between sunset and sunrise, like other city parks, with a security gate at the Cocoa Isles Boulevard entrance to stop parking after closing (2004 management plan). The current city listing gives fixed hours of 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM instead (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The preserve sits inside a neighborhood. The city listing asks visitors to be aware of and respect the park's neighboring residential homes (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing), and the plan places a utility easement about forty feet wide along the west side, running north from Cocoa Isles Boulevard to Holiday Lane and carrying city sewer and reclaimed water lines (2004 management plan).

Preserve activities on the city listing are strolling, frisbee, dog walking, picnicking, yoga and exercise, photography, plant identification and bird watching, and the same listing asks visitors not to fish the pond or ride bikes on the trails (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The listing notes a pet waste station on site for dog walkers, asks visitors to take all trash home or use the park receptacles, and tags the site as a Natural Area (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The 2004 Cocoa Beach plan noted listed bird species on the property, including white ibis and osprey, along with small mammals and reptiles typical of old field habitats, and said feral cats may be present from time to time (2004 management plan).

The city listing states that the City applied for a recreation grant in 2015 and that, if it was awarded, the remaining park amenities would be constructed in 2016 (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The same Cocoa Beach page names a future observation deck and a future fitness trail among its passive recreation plans, along with nature trails and picnic areas, and says the city's Land Management Committee has been developing a Master Site Report and Master Site Plan consistent with the management plan. Questions about the Master Site Report and Master Site Plan go to the City Clerk's Office (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The 2004 management plan spells out the full design the city committed to (2004 management plan). It listed a parking area at the southwest corner off Cocoa Isles Boulevard, a restroom beside it, a pond of about one acre, a wildlife observation deck about forty feet in diameter with seating and kiosks, trails of about a quarter mile including a nature trail and a seven-station fitness loop, picnic tables, a tetherball area at the north edge, entry signs and bike racks. The plan gives two parking figures: one passage limits parking to ten vehicles, and its parking section provides six spaces including a handicapped spot. It also says any improvement not listed in the plan needs Florida Communities Trust review and approval before work starts.

Cocoa Beach bought the land in 2003 for conservation and stormwater management, with a Florida Communities Trust grant covering 40% of the $1.52 million purchase price (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The management plan, Florida Communities Trust Project No. 03-035-FF3, was adopted March 18, 2004. It records that the city applied to the trust in June 2003 and that grant funds received in 2004 would reimburse part of the acquisition cost (2004 management plan). The stated purpose was more public green space, restoration and preservation of the natural communities, and passive, low-impact recreation. To lock that in, the city amended the future land use and zoning designation for the site to conservation, and the plan requires that literature about the site say it was acquired with Florida Communities Trust funds.

The Florida Communities Trust is a state-funded land acquisition program created by Chapter 380, Florida Statutes, first funded through Preservation 2000 bonds and now through the Florida Forever Act, and governed by a five-member board chaired by the Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or a designee (FDEP Florida Communities Trust page). The department says the trust has helped acquire over 96,987 acres since its inception in 1989. The Cocoa Beach plan is posted on the city's Comprehensive Plan and Management Plans page, which describes the Comprehensive Plan as the city's long-term guide for land use, natural resources and recreation (city Comprehensive Plan and Management Plans page).

The preserve's 1-acre stormwater pond was constructed as a natural park amenity, and the city credits it with treating storm runoff from 128 acres of Cocoa Beach commercial and multi-residential land (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing).

The city describes the pond as almost entirely funded by those grants (city Maritime Hammock Preserve listing). The two records give different drainage figures: the listing gives 128 acres, while the 2004 plan said the planned pond would treat the site's own stormwater and give offline treatment to an 81-acre watershed that discharged to the Banana River with minimal treatment, enhanced with alum injection (2004 management plan). The plan also placed the pond in the southern part of the site with a sinuous, natural-looking shoreline planted with native species, and it called for a small shed of about eight feet square, or an underground chamber, on the west easement to house alum treatment for the runoff (2004 management plan). Under the plan, the Public Works department maintains improvements such as the observation deck, picnic tables and signage, and the city Stormwater Utility handles short-term and rehabilitative maintenance of the pond.

The Cocoa Beach Stormwater Department is at 1600 Minutemen Causeway, 321-868-3243, and the city's stormwater utility fee, effective October 1, 2025, is a flat $19.66 for a single-family home (city Stormwater Fees page). The city says the Stormwater Utility Fee is defined in its Code of Ordinances.

A maritime hammock is a mostly evergreen hardwood forest on stabilized coastal dunes, and the Cocoa Beach preserve holds a remnant of that forest on about sixty percent of its 5.4 acres (FNAI maritime hammock guide; 2004 management plan).

The Florida Natural Areas Inventory says that temperate species dominate from the Georgia border to Cape Canaveral, where live oak, cabbage palm and red bay combine to form a dense canopy, and that the forest's low, streamlined profile deflects wind and generally keeps hurricanes from uprooting the trees. South of Cape Canaveral, tropical species such as gumbo limbo, strangler fig and seagrape become increasingly common (FNAI maritime hammock guide).

The Cocoa Beach plan notes that the inventory identifies maritime hammock statewide as an imperiled community (2004 management plan). On this site the hammock is a remnant: parts of the property were cleared and planted with citrus in the early 1900s, much of it was mowed for years, and in areas not mowed, Brazilian pepper and Australian pine often invaded and formed dense thickets. The plan suggests the original vegetation of Cocoa Beach was probably palmetto scrub and coastal hammock under live oak, and it says remnants of that oak hammock, including some trees more than 30 inches in diameter, still exist in Cocoa Beach.

Last verified: October 21, 2026, after a fresh read of the city preserve listing, the 2004 Maritime Hammock Preserve management plan, the city Comprehensive Plan and stormwater fee pages, the FDEP Florida Communities Trust page and the FNAI maritime hammock guide.