Indian Harbour Beach docks and boat lifts

Yes: Indian Harbour Beach requires a city building permit before a dock, pier, covered boat dock or boathouse goes into a canal, waterway, drainage easement or drainage right-of-way (Indian Harbour Beach zoning code, Appendix A, Article XIII, Section 19).

The Indian Harbour Beach code puts the paperwork in a fixed order. A construction plan showing where the new structure sits in relation to the existing buildings on the lot goes to the building official for approval first, and when the official decides a dock might interfere with the main job of a drainage easement or right-of-way, the owner can be sent to the city council for approval instead (Section 19 of the city zoning code). That approved plan then travels with the building permit application. For every application the code asks for two sets of sealed engineered plans and specifications drawn to scale, and it expects engineered drawings for docks, piers, boathouses, roofs and boatlifts alike (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

Approval from Indian Harbour Beach is not the only one needed. The same section says a dock permit, where applicable, comes from the Army Corps of Engineers, which must also approve any excavation tied to a dock, and that a canal under state jurisdiction can trigger permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or another state agency (Section 19 of the city zoning code). One of the residential checklists the Building Department posts is titled Residential Marine (Indian Harbour Beach residential permit checklists). The department's quick links also point to the zoning map, the Code of Ordinances and the FEMA flood map for the city, the reference documents behind the setback and channel limits below (Indian Harbour Beach Building Department page).

On most Indian Harbour Beach canals a dock, its pilings and the boat tied to it may reach no more than 30 percent of the waterway width or 25 feet, whichever is less (Indian Harbour Beach zoning code, Appendix A, Article XIII, Section 19).

Two Indian Harbour Beach shorelines are treated differently. Lots on the North/South Segment of the Grand Canal get a flat 30-foot projection limit, again counting the moored boat, and dock length in the Banana River is left to the dock and pier length rules of the State of Florida and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rather than a city number (Section 19 of the city zoning code). Whatever the shoreline, no dock, pier, piling or moored boat may enter the navigation channel of an artificial waterway, which the code defines as the center 40 percent of its width (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

In Indian Harbour Beach, width is measured perpendicular to the centerline from mean high water on one bank to mean high water on the other, or from the face of a bulkhead where one exists, and a canal under the code is a manmade or improved natural waterway at least 80 feet wide; narrower recorded channels count as drainage easements or rights-of-way (Section 19 of the city zoning code). Sideways, a dock and its pilings must stay at least 10 feet off the owner's side lot line projected straight out into the water (Section 19 of the city zoning code). On multifamily lots zoned R-2 or R-3, docks may be designed for, and may actually hold, no more than one boat for every 25 feet of shoreline measured along mean high water (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

The deck of an Indian Harbour Beach dock, pier, boat lift or covered boat dock, counting every attached walkway over the water, is capped at 600 square feet (Indian Harbour Beach zoning code, Appendix A, Article XIII, Section 19).

The Indian Harbour Beach code separates a covered boat dock, which has a roof but no sides of any kind, from a boathouse, which is partly or fully enclosed; only the first is allowed, as an accessory use in every residential zoning district (Section 19 of the city zoning code). Nothing may be built on top of a covered dock roof, and the code names sitting and sunbathing areas as examples of what is barred (Section 19 of the city zoning code). Structures have to let water flow and flush freely, and any dock light must be shielded so the bulb or other light source is not directly visible from the adjoining lots or from the lot across the canal (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

Yes, Indian Harbour Beach lets two adjoining canal lots that cannot meet the side setback file concurrent permits on the shared line under a recorded joint use agreement (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

An Indian Harbour Beach joint use agreement carries a long list of contents. It names both owners and their home addresses, identifies the waterway and both parcels by legal description, attaches a signed and sealed survey and a drawing of the planned structures, maps any access easements, which can be revoked only with the city's written consent, and splits construction and maintenance duties between the parties (Section 19 of the city zoning code). It also binds heirs and later buyers, cannot be changed without written city consent, goes in draft to the city attorney for review before signing, and must be recorded in the Brevard County public records at the owners' expense before the city will issue the permit (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

Sharing does not stretch the Indian Harbour Beach size rules. Each parcel keeps its own maximum marine improvement area, the two areas may not be pooled to build something larger, only one such permit is allowed per lot, and a boat tied to the joint structure may not hang across the property line (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

The Indian Harbour Beach Resolution No. 630 fee schedule, adopted in 2011, sets four flat dock and boatlift fees, from $70.00 for an unroofed structure without electric to $130.00 for a roofed one with electric (Resolution No. 630).

Where Indian Harbour Beach reviews plans, the resolution adds a plan review charge set at half the permit fee, and it doubles the specified fees when work that needs a permit is started before the permit is obtained (Resolution No. 630). Because the schedule dates from 2011, it is worth checking it against the separate permit fee chart that the Building Department links beside its online permit payment button (Building Department page).

State law can waive a separate state environmental permit for a small private dock in Indian Harbour Beach waters, and the statute says its exemptions do not excuse anyone from other requirements of county and municipal governments (section 403.813, Florida Statutes).

For Indian Harbour Beach waterfront owners, the exemption in paragraph (1)(b) covers a private dock with no more than 500 square feet over the water in Outstanding Florida Waters, or 1,000 square feet elsewhere, built on pilings or floating without fill or dredging beyond the pilings, used for noncommercial boating, and standing as the only exempt dock along 65 feet of shoreline or on a smaller platted lot (section 403.813, Florida Statutes). Paragraph (1)(i) separately exempts private docks of up to 1,000 square feet and seawalls in artificially created waterways when water quality, navigation and flood control are not harmed (section 403.813, Florida Statutes). A floating boat lift has its own paragraph, (1)(s), with a limit of 500 square feet, or 200 square feet in Outstanding Florida Waters, when it is not wholly contained in a previously permitted boat slip (section 403.813, Florida Statutes).

Whether the Outstanding Florida Waters figures apply depends on where a dock sits. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection lists the Banana River Aquatic Preserve as a Brevard County preserve established in 1970 covering 30,000 acres and names Outstanding Florida Waters among its habitat types (FDEP Banana River Aquatic Preserve page). Inside a state aquatic preserve, private residential docks may be approved for reasonable access by riparian owners, and a slip holding a lift or davit that does not float may be roofed but not walled, with the roof overhanging no more than 1 foot past the lift and boat (section 258.42, Florida Statutes).

An Indian Harbour Beach dock gets final approval only after an engineer or surveyor registered in Florida certifies an as-built survey showing its location and setback compliance (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

The obligation does not end at approval. The Indian Harbour Beach code forbids any owner from letting a dock on or next to the property become dilapidated, deteriorated, structurally unsound or a safety hazard (Section 19 of the city zoning code). An owner who cannot fit a plan inside the limits may ask the Board of Zoning Adjustment and Appeals for a deviation; the board weighs the effect on navigation, the design, size and location of the structure and any effect on existing marine improvements in that waterway, and it may approve only the smallest deviation needed to avoid undue hardship (Section 19 of the city zoning code).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, by rereading zoning Section 19 on docks and piers, the dock and boatlift lines of Resolution No. 630, the Indian Harbour Beach checklist and Building Department pages, sections 403.813 and 258.42 of the Florida Statutes and the FDEP Banana River Aquatic Preserve page.