When can you dock your boat behind your house? Or more specifically, how big is too big to be able to dock your boat behind your house? What if it’s a 164-foot Westport megayacht?
Those are the questions driving a suit that Michael Bozzuto has filed against the Village of North Palm Beach, Florida (pop:13,000), where he’s lived for 20 years. Bozzuto has been fighting for several years for the right to dock his yacht, named Honey, behind his house at 932 Shore Drive there. He bought the house in 2014 for $840,247. He also bought Honey about that time, for a lot more money than he paid for the house.
The chairman of a wholesale food and household products business in Connecticut, Bozzuto has several other yachts and three other houses in North Palm Beach. He keeps personal property at the house on Shore Drive, but lives at another house on Harbour Isles Court.
When Bozutto first bought it, he docked Honey at Old Port Marina, near Tiger Woods’ megayacht. But then he wanted to dock it at his Shore Drive property because it was more convenient. It’s on a corner lot with water on the north and east sides and easy access to the Lake Worth Inlet.
Village officials say Bozzuto can’t dock Honey behind his house because its rules say that boats can be docked only behind “occupied” houses. Unfortunately, it does not define “occupied.” It does not have any restrictions about the size of boats that can be kept at a private dock.
Bozzuto thinks that neighbors don’t want Honey there because it’s too big. His suit asks the village for clarification. His attorney, Gregory Coleman, the former head of the Florida Bar, says the village is bending to pressure from Bozzuto’s neighbors. The village, he says, is depriving Bozzuto of his property rights.
“He’s a very under-the-radar guy who doesn’t cause anybody any problems,” Coleman told the Palm Beach Post. “He pays his property taxes, and he wants to be left alone by the Village of North Palm Beach.”
The village has not yet responded to the suit.
