Planning board upholds staff decision to lift stop-work order for 3411 W. 15th dock; neighbors plan DEP appeal

After more than an hour of testimony from boat captains, residents, an environmental consultant and the dock owner, the City of Panama City Planning Board voted 5-0 on July 14 to affirm the city’s decision to rescind a stop-work order for a dock at 3411 West Fifteenth Street (case CPCPLN20250786).

The appeal challenged the planning division’s May 23 decision to lift a May 15 stop-work order. Planning Division staff said the stop-work order had been issued because of concerns the dock “may impede navigation” and “may not be constructed in conformance with the approved plans.” In the notice staff also cited the Unified Land Development Code requirement that “the dock structure shall not impede the flow of water nor navigation,” language City staff and petitioners discussed during the hearing.

Petitioners — including longtime Lake Huntington boaters and three licensed captains — told the board the dock blocks or narrows the lake’s working channel in certain weather or low-tide conditions and that parts of the boathouse and mooring area are constructed over submerged aquatic vegetation (seagrass). “We maintain that the dock has been constructed in…