Supreme Court of Florida

____________

No. SC16-1107

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TREASURE COAST MARINA, LC, etc., et al.,

Petitioners,

vs.

THE CITY OF FORT PIERCE, FLORIDA, etc., et al.,

Respondents.

[June 15, 2017]

LEWIS, J.

This case is before the Court for review of the question certified in the 

decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in City of Fort Pierce v. Treasure 

Coast Marina, LC, 195 So. 3d 1141 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016). Our review involves 

consideration of the exemption from ad valorem taxation contained in article VII, 

section 3(a), of the Florida Constitution that applies to property owned and used 

exclusively by municipalities for municipal or public purposes. Specifically, in 

Treasure Coast Marina, the district court ruled upon the following question, which 

the court certified to be of great public importance:

IN LIGHT OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE V. CITY 

OF GAINESVILLE, 918 So. 2d 250 (Fla. 2005), DOES A 
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MUNICIPALLY OWNED AND OPERATED MARINA STILL 

QUALIFY AS A TRADITIONALLY EXEMPT “MUNICIPAL OR 

PUBLIC PURPOSE” UNDER ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3(a) OF 

THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION?

Id. at 1147. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We answer 

this question in the affirmative and approve the decision below.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This case commenced on October 28, 2011, when the owners of a private 

marina filed a complaint challenging the tax-exempt status of the Fort Pierce City 

Marina and the Fisherman’s Wharf Marina. Because the marinas were 

respectively owned by the City of Fort Pierce and the Fort Pierce Redevelopment 

Agency, the complaint was filed against those entities (collectively “the City”); the 

St. Lucie County Tax Appraiser (the Property Appraiser); and the Executive 

Director of the Florida Department of Revenue (the Department of Revenue). The 

plaintiffs who filed the complaint, Treasure Coast Marina, LC; Raincross 

Holdings, LC; and Riverfront Developers, LC (collectively “Riverfront”); own and 

operate a private marina in Fort Pierce which is subject to ad valorem taxation. Of 

relevance here, Riverfront’s amended complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive 

relief on the basis that the Property Appraiser unconstitutionally granted ad 

valorem tax exemptions during tax years 2011, 2012, and 2013 to the two marina 

properties owned and operated by the City.
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Following discovery, cross-motions for final summary judgment were filed 

and the parties conceded that there were no genuine issues of material fact. The 

trial court ruled in favor of Riverfront, concluding that neither of the City marinas 

qualified for the constitutional tax exemption. To reach this conclusion, the trial 

court determined that both City marina properties at issue were not used for a 

“municipal or public purpose,” and therefore, in its view the Property Appraiser

unconstitutionally granted the exemptions at issue. The trial court applied an 

exceedingly narrow standard because it believed that we announced a new legal 

standard and discarded years of precedent when we issued our decision in

Gainesville, 918 So. 2d 250.

The City and Property Appraiser jointly appealed to the Fourth District 

Court of Appeal. On appeal, the Fourth District reversed. Treasure Coast Marina, 

195 So. 3d at 1147. The Fourth District reasoned that this Court in Gainesville

“did not change the legal standard for municipal purpose under article VII, section 

3(a) of the Florida Constitution, and that it used the same definition of municipal or 

public purpose as in prior court opinions. Under this definition, municipal marinas 

are traditionally considered exempt from taxation.” Id. at 1142-43. The district 

court further reasoned that:

[t]he marinas are open to public use, are exclusively owned and 

operated by the City, and provide recreation for local residents and 

support the local economy by attracting non-local residents. . . . Thus, 

not only do the City’s marinas serve a purpose that has been 
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repeatedly and explicitly recognized as a “municipal or public 

purpose,” they also operate specifically “for the comfort, convenience, 

safety, and happiness of the municipality’s citizens[,]” and serve the 

public purpose of developing recreational facilities in “increas[ing] 

trade by attracting tourists and [providing] recreation for the citizens.”

Id. at 1146-47 (internal citations omitted). Noting the large boating community in 

Florida and the economic impact of tax exemptions for municipal marinas, the 

district court certified the question to this Court. Id. at 1147. This review follows.

ANALYSIS

We embark on our voyage by looking to the underlying constitutional 

provisions at issue, and because this case involves questions of constitutional law,

our review is de novo. See Lewis v. Leon Cty., 73 So. 3d 151, 153 (Fla. 2011). 

The first provision of note is contained in article VII, section 4, of the Florida 

Constitution, and it specifically requires that real property be subject to ad valorem 

taxation with certain exceptions that do not apply here:

By general law regulations shall be prescribed which shall secure a 

just valuation of all property for ad valorem taxation . . . .

Art. VII, § 4, Fla. Const. However, our Constitution also recognizes that certain 

properties owned and used exclusively by municipalities are constitutionally 

exempt from ad valorem taxation, pursuant to article VII, section 3(a), which 

provides in pertinent part:
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All property owned by a municipality and used exclusively by it for 

municipal or public purposes shall be exempt from taxation.

Art. VII, § 3(a), Fla. Const.

Seeking to eject the City’s marinas from the safe harbor provided by that 

constitutional language, Riverfront attempts to transform the ripples from our 

decision in Gainesville into a landscape-altering tempest. Specifically, in 

challenging the exemptions historically applied to the City Marina and the 

Fisherman’s Wharf Marina, Riverfront contends that in Gainesville we announced 

an entirely new, more restrictive standard for the application of the constitutional 

exemption. While Riverfront acknowledges that the definition of “municipal or 

public purpose” has not changed, it asserts that the Gainesville majority opinion 

changed application of the test by focusing on the word “essential.” According to 

Riverfront, our focus on the word “essential” in Gainesville was new and 

represents a different and more narrow application of the tax exemption than is 

reflected in prior cases, which Riverfront considers to be an indication that prior 

precedent is no longer relevant.

Although Riverfront’s misplaced reliance on Gainesville is understandable 

given the nature of the facts, our discussion in Gainesville, and the fact that 

Gainesville emanated from this Court—our state’s highest court—Riverfront loses 

its bearings by extrapolating Gainesville beyond its narrow confines onto areas of 

law that have been well-settled for years. In reality, our decision in Gainesville
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was no more than a passing wave in the vast ocean of ad valorem taxation 

precedent. 

As evidence of this truth, in Gainesville we explicitly noted the distinct 

circumstances we were reviewing. First, in Gainesville we did not have before us

an as-applied challenge to the issuance of an exemption, but rather a facial 

challenge to a statute imposing ad valorem taxes on a municipality. 918 So. 2d at 

253. Thus, our review was limited to determining whether there were any 

circumstances under which the statute could be upheld. Id. at 256, 265. The 

statute in question authorized municipalities to provide telecommunications 

services for the first time but conditioned that authorization on a municipality 

paying ad valorem taxes on the relevant properties. See id. at 253-54. Prior to the 

statute authorizing municipalities to provide telecommunications services for the 

first time ever, the Public Service Commission was not authorized to issue such 

permits to a municipality. See id. Therefore, we recognized a second distinction 

by explicitly noting in Gainesville that we were analyzing the exemption in the 

context of a service that has historically been provided by the private sector rather 

than any traditional municipal function. Id. at 265. This critical distinction 

between telecommunication services and traditional municipal functions, such as 

electric services, housing, and parks, signals both that Gainesville applies to a 
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limited circumstance and that the cases addressing those traditional municipal 

functions remain good law.

In fact, contrary to Riverfront’s understanding, our discussion in Gainesville

actually further supports the continued vitality of the traditional municipal function 

course plotted by our precedent. For instance, as Riverfront acknowledges, in 

Gainesville we recognized that although the constitutional tax exemption provision 

was revised from its counterpart contained in the 1885 Constitution to curb 

perceived abuses in favor of private operators seeking a profit, that end was not 

advanced by changing the definition of “municipal or public purposes,” but rather 

by requiring ownership and use by the municipality. Id. at 261 (“Thus, although 

the framers of article VII, section 3(a) sought to limit the holding in Daytona 

Beach Racing[ & Recreational Facilities District v. Paul, 179 So. 2d 349 (Fla. 

1965)], they did so by requiring both ownership and exclusive use of the property 

by the municipality rather than by narrowing the definition of municipal purposes.”

(emphasis added)). Further, we reaffirmed at length that the phrase “municipal or 

public purposes” remains equal to that under prior precedent construing the terms, 

both under the 1885 Constitution and the 1968 Constitution:

In the absence of any indication in the Constitution to the contrary, we 

conclude that the term “municipal or public purposes” should be 

construed in accordance with the definition utilized by the Court in its 

prior decisions on the constitutional tax exemption. There is nothing 

in the language of article VII, section 3(a) that evinces an intent to 

create a more restrictive definition of “municipal or public purposes” 
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for property that is owned and used exclusively by the municipality 

than the definition applied to “municipal purposes” under the 1885 

Constitution in McDavid[1]and Saunders[2]through the 1968 adoption 

of the current provision. Although McDavid and Saunders rested at 

least in part on judicial deference to the Legislature’s assessment of 

what type of activity served municipal purposes, we have no basis to 

conclude that a narrower construction was intended when the selfexecuting exemption was included in the 1968 Constitution. To the 

contrary, had the framers of article VII, section 3(a) intended to 

narrow the exemption, they could have specifically defined 

“municipal or public purposes,” or used different terms altogether.

. . . As stated by one observer shortly after the adoption of the 1968 

Constitution, cases construing the constitutional municipal purposes 

exemption and the statutory public purposes exemption “continue to 

be good law even after the adoption of the new constitution.” Robert 

F. Williams, Note, Property Tax Exemptions Under Article VII, 

Section 3(a) of the Florida Constitution of 1968, 21 U. Fla. L. Rev. 

641, 643 (1969).

We therefore conclude that the “municipal or public purposes” for 

which municipally owned property must be exclusively used in article 

VII, section 3(a) to qualify for an ad valorem tax exemption 

encompass activities that are essential to the health, morals, safety, 

and general welfare of the people within the municipality.

Id. at 263-64 (emphasis added). Thus, as all parties here agree, “municipal or 

public purposes” in the constitutional tax exemption context—both before and 

after Gainesville—“encompass activities that are essential to the health, morals, 

safety, and general welfare of the people within the municipality.” Id. at 264.

 

1. State ex rel. Harper v. McDavid, 200 So. 100 (Fla. 1941).

2. Saunders v. City of Jacksonville, 25 So. 2d 648 (Fla. 1946).
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In performing a facial constitutionality analysis in Gainesville and applying

that definition of “municipal or public purposes,” we focused on the word 

“essential,” noting that the term involves the concept of great need or necessity:

In putting this definition into practice, we focus on the word 

“essential,” which is generally defined as something basic, necessary, 

or indispensable. See Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 396 

(10th ed. 1999). For example, an “essential element” is one on which 

proof is required in order to establish a legal claim or criminal 

offense. See, e.g., Rubano v. Dep’t of Transp., 656 So. 2d 1264, 1266 

(Fla. 1995) (“Proof that the governmental body has effected a taking 

of the property is an essential element of an inverse condemnation 

action.”); Randall v. State, 760 So. 2d 892, 901 (Fla. 2000)

(“[P]remeditation is the essential element that distinguishes firstdegree murder from second-degree murder.”). Thus, inherent in the 

word essential is the concept of great need or necessity.

Id. Riverfront seizes on this singular passage and our recognition of certain 

distinctions of prior precedent to conclude that we narrowed the legal standard for 

municipal or public purpose tax exemptions, suggesting that the standard requires 

indispensability and a lack of private sector competition.

However, the very next two paragraphs in Gainesville indicate that 

Riverfront reads too much into that language. Instead of discarding our prior 

precedent, we embraced it and noted that “a thread of necessity also runs through 

the precedent concerning tax exemptions for municipal use of municipally owned 

property that we have discussed.” Id.

Accordingly, in Gainesville, we specifically distinguished 

telecommunication services from “electrical power and public parks” because 
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“telecommunication services have historically been provided by the private 

sector.” Id. at 265. Further reflecting this distinction, we noted that “[t]he 

presumption underlying [City of Sarasota v. Mikos, 374 So. 2d 458 (Fla. 1979)], 

that vacant land owned by a municipality is held for a public purpose, would be 

inappropriate for municipally owned property used by the municipality to engage 

in a business venture to provide services in competition with the private sector.” 

Id. at 261 n.12. Ultimately, in the next paragraphs we explained why traditional 

municipal functions, such as providing public housing, electricity, and parks are 

presumed to satisfy the “essential” component of a “municipal or public purpose”:

In McDavid, which held a tax exemption for a public housing facility 

valid, the Legislature had declared that housing conditions were “a 

menace to the health, safety, and morals of the people . . . 

necessitat[ing] excessive expenditures for crime and fire prevention, 

health, and welfare,” and that public safety “demand[ed]” replacement 

of slums by “sanitary and better housing facilities.” In upholding the 

tax exemption for property owned by a municipal power company 

located in another county in Saunders, we recognized that the 

Legislature “was doubtless well aware of the need for light, heat and 

power by those areas outside of municipalities.” Similarly, in Ford,

[3]

this Court held that the production of electricity by a municipality’s 

power company served a municipal purpose. Such services are 

essential in that municipally owned power companies have legally 

protected monopolies within their territorial boundaries, and have 

traditionally provided these services. Finally, the tax-exempt status 

upheld in Mikos for vacant land held by a municipality to preserve 

 

3. Ford v. Orlando Utilities Comm’n, 629 So. 2d 845 (Fla. 1994) (holding 

tax-exempt under article VII, section (3)(a), Florida Constitution, a municipally 

owned electric generating plant, but located in adjacent county and not serving 

residents of the adjacent county).
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natural open spaces or for future needs is consistent with the 

traditional municipal function of providing parks for the municipal 

population. Cf. City of Miami Beach v. Hogan, 63 So. 2d 493, 495 

(Fla. 1953) (stating that “[i]n all heavily populated municipalities the 

police power should be exercised by municipal officials to afford all 

of the people light, air, [and] an opportunity for recreation”).

Id. at 264-65 (some internal citations omitted). Therefore, in Gainesville we did 

not announce a new standard, but rather simply recognized a critical distinction 

between traditional municipal functions and functions historically provided by the 

private sector for purposes of the “municipal or public purposes” constitutional tax 

exemption.

Our district courts have had no trouble recognizing this critical distinction. 

In Zingale v. Crossings at Fleming Island Community Development District, the 

First District correctly rejected the contention that Gainesville altered—let alone 

narrowed—the test for a “municipal or public purpose.” Zingale, 960 So. 2d 20, 

24-25 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007), decision quashed sub nom. Crossings at Fleming 

Island Cmty. Dev. Dist. v. Echeverri, 991 So. 2d 793 (Fla. 2008).

4

 At the time, the 

district court recognized that our decision in Gainesville had noted that 

municipalities traditionally provide parks and opportunity for recreation, but also 

 

4. Although we reviewed and quashed Zingale on the question of standing 

of one of the parties to raise a particular defense, there was standing with regard to 

the issue of application of the tax exemption. We did not address or disturb the 

correct analysis in that case. See generally Echeverri, 991 So. 2d 793. 
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that telecommunication services have been historically provided by the private 

sector. Id. at 25. Thus, the Zingale court affirmed the application of the 

constitutional exemption to a “golf course, swimming pools, tennis courts, and 

playgrounds.” Id. at 24-25. Likewise, even the two decisions upon which 

Riverfront relies do not support its argument. The same year Zingale was decided, 

the First District once again correctly recognized the distinction in City of 

Gainesville v. Crapo, noting that this Court made clear in Gainesville that 

telecommunication services are distinct in that they have traditionally been 

provided by the private sector. City of Gainesville v. Crapo, 953 So. 2d 557, 563

(Fla. 1st DCA 2007). Similarly, in CAPFA Capital Corp. 2000A v. Donegan, the 

Fifth District recognized that in Gainesville we “suggested that certain categories 

of services which have been traditionally provided by municipalities, such as 

public housing and utilities, are within the concept [of municipal and public 

purposes] and thus remain exempt from taxation.” CAPFA, 929 So. 2d 569, 572 

(Fla. 5th DCA 2006). Correctly applying the law, the CAPFA court then held that 

a student housing investment project located in an adjacent county was not tax 

exempt, specifically noting: “Nor are student housing projects at market prices a 

traditional service historically provided by municipalities. Such services have 
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typically been provided by the private sector, or the educational institutions 

themselves.”5 Id. at 574.

Therefore, our inquiry turns to whether public marinas are traditional 

municipal functions that are presumed to be tax exempt under article VII, section 

(3)(a). While we have not previously addressed application of this exemption

specifically to municipally owned marinas, as the decision below recognized, other 

district courts have opined on the subject. In Page v. City of Fernandina Beach, 

the First District considered the tax-exempt status of a marina owned by the City of 

Fernandina Beach, but operated by a private lessee for private gain. Page, 714 So. 

2d 1070, 1077 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998). Due to the lease to a private operator, the 

First District held that the marina was not entitled to a tax exemption.6 Id. 

However, relevant here, the district court opined in dicta that a marina both owned 

and operated by the municipality would be constitutionally exempt:

 

5. As a result, we are concerned by the errant dicta language in CAPFA

referring to “the more stringent definition of municipal or public purposes 

espoused by the [Gainesville] case.” CAPFA, 929 So. 2d at 573. We expressly 

disapprove that language, but recognize that ultimately the CAPFA court correctly 

applied the law and aptly noted the distinction between traditional municipal 

functions and those functions historically provided by the private sector.

6. Tax exemptions for private leasehold interests in municipally owned 

property are subject to a stricter test known as the “governmental-governmental” 

standard. See generally Sebring Airport Auth. v. McIntyre, 783 So. 2d 238 (Fla. 

2001).
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Municipal operation of a marina is a legitimate municipal corporate 

undertaking for the comfort, convenience, safety, and happiness of the 

municipality’s citizens. Indeed, the uncontradicted expert testimony 

was that operation of this marina constituted a proper municipal or 

public function. When a city operates a marina it owns, marina 

property it has not leased to a nongovernmental entity is exempt from 

ad valorem taxation.

Id. at 1076-77 (emphasis added).

Although that portion of Page was dicta, in Islamorada, Village of Islands v. 

Higgs, the Third District, sitting en banc, expressly approved that reasoning and 

held that a marina owned and operated by a municipality was exempt. Islamorada, 

882 So. 2d 1009, 1011 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003). In Islamorada, the marina generated 

revenues that exceeded the marina’s expenses, its customers were both residents 

and the general public, including out-of-town visitors, and the marina was 

contained within a recreational facility. Id. at 1010-11. The Islamorada court’s 

analysis turned on whether the municipality used the marina for municipal or 

public purposes. Id. at 1011. In so analyzing, the district court noted that “the 

term ‘municipal purpose’ embraces all activities essential to the health, morals, 

protection and welfare of the municipality.” Id. (citing Greater Orlando Aviation 

Auth. v. Crotty, 775 So. 2d 978, 980 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000)). It further noted that 

“municipal functions” are functions which “specifically and peculiarly promote the 

comfort, convenience, safety and happiness of the citizens of the municipality 

rather than the welfare of the general public.” Id. (citing Crotty, 775 So. 2d at 980-
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81). Islamorada also expressly agreed with the First District’s dicta in Page, 

emphasizing the language, “When a city operates a marina it owns, marina 

property it has not leased to a nongovernmental entity is exempt from ad valorem 

taxation.” Id. (citing Page, 714 So. 2d at 1076). The Third District concluded

Islamorada by noting that the marina fulfills a public purpose, “despite the fact that 

the Village earns a profit from its operation of the Marina.” Id. We agree and 

approve the analysis in Islamorada.

Indeed, we have little difficulty in concluding that marinas undoubtedly fall 

in the same category of traditionally-exempt property occupied by public housing

projects, electrical infrastructure, and parks. We perceive at least three different 

ways in which a nexus is formed between marinas and “municipal or public 

purposes.”

First, one need not have special training to realize that marinas provide an 

invaluable contribution to serving the transportation needs of coastal communities 

dating to the birth of this nation and our state. Prior to January 22, 1912, when the 

Florida East Coast Railway’s Over-Sea Railroad to Key West was completed, the 

Florida Straits were only accessible by sea.

7

 Reflecting on the importance of 

 

7. Linking the Keys, Library of Cong., https://www.loc.gov/item/today-inhistory/january-22 (last visited June 5, 2017).
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marinas and ports, at the time, nearly twenty thousand people lived in Key West.8 

Likewise, the record in this case discloses that the City Marina, although formally 

established in 1938, traces its roots to various iterations of a town dock on the 

same site dating back to the early 1900s. Further, Florida’s 1,197 statute miles of 

coast line,

9

significant contribution to the Intracoastal Waterway, and peninsular 

shape quickly impress the historic importance of marine transportation in Florida 

upon even the casual observer. 

Second, public marinas also serve municipal or public purposes by ensuring 

access to the waterfront, which grows more essential by the day as a result of 

private development. Municipalities across the state have struggled in recent years 

to protect both a view of and access to the water to the citizenry from the profitoriented grips of developers seeking to privatize the waterfront through the 

construction of towering condominium and apartment buildings that block the 

 

8. Linking the Keys, Library of Cong., https://www.loc.gov/item/today-inhistory/january-22 (last visited June 5, 2017). See generally Florida East Coast 

Railway, The Story of a Pioneer: A Brief History of the Florida East Coast 

Railway and Its Part in the Remarkable Development of the Florida East Coast 30 

(1946).

9. Quick Facts, Florida Dep’t of State, http://dos.myflorida.com/floridafacts/quick-facts/ (last visited June 5, 2017). 
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waterfront from those who do not have the means or simply do not want to live in a 

condominium.10

Third, marinas also serve to advance the recreational needs of a

municipality’s citizens. Landlocked citizens may break free from the confines of 

their yards or apartment complexes and enjoy the magnificent Florida waters 

through public marinas. Moreover, the fact that not everyone enjoys boating by 

virtue of the varied and wide-ranging interests that render us human has no bearing 

on our analysis. Florida courts have repeatedly recognized that similar taste-based 

recreational activities, such as golf and tennis, are sufficiently essential recreational 

activities that support application of the constitutional exemption. See, e.g., 

Zingale, 960 So. 2d at 24-26; Sun ‘N Lake of Sebring Imp. Dist. v. McIntyre, 800 

So. 2d 715, 723 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (“It is possible that a golf course or tennis 

courts, owned by a municipality and held open to the public, and not operated in 

conjunction with a for-profit business, may serve an exclusively public purpose.”).

 

10. See, e.g., Nicholas Nehamas, As Waterfront Land Dries Up, Developers 

Rush to Miami River, Miami Herald (June 7, 2015), 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article23356026.html; 

Harry Emilio Gottlieb, Letter to the Editor, Condos Eat Up Miami’s Waterfront 

Property, Miami Herald (June 23, 2016), 

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article85671387.html. 
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Furthermore, as the City contends, the Legislature has expressly recognized 

the importance of the waterfront and the role of public marinas in furthering those 

interests:

342.07 Recreational and commercial working waterfronts; 

legislative findings; definitions.—

(1) The Legislature recognizes that there is an important state 

interest in facilitating boating and other recreational access to the 

state’s navigable waters. This access is vital to tourists and 

recreational users and the marine industry in the state, to maintaining 

or enhancing the $57 billion economic impact of tourism and the $14 

billion economic impact of boating in the state annually, and to

ensuring continued access to all residents and visitors to the navigable 

waters of the state. The Legislature recognizes that there is an 

important state interest in maintaining viable water-dependent support 

facilities, such as public lodging establishments and boat hauling and 

repairing and commercial fishing facilities, and in maintaining the 

availability of public access to the navigable waters of the state. The 

Legislature further recognizes that the waterways of the state are 

important for engaging in commerce and the transportation of goods 

and people upon such waterways and that such commerce and 

transportation is not feasible unless there is access to and from the 

navigable waters of the state through recreational and commercial 

working waterfronts.

§ 342.07, Fla. Stat. (2016).11 Moreover, the importance of public marinas and their 

nexus to providing transportation and commerce was enshrined in the Florida 

 

11. Public marinas are expressly contemplated within the definition of 

“recreational and commercial waterfront.” § 342.201(2)(b), Fla. Stat. (2016) (“The 

term includes water-dependent facilities that are open to the public and offer public 

access by vessels to the waters of the state. . . . These facilities include . . . wet and 

dry marinas . . . .”).
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Constitution when the voters passed the “Assessment of Working Waterfront 

Property Based Upon Current Use” amendment in 2008, which is contained in 

article VII, section 4(j), of the Florida Constitution and provides in pertinent part:

(j)(1) The assessment of the following working waterfront 

properties shall be based upon the current use of the property:

a. Land used predominantly for commercial fishing purposes.

b. Land that is accessible to the public and used for vessel launches 

into waters that are navigable.

c. Marinas and drystacks that are open to the public.

d. Water-dependent marine manufacturing facilities, commercial 

fishing facilities, and marine vessel construction and repair facilities 

and their support activities.

Art. VII, § 4(j)(1), Fla. Const. (2008) (emphasis added); Amends. Proposed by 

Tax’n & Budget Reform Comm’n, Revision Nos. 3, 4, and 6, 2008, filed with the 

Secretary of State April 28, 2008; adopted 2008.

12

 

Therefore, because public marinas have been considered traditional 

municipal functions and our decision in Gainesville did not announce any new 

 

12. We note that this amendment concerning the assessed taxable value of 

such property does not in any way intrude on the applicability of the constitutional 

exemption. For instance, there are publicly owned marinas that are leased to 

private operators that would not qualify for the exemption. See, e.g., Page, 714 So. 

2d 1070. The amendment merely protects against assessment of the highest and 

best use of the waterfront property on which a marina would sit, which might, for 

instance, be assessed at a higher tax rate if the property could support construction 

of a sophisticated office tower.
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standard, we answer the certified question in the affirmative and expressly approve

the decision below. 

Having untangled the constitutional question, we now turn to the record in 

this case and the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of Riverfront.

13

 

In declaring the tax exemptions at issue here unconstitutional, the trial court 

essentially ruled that Riverfront had rebutted the presumption of tax-exempt status 

for properties owned and used exclusively by a municipality for municipal or 

public purposes that attaches where the property involves a traditional municipal 

function, such as a public marina. We disagree with that understanding.

Nothing in the record indicates that the marinas in this case do not serve a 

municipal or public purpose. Riverfront contends that the placement of a lock on 

some of the docks destroys the public nature of these marinas.14 However, the 

protection of boats and other property from vandalism and crime is entirely 

consistent with the operation of a marina, and the record indicates that the locks 

here were put in place to address security concerns. Moreover, the fact remains 

that the marinas in this case are open to the public and any member of the public 

 

13. Our review of orders entering summary judgment is also de novo. 

Volusia Cty. v. Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So. 2d 126, 130 (Fla. 2000).

14. Three of the eight docks at the City Marina are usually locked. The 

only dock at the Fisherman’s Wharf Marina is usually locked. The record 

indicates that these locks were put in place by the City due to security concerns.
- 21 -

may go to the office at either marina, as would a patron at any public golf club or 

tennis club with an office. Furthermore, while most of the slips may be leased to 

individuals, the record here indicates that the marinas do not charge any fee for 

boaters who wish to dock just for the day. Similarly unavailing, the fact that more 

nonresidents than residents of the municipality might use the marina is also 

entirely consistent with the objectives of a municipal marina to operate as a 

component of the transportation infrastructure and bring economic activity into the 

municipality. 

Further, depriving the City of its constitutional right to the exemptions at 

issue here on the basis that marinas may also be run by the private sector or 

compete with the private sector would sink the exemption in nearly every context 

because almost any function today may be equally provided by the private sector. 

Cf. Saunders, 25 So. 2d at 650 (“We are not justified in declaring the act invalid 

because it might enable the City to compete with private utilities required to pay 

taxes.”).

15

 Such an analysis ignores the fact that publicly owned and operated 

 

15. In Saunders, this Court noted that the Legislature was a safeguard 

against abuses that might allow municipalities to “take business from competing 

tax paying utilities.” Id. (“Our answer, if any is needed, is that the legislature is the 

arbiter of this question and its judgment under Article 8, Section 8, Constitution, is 

final unless an abuse of power is shown.”). While the constitutional provision at 

issue in Saunders was replaced with article VII, section 3(a), which is now selfexecuting, we note that the concern of cities abusing tax-exempt status to take 

business away from competing private entities is likewise tamed by the 
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facilities are open to the public, as opposed to private facilities which generally 

may freely pick and choose among those clients they wish to serve, or be far more 

motivated by pecuniary interests. In any event, here the Property Appraiser has 

correctly created separate tax folios for the portions of the marina properties that 

are leased to private operators and the City pays ad valorem taxes on those 

portions.16

Therefore, Riverfront has not carried its burden to rebut the presumption that 

the municipally owned properties here that are used exclusively by the 

municipality to provide traditional municipal functions are constitutionally exempt 

from ad valorem taxation. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court 

correctly reversed the trial court for erroneously disturbing the tax-exempt status of 

the City’s marinas. 

CONCLUSION

For the reasons expressed above, we reaffirm that our decision in 

Gainesville did not announce a new standard for applying the municipal or public 

purposes tax exemption contained in article VII, section 3(a), of the Florida 

 

requirement in article VII, section (3)(a), that the municipality simultaneously own 

and exclusively use the tax exempt property.

16. For this reason, the “exclusive use” requirement of the constitutional 

exemption is not at issue on this record.
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Constitution. We also hold that for purposes of applying that constitutional tax 

exemption, a public marina owned and operated by a municipality is a traditional 

municipal function that carries a presumption of tax-exempt status. Accordingly, 

we answer the certified question in the affirmative, approve the decision below, 

and direct upon remand that the trial court enter a final summary judgment in favor 

of the Respondents recognizing that the public marinas at issue here are properly 

tax-exempt for the tax years at issue.

It is so ordered.

LABARGA, C.J., and PARIENTE, QUINCE, CANADY, POLSTON, and 

LAWSON, JJ., concur.

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION, AND 

IF FILED, DETERMINED.

Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal – Certified 

Great Public Importance 

Fourth District - Case No. 4D14-3064

(St. Lucie County)

Brigid F. Cech Samole of Greenberg Traurig, P.A., Miami, Florida; and Jerry 

Stouck of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Washington, District of Columbia,

for Petitioners

Robert V. Schwerer and James T. Walker of Hayskar, Walker, Schwerer, Dundas 

& McCain, P.A., Fort Pierce, Florida,

for Respondents City of Fort Pierce and Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency

Loren E. Levy and Jon F. Morris of The Levy Law Firm, Tallahassee, Florida,
- 24 -

for Respondent Ken Pruitt, St. Lucie County Property Appraiser

Harry Morrison, Jr., and Kraig Conn of Florida League of Cities, Tallahassee, 

Florida; and Benjamin K. Phipps of Phipps & Howell, Tallahassee, Florida,

for Amicus Curiae Florida League of Cities