Vero Beach’s oft-delayed marina expansion project is finally ready to move forward.

More than five years after it was initially proposed to the City Council – having endured neighborhood opposition that produced a failed referendum and rejected legal challenge – City Manager Monte Falls told council members earlier this month work on the first phase of the planned new docks is scheduled to begin this week and be completed in mid-September.

Providing a project update at the council’s March 12 meeting, Falls also said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has given its “verbal approval” of the city’s plan to build a new, significantly larger dry-storage facility for boats at the marina.

In addition, he said the city has learned from its Tallahassee lobbyist that both the Florida House and Senate’s versions of the state’s proposed 2024-25 budget, which was still awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature last weekend, include a $500,000 appropriation for the marina project.

“That’s fantastic news,” Falls said during his update.

The city will need the additional funding to help offset the increased cost of the expansion project as a result of the repeated delays caused by a group of marina neighbors who complained about the size of the planned boat barn.

The group, which organized under the banner of the Vero Beach Preservation Alliance, stalled the project for more than a year, finally taking the city to court – even after the council compromised and agreed to build a smaller dry storage facility.

“Of course, the costs have gone up,” Falls said last weekend. “You know of any construction costs that have gone down the past couple of years?”

The construction of the new building was projected to be $7.6 million, funded by $750,000 in grant money, a $2 million capital-improvements contribution from the city’s general fund and a low-interest $4.8 million loan.

Falls said Sunday the city was still attempting to calculate the new cost of the building.

The most recent delay, according to Falls, was caused by “public comments” the Army Corps of Engineers received while reviewing the city’s plan for the dry-storage facility.

Falls said the Corps “rarely gets public comment” when considering such permits, adding that he didn’t know what the comments were or who filed them, nor would he speculate.

Vero Beach 32963 submitted a public-records request for the comments last week, but the Corps did not respond.

“They’re being cautious because they had some public comment,” Falls said of the additional time it has taken the Corps’ engineers to issue a written permit, which the city hopes to receive soon.

The city’s plan for what Falls described as a “scaled-down, more-vanilla building” has been finalized, he told the council, adding that he hopes to start seeking bids next month or in early May.

Falls said he didn’t want to begin the bid process until he was sure the Corps would approve the plan. He expects a contractor to be chosen this summer and for construction to begin in September or October, with the new building completed a year later.

“We’re good to go on all those fronts,” Falls said. “We’re looking forward to getting started over there. It’s been a long time coming – and the existing building is not getting any younger.”

According to Falls, demolition of existing docks will start next week, and dredging for the new docks is expected to start in late April. Two fixed docks will be built in May, and new docks are expected to arrive at the marina in early June.

He said the city’s lobbyist, Ryan Matthews, who served as secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under then-Governor Rick Scott before joining the GrayRobinson law firm, helped expedite the necessary permitting from the agency.

The dock construction is scheduled to be completed within the deadlines that accompanied the grants the city has received for that part of the project, Falls said.

The construction of the dry-storage facility, however, will start much later than city officials anticipated when the council approved the plan in December 2022.

It wasn’t until last August, in fact, that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger allowed Vero Beach to finally move forward with its plan to build the new boat barn, denying a request from the marina project’s opponents to review and reject the process the city followed in approving the site plan.

Metzger’s decision, handed down in her role as an appellate judge in the matter, ended a tumultuous, sometimes-contentious dispute between city officials and Vero Beach Preservation Alliance members, who waited until late in the approval process to voice their objections, then fiercely fought the marina plan for more than a year.

The alliance’s efforts, which produced an unsatisfactory compromise from the city during the summer of 2022 and a court-voided referendum two Novembers ago, ultimately failed.

The clash, however, produced a series of delays that postponed the start of the boat-storage facility’s construction – a project city officials hoped would start last year.

Even if there are no further delays, the new facility will open for business nearly two years later than expected.

The alliance attempted to derail the city’s plan to demolish the existing-but-dilapidated 7,850-square-foot storage facility and replace it with a new 21,355-square-foot structure capable of housing up to 120 boats up to 35 feet long.

Opponents to the project complained the new boat barn, which would be triple the size of the current facility, was incompatible with the residential character of the adjacent neighborhood.

They argued a facility of such size would create noise, traffic and parking issues that would disrupt and diminish nearby residents’ quality of life.

They also cited the environmental impact – on marine life, water quality and natural habitats at and near the marina – of having a storage facility capable of housing so many boats, which would increase boat traffic in the area.

The city’s initial plan called for a 25,768-square-foot building that would increase boat-storage capacity from 64 to 160 in response to a growing local demand. But in an effort to appease the alliance, officials agreed to scale back to the 21,355-square-foot structure.

The alliance members weren’t satisfied. Rebuffed by the city, they successfully petitioned to put a referendum on the November 2022 ballot.

Had the referendum been approved, a new city ordinance would have required public approval of all but the smallest improvements to parks and other charter properties.

The city went to court to challenge the referendum’s ambiguous wording, and Circuit Judge Laurie Buchanan struck down the ballot initiative immediately after the polls closed.

Public records revealed 55 percent of Vero Beach voters had rejected it, anyway.

In December 2022, the City Council upheld the Planning & Zoning Board’s site plan approval for the compromise-sized boat-storage facility. The next month, the alliance filed its petition, claiming an ordinance that allowed the city to waive an off-site parking restriction was “unconstitutional.”

Metzger denied the petition without comment last August.