Boat Docks, Boat Lifts and Seawalls on Longboat Key, Florida

Longboat Key is a barrier island about ten miles long with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Sarasota Bay on the other. Of the town’s sixteen square miles, only about four are land. Almost every dock, lift and seawall on the island sits on the bay side, in a dredged canal or on open bay frontage. Anderson Dock & Lift Co. is a veteran owned and operated marine contractor in Bradenton, and that bay shoreline is the work.

The island straddles the Manatee and Sarasota county line. The Town of Longboat Key governs both halves as a single municipality, so the building permit comes from the same department either way. The county still matters: it sets which county clerk records your Notice of Commencement, and which county license line you fill in on the Town’s forms.

The Water in Longboat Key

Longboat Key’s usable dockage is on the Sarasota Bay side. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway runs through the bay along the island’s east shore. Two inlets connect to the Gulf: Longboat Pass at the north end in Manatee County, which separates the island from Anna Maria Island, and New Pass at the south end in Sarasota County, roughly ten miles away, which separates it from Lido Key. Both are dredged channels and both shoal. Most single family dockage sits in canals cut behind the island. Sarasota Bay is an Outstanding Florida Water with mapped seagrass.

Waterfront areas we cover: Country Club Shores, Bay Isles (Bay Isles Harbor, Queen's Harbor, Corey's Landing), Emerald Harbor, Buttonwood Harbor, Sleepy Lagoon, Longbeach Village, Spanish Main Yacht Club, Longboat Harbour.

Docks and piers built to Longboat Key's canal width rule

Canal width sets the design here. Town code limits a dock, lift or piling to 30 feet from the mean high water line or 30 percent of the navigable waterway width, whichever is less, and the application includes a notarized waterway width affidavit. Town staff have described canals on the island as narrow as 30 feet, and 30 percent of that is about nine feet of projection. Wider systems on the island leave room for a walkway, a terminal platform and a lift on the same structure. We measure the waterway first, because the number that comes back decides the layout, the decking run and whether a lift fits at all.

Boat lifts set for surge, not just for the boat

Hurricanes Helene and Milton put water over Longboat Key docks in 2024. Residents came out of it with displaced, damaged and missing boats, and with lift motors and controllers that had been underwater. The Town’s response was to measure everything from the mean high water line and raise the ceiling: dock walking surfaces to five feet above that line, lift pilings to eleven feet above it, and no part of the lift structure above the pilings except boat guides, lift motors and lift beams. Permit plans have to show the lift’s power source and the run length back to it, plus manufacturer specifications with the wire sizing chart. We install Sea Mount, Hurricane and Deco equipment, from PWC and pontoon lifts through sailboat and large yacht capacity, and we service and inspect lifts already in the water.

Seawalls, tiebacks and the six foot height limit

The canals behind Longboat Key are seawalled, and ownership is not always obvious: in Emerald Harbor the canals are publicly maintained while the walls lining them are private. In 2024 the Town raised the maximum seawall height from four and a half feet to six feet, a change that came out of its sea level rise and recurring flooding plan, so a replacement wall can be built higher than the one it takes out. On man made canals, a new seawall can only be built where the adjacent properties already have one. We build new walls and handle panel and cap repair, tiebacks and anchors, retaining walls and inspections, with piling wraps where the water line is eating the timber.

Gulf side versus bay side on Longboat Key

The two sides of this island are not the same job. The Gulf shoreline is open and erosive, and the north end sits downdrift of Longboat Pass, where the state’s inlet management plan attributes the sand loss to predominant southward longshore transport. There is no protected water to moor in and no private residential dockage there. Docks, lifts and canal seawalls on Longboat Key are bay side work, either on open Sarasota Bay frontage or inside the dredged canals. Gulf front structures fall under a separate state coastal program with its own review. If you own Gulf front and want to know what is actually possible, we will say so before you spend anything.

Permits in Longboat Key

Who issues them: Town of Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Department (Building Division), 501 Bay Isles Road, for the entire island regardless of county. Above the Town: FDEP for environmental resource permitting and any use of state owned submerged lands, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District. SWFWMD comes in where upland stormwater work is part of the project. Neither county issues the permit: the county determines only where the Notice of Commencement is recorded and which county license field is filled on the Town's dredge and fill application, which carries separate Manatee Co. and Sarasota Co. license lines alongside the state number.

Applications go through the Town’s Accela portal, and only the license holder or a registered agent can file online. A dock, lift or piling package runs to a current boundary, topographic and drainage survey, a site plan showing the lift power source and the run length to the lift, construction plans to the 2023 Florida Building Code at 150 mph wind load, Risk Category II, Exposure Category D, manufacturer lift specifications with the wire sizing chart, and a notarized waterway width affidavit. Dredge and fill is a separate application under Chapter 152 that asks you to name the county. Pete Anderson holds Florida certified specialty contractor license SCC131152520.

What We Build and Repair

Frequently Asked Questions

Anderson Dock & Lift is based in Bradenton and works across Florida’s Gulf Coast. See every town we cover, or call (941) 720-6733 for a free estimate within 24 business hours.