‘Begging for mercy’: Hialeah resident asks city to lift boat-parking ban at townhouses
For more than 35 minutes, three Hialeah residents urged the City Council on Tuesday to revisit an ordinance that prohibits boats from being parked at townhouses, describing the rule as an unfair burden on longtime boat owners.
“One of the reasons I worked my entire life was to be able to own a boat,” resident Miguel Pita told council members. “It’s what I love. I dreamed that when I retired, I could enjoy sailing.”
Making an emotional appeal, Pita added: “All the sacrifice, all that I fought for, all that I worked for — please, I’m begging you for mercy. Don’t tell me you cannot change the law that you created.”
Pita told council members that he has lived in the same townhouse in the Palm Springs North area of Hialeah for more than 19 years and has kept the same boat parked in one of his designated spaces during that time. He said he is now facing the prospect of having to remove the boat.
“I have fought so much. It has cost me so much,” he said.
In 2024, the Hialeah City Council, under then-Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo, approved an ordinance allowing recreational vehicles, including boats, to be parked only at single-family homes but prohibiting them at duplexes and town houses. City officials cited safety concerns as the reason for the restriction. Before the ordinance, townhouse residents in Hialeah were allowed to park any recreational vehicle in their parking spaces, including boats less than 24 feet in length.
Seeking a variance
Pita said he sought a variance seeking to be allowed to park his boat at his townhouse during Bovo’s administration, when he got the first citation after the new ordinance was approved.
According to Pita, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board approved the request, but he was later informed by the administration that the application would be dismissed. The city subsequently refunded the fee he had paid for the variance.
Now, two years later and under a new administration, Pita said he has once again received a citation for parking the same boat at the same property, reigniting a dispute he believed had already been resolved.
Under Mayor Bryan Calvo, residents are voicing concerns about the ordinance as the city begins enforcing the measure aggressively.
Records of code cases opened reviewed by the Miami Herald from 2024 until April 2026 do not show any specific mention of Pita’s townhouse. However, since Calvo took office on Jan. 12, the city has issued at least 122 warnings for recreational vehicles and 46 notices of violation at duplexes and townhouses.
According to the records available on recreational vehicle registrations, at least 936 applications were processed by the city since the ordinance was approved in 2024. Of those, 619 were issued permits, 64 were pending inspection, 41 failed the registration process, 65 were denied, 113 were voided, and 30 were marked incomplete, while the remainder were either canceled or closed.
When the Herald asked Calvo how it was possible that Pita’s code violation under the prior administration—after he had requested a variance—was dismissed, he said the action raised concerns about inconsistent enforcement of the city’s code.
“If under the prior administration the city decided to dismiss the case, that’s a problem,” he said. “If we found there was a code violation, but the administration dismissed it, the resident is still in violation; we have to enforce the law to everybody. Either all can have boats at townhouses or nobody can.”
Applying for a variance
Calvo, who was a council member when the ordinance was first approved, voted against the ordinance at the time. He said that he was living in Palm Springs South and had to sell his own boat after the ordinance passed.
“I was on the council at the time, and I voted against the ordinance,” he said. “But I sold my boat when the ordinance was approved because I didn’t want to receive a citation. You do have the possibility of applying for a variance.”
Calvo suggested that he could request a variance to be evaluated individually by the Planning and Zoning Board if approved by the Council.
“I think it has to come before the council on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
Residents who have received warnings or notices of violation under the ordinance have 60 days to apply for a variance. The process costs between $750 and $1,000, depending on the property, and offers no guarantee of approval.
Two other residents complained at Tuesday’s council meeting about the ordinance. Both had received a citation for parking their boat in their townhouses in late May.
Joanki Peña, a neighbor of Pita’s who lives about 20 townhouses away in the Palm Springs North neighborhood, told council members he has owned a boat for the past 10 years and has never received complaints about parking it at his home. Peña, who rents the townhouse, told the Herald if a variance is not approved he would have to sell his boat.
Eddy Dennis, another resident opposing the ordinance, told council members that his boat does not obstruct sidewalks or traffic and argued that the city should consider exceptions for longtime owners who have not caused problems.
“My boat doesn’t block the sidewalk or interfere with anyone passing by,” Dennis said. “You are the ones representing us. The law has to be revised for people who haven’t had any problems. You don’t have to be so radical.”
Dennis said the restriction places a financial burden on residents, adding that he cannot afford to pay for off-site boat storage. “That’s not an option for me,” he said.
No support to amend
Councilman Luis Rodríguez, who supported the ordinance two years ago, made a motion to amend it to allow townhouses to park boats and other recreational vehicles. No council member seconded the motion and it failed.
Calvo told the Herald the administration is open to revisiting the ordinance, but noted that the City Council has not shown itself open to changes.
“We are looking to make changes, but the council has shown there is no support to make any changes now,” Calvo said. “The council members want to keep what is in place, and my job is to enforce the code of the city.”
Calvo added that he had raised concerns during earlier debates on the ordinance while serving on the council.
“When I was a council member, my fear was that an administration could selectively enforce the ordinance,” he said. “Everybody has to be enforced equally, or the ordinance has to be changed.”
He said that enforcement must follow the ordinance as written.
“I personally don’t have any problem with boats parked at townhouses,” Calvo said. “But everything has to follow the law, and the council members don’t want to change the law.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 3:50 PM.
