A recent appellate court decision in favor of Key Biscayne insurance tycoon Nicolas Estrella held the Village of Key Biscayne was wrong in fining him because his 78-foot yacht was too long to fit his boat dock. 

But the case of the too-big-boat may wind up being the impetus for a total overhaul of how Key Biscayne handles every dispute about code enforcement, which can involve everything from expensive structural condominium issues to routine fines for too-loud parties. 

In the yacht case, the issue was a 2011 change in the code prohibiting anyone from docking a boat that is 10% longer than the length of the dock. Since about 1996, Estrella had owned and docked boats ranging from 66 to 84 feet at the dock on his property — 15 years before the Village enacted the current code. 

But the Villages’ code also allows a property owner to be grandfathered in — as long as they don’t abandon or discontinue the non-confirming use for a period of six months or more. 

Estrella “has the right to use his real property in the same manner he has since the 1990’s – specifically, to dock boats, including the instant boat,” a 3-judge appellate panel of  the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County ruled. 

But the appellate court also found fault with the manner in which the Village’s code enforcement board,  known formally as the Special Magistrates, handled the case.  “This case is not complicatd,” the panel wrote.

The Board of Special Magistrates’ failure to follow the law during the hearing may lead the Village Council to consider getting rid of the board and replacing it with a special magistrate or master made up of attorneys as other municipalities have done. 

“Having a board is not really serving the Village very well. Everyone on the board is doing a great job, and it has nothing to do with who’s on the board. It has to do with our structure and other municipalities,” Council Member  Nancy Stoner said during the Nov. 18 Council meeting. 

“The purpose of the hearing really is fact finding, is making a record, because when people disagree with the facts that are found by the magistrate, they can appeal to the court.”

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In the case involving Estrella’s boat, the code enforcement board focused on the size of his boats and that he had stopped using the dock shortly after the code was changed. But the board did not allow Estrella’s defense to even be heard or entered into the record. 

His defense, that his boat had been stolen and sunk and he waited for the insurance claim process to conclude before buying another boat, therefore did not intentionally discontinue use of his dock as he had for so many years.

“We can’t really tell for certain, is that if that testimony was allowed and heard that it would have changed the outcome,” Vice Mayor Oscar Sardiñas countered. 

The Village Council ultimately directed Village attorney Chad Friedman to look into how other cities utilize a different kind of system rather than the board to handle code enforcement issues. 

Key Biscayne Village Council Member Nancy Stoner at a meeting, Nov. 18. 2025. She is proposing doing away with the Village’s code enforcement board after an appeals court rebuked the way case involving a boat dock was handled (KBI Photo/Tony Winton)

“I think it’s important for the Village to look like we know what we’re doing, and and, and to have the board of magistrates without people with litigation experience, really, it just doesn’t fulfill the job,” Stoner said. Stone, an attorney, herself served on the panel before being elected to the Council.

The 10-page opinion filed Sept. 9 remanded the case back to the Village. A call to Estrella’s attorney was not returned. 

The Village failed to apply the law correctly in the case, according to the appellate court, adding that the board members wrongly focused on the size of Estrella’s boats and the break of time in which he did not use his boat dock — rather on whether he had abandoned his property rights. 

The appeals court also rebuked the Village for failing to allow relevant facts to be entered into the record.

“Appellee’s focus on ‘today, today, today’ had the effect of ignoring the Appellant’s property rights — property rights that could not be taken away through the mere passage of the 10% restriction in 2011,”

The Special Magistrate board even ignored the advice of the Village attorney that was present to advise them, refusing to listen to Estrella’s defense, the appeals court  noted. It was a point also made by Stoner during the November council meeting. 

Jessica De Leon is a general assignment reporter at the Key Biscayne Independent.