Security Zone; Coast Guard Sector Key West, Trumbo Point Annex, Key West Harbor, Key West, FL

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2023-0803]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA11</RIN> <SUBJECT>Security Zone; Coast Guard Sector Key West, Trumbo Point Annex, Key West Harbor, Key West, FL</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a security zone for certain waters of the Key West Harbor surrounding the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West on Trumbo Point Annex. This action is necessary to safeguard Coast Guard assets in the interest of national security. This rule will prohibit persons and vessels from being in the security zone unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Key West or a designated representative. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective June 21, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> type USCG-2023-0803 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rule, call or email Lieutenant Hailye Wilson, Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 305-292-8768, email <E T="03">Hailye.M.Wilson@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NAS Naval Air Station</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The Coast Guard Sector Key West, FL and its assets are on property previously under the control of the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, FL. The current regulations restricting vessel traffic in and around NAS Key West are found in 33 CFR 334.610 and are only enforceable by the Commanding Officer of NAS Key West, and certain designated agencies. Currently, the Coast Guard requires the authority from the Commanding Officer, NAS Key West, before they can enforce a security zone in and around Coast Guard property and assets. This additional step can generate unnecessary delays, which creates security concerns for the Coast Guard and potential hazards to the public. The Captain of the Port Key West (COTP) has determined that a permanent security zone is in the interest of national security, the safety of life, and the prevention of damage to property. In response, on November 9, 2023, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) titled Security Zone; Coast Guard Sector Key West, Trumbo Point Annex, Key West Harbor, Key West, FL, (88 FR 77242). There we stated why we issued the NPRM and invited comments on our proposed regulatory action related to this security zone. During the comment period that ended December 11, 2023, we received two comments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70051 and 70124. The purpose of this rule is to ensure the security of vessels, waterfront facilities, and personnel located at the Coast Guard, Sector Key West. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of Comments, Changes, and the Rule</HD> As noted above, we received comments from two commenters on our NPRM published November 19, 2023. The first commenter requested that the Coast Guard provide a 300-foot exclusion zone of the security zone around the pier extending towards the Key West Bight Channel. The commenter stated the pier is located at the southernmost part of the property being protected by the security zone and is currently leased by Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations (ATMO) Key West Detachment. This commenter expressed concern the security zone would extend beyond that pier and inadvertently create restrictions in the channel that would then require many vessels returning to port to declare their intentions via marine radio. The security zone will not be measured from the “extended finger pier (extending south)” and would not restrict normal transit paths for vessels in the area. To minimize misinterpretation of the regulatory intent, we have amended the regulatory language to include a specific southwesterly point to the security zone. The same commenter expressed the security zone could burden certain vessels that require approximately between 50 to 300 feet of clearance from the pier to safely lower their sails and/or make the necessary preparations to dock the vessel. This commenter added the Sunset Key ferry dock location would be encompassed by the security zone, and the security zone would force the ferry dock out of business. Vessels that require extra time to lower their sails can do so in designated areas outside the security zone and outside the Key West Bight Channel. As stated in the regulatory text, vessels are permitted to transit via safe speed through the adjacent channel without restrictions by the security zone. The pier is currently being leased by ATMO from the U.S. Coast Guard. The pier could be used in the future to house cutters and other military assets, at which time the security zone would need to be in effect in its entirety, not to include the exclusionary zone. Additionally, the security zone does not include the Sunset Key ferry dock area. The security zone does not impose restrictions for vessels transiting the area and will not impact business. The second commenter expressed the security zone could help protect facilities considered sensitive, protecting naval vessels and cruise ships. The Coast Guard acknowledges this comment. There is one change in the regulatory text in response to a comment by amending the regulatory language to include a specific southwesterly point to the security zone. This rule establishes a permanent security zone surrounding the Coast Guard Sector Key West, located adjacent to Trumbo Point Annex, Naval Air Station Key West. The security zone would cover all navigable waters within 100 yards of the Coast Guard Sector Key West. No vessel, other than Government-owned vessels and specifically authorized private craft, or persons would be permitted to stop or land in the security zone. The Coast Guard is revising the regulatory text in response to comment by amending the regulatory language to include a specific southwesterly point to the security zone. <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders, and we discuss First Amendment rights of protestors. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review</HD> Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. This rule has not been designated a “significant regulatory action,” under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review). Accordingly, this rule has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on the area covered by the permanent security zone created by this rule is already a regulated restricted area as contained in 33 CFR 334.610. Unauthorized vessels and persons have not been allowed to stop and land within 100 yards of the Coast Guard base on Trumbo Point Annex through the regulation in § 334.610. This rule allows the Coast Guard to enforce the restricted area through a security zone. Additionally, the security zone only extends 100 yards from the Coast Guard Sector Key West, located adjacent to Trumbo Point Annex, Naval Air Station Key West and does not impede any regular vessel traffic ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> cruise ships, ferries, small passenger vessels, etc.). Vessels will be able to transit safely around the zone. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, as amended, requires Federal agencies to consider the potential impact of regulations on small entities during rulemaking. The term “small entities” comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000. The Coast Guard received no comments from the Small Business Administration on this rulemaking. The Coast Guard certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. While some owners or operators of vessels intending to transit the safety zone may be small entities, for the reasons stated in section V.A above, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on any vessel owner or operator. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), we want to assist small entities in understanding this rule. If the rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please call or email the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments on the actions of Fe ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━