Special Local Regulation; Seddon Channel, Tampa, FL

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 100</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2024-0528]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA08</RIN> <SUBJECT>Special Local Regulation; Seddon Channel, Tampa, FL</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security (DHS). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is proposing to establish a temporary special local regulation for certain waters of the Seddon Channel. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters near the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, FL, during a marine event on November 9, 2024. This proposed rulemaking would establish a special local regulation with the following regulated areas: an event area where all non-participant persons and vessels are prohibited from entering, transiting through, anchoring in, or remaining within unless authorized by the Captain of the Port St. Petersburg (COTP) or a designated representative; a spectator area where vessels will be directed to anchor while the event is taking place; and an enforcement area where designated representatives may control vessel traffic as determined by the prevailing conditions. We invite your comments on this proposed rulemaking. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before October 7, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2024-0528 using the Federal Decision-Making Portal at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> See the “Public Participation and Request for Comments” portion of the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section for further instructions on submitting comments. This notice of proposed rulemaking with its plain-language, 100-word-or-less proposed rule summary will be available in this same docket. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this proposed rulemaking, call or email Marine Science Technician First Class Mara Brown, Sector St. Petersburg Prevention Department, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 813-228-2191, email <E T="03">Mara.J.Brown@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">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, Purpose, and Legal Basis</HD> On January 13, 2024, an organization notified the Coast Guard that it will be conducting the Red Bull Flugtag Tampa from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 9, 2024. The Red Bull Flugtag is a free family-friendly event that challenges people to design and construct homemade “flying crafts” and attempt to fly or glide them off of a temporary structure known as the “Flight Deck”. Thirty-five (35) to 40 teams of 5 people will be selected to participate. Spectating takes place from both land and water. The COTP has determined that potential hazards associated with the event would be a safety concern for spectators and mariners adjacent to the Seddon channel. The purpose of this rulemaking is to ensure the safety of event participants, spectators, and the general public on certain waters adjacent to the Seddon Channel before, during, and after the scheduled event. The Coast Guard is proposing this rulemaking under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70041. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Discussion of Proposed Rule</HD> The COTP St. Petersburg is proposing to establish a special local regulation from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., on November 9, 2024. The special local regulation would establish: (1) an event area where all non-participant persons and vessels are prohibited from entering, transiting through, anchoring in, or remaining within unless authorized by the COTP or a designated representative. The event area would cover all navigable waters in Seddon Channel commencing at latitude 27°56′27″ N, 082°27′28″ W, thence to position 27°56′29″ N, 082°27′28″ W, thence to position 27°56′25″ N, 082°27′18″ W, thence to position 27°56′23″ N, 082°27′19″ W, thence to the original position, (2) a spectator area where vessels will be directed to anchor while the event is taking place. The spectator area would cover all navigable waters in Seddon Channel commencing at latitude 27°56′25″ N, 082°27′32″ W, thence to position 27°56′28″ N, 082°27′30″ W, thence to position 27°56′23″ N, 082°27′19″ W, thence to position 27°56′19″ N, 082°27′23″ W, thence to position 27°56′12″ N, 082°27′21″ W, thence to position 27°56′12″ N, 082°27′23″ W, thence to original position, and (3) an enforcement area where designated representatives may control vessel traffic as determined by the prevailing conditions. The enforcement area would cover all navigable waters in Seddon Channel commencing at latitude 27°56′18″ N, 082°27′43″ W, thence to position 27°56′30″ N, 082°27′33″ W, thence to position 27°56′30″ N, 082°27′29″ W, thence to position 27°56′25″ N, 082°27′17″ W, thence to position 27°56′22″ N, 082°27′16″ W, thence to position 27°56′18″ N, 082°27′20″ W, thence to position 27°56′04″ N, 082°27′13″ W, thence to position 27°56′02″ N, 082°27′19″ W, thence to position 27°56′23″ N, 082°27′32″ W, thence to position 27°56′17″ N, 082°27′39″ W thence to the original position. Persons and vessels may request authorization to enter, transit through, anchor in, or remain within the event area by contacting the COTP St. Petersburg by telephone at (727) 824-7506, or a designated representative via VHF radio on channel 16. If authorization to enter, transit through, anchor in, or remain within the regulated area is granted by the COTP St. Petersburg or a designated representative, all persons and vessels receiving such authorization must comply with the instructions of the COTP St. Petersburg or a designated representative. The Coast Guard will provide notice of the special local regulation by Local Notice to Mariners, Broadcast Notice to Mariners, and on-scene designated representatives. The regulatory text we are proposing appears at the end of this document. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this proposed 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 NPRM 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, the NPRM has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on the following reasons: (1) the special local regulation would be enforced in a small designated area in the Seddon Channel for only one day; (2) although persons and vessels may not enter, transit through, anchor in, or remain within the event area without authorization from the COTP St. Petersburg or a designated representative, they may operate in the surrounding area during the enforcement period; (3) persons and vessels may still enter, transit through, anchor in, or remain within the spectator area and enforcement area; and (4) the Coast Guard will provide advance notification of the special local regulation to the local Notice to Mariners and Broadcast Notice to Mariners. <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 certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. While some owners or operators of vessels intending to enter, transit through, anchor in, or remain within the enforcement area may be small entities, for the reasons stated in section IV.A above, this proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on any vessel owner or operator. If you think that your business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction qualifies as a small entity and that this proposed rule would have a significant economic impact on it, please submit a comment (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ) explaining why you think it qualifies and how and to what degree this rule would economically affect it. 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 proposed rule. If the proposed 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. The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this proposed rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Colle ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━