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Dania Beach: the Dania Cut-Off Canal, Florian Isles and Port Laudania

Selling a canal lot in 33004, Dania Beach

33004 is mostly the City of Dania Beach, and its boating water is the Dania Cut-Off Canal, which meets the Intracoastal at Mile 1068.8, 2.5 miles south of Port Everglades. The first mile of the canal is shared with small cargo ships using Port Laudania. Further west, past a yacht basin 1.7 miles in, Coast Pilot 4 caps overhead clearance at 9½ feet, and that is the reach where the Florian Isles and Shelter Islands house lots sit.

33004 at a glance

Post office name and who governs it
USPS name: Dania. Census 2020 ZIP-to-place file, by land area: about 60% City of Dania Beach, 29% City of Hollywood, 11% unincorporated Broward. Hollywood's share also includes about 2.7 sq km of water. source
Waterfront plats
Florian Isles (three sections) and Shelter Islands, house lots on the canal west of US 1; Harbour Towne Marina, Twin Marinas, Oceanway Marina and Cozy Cove Marina; Port Laudania (Property Appraiser subdivision map). source
Named water
Dania Cut-Off Canal, the C-10 canal that feeds into it, Whiskey Creek, and the Intracoastal Waterway. source
Route to the ocean
East along the Dania Cut-Off Canal to the Intracoastal at Mile 1068.8, then 1.8 miles north to the main channel of Port Everglades. Port Laudania's turning basin is 0.9 mile up the canal. source
Clearance on the western canal
West of the yacht basin, 1.7 miles from the Intracoastal, bridges, cables and pipelines limit the channel to 28 ft wide and 9½ ft overhead (feet above mean high water). A power cable 0.6 mile in clears 130 ft. source
Intracoastal drawbridge
Dania Beach Boulevard (State Route A1A), Mile 1069.4: bascule, 22 ft at the centre when closed. It opens on the hour and half-hour. Canal traffic joins the waterway north of it. source
Seawall rule
Dania Beach Code ch. 12 art. XVII (Ord. 2021-027): 5.0 ft NAVD88, or 4.0 ft for applications before 1 January 2035 designed to reach 5.0 ft by 2050. Substantial means over half the shoreline, or an attachment costing over half a new wall. source
Dock rules on the canal
Dania Beach LDC sec. 240-20: dock decks no higher than 3 ft above mean high tide, and on the Dania Cut-Off Canal mooring piles may reach as far out as docks that existed on 22 September 1987. source
FEMA flood zones
AE (base flood elevations 4 to 8 ft NAVD88), VE (8 to 10 ft), AH, AO and X. Spot checks: Florian Isles AE 6; the Intracoastal shore north of Dania Beach Boulevard VE 8. source
2025 single-family sales, whole ZIP
81 closed sales (up 2.5%), median $550,000 (down 0.1%), 29 paid in cash. Every single-family sale in 33004, not waterfront only. source

Port Laudania shares the first mile

The Dania Cut-Off Canal was dug by the county for drainage, and Coast Pilot 4 notes that its first mile is busy with commercial ships calling at Port Laudania, which handles containers, general cargo and heavy equipment from a turning basin 0.9 mile in. Those ships need the middle of the channel.

To avoid meeting one in a tight spot, vessels over 50 feet long or drawing more than 7 feet are asked to make a Sécurité call on VHF channels 13 and 16 before they transit. The same passage warns of an unmarked rock awash reaching about 45 feet into the channel from the south bank, 0.8 mile above the entrance, and of buoyed obstructions at 1 and 1.2 miles.

Florian Isles and Shelter Islands, past the 9½-foot line

On the Property Appraiser's map, the single-family canal plats in 33004 include Florian Isles and Shelter Islands, west of Federal Highway near where the C-10 canal joins the cut-off. They are well past the yacht basin that Coast Pilot 4 places 1.7 miles from the Intracoastal.

West of that basin, the Coast Pilot says bridges, cables and pipelines hold the channel to 28 feet wide and 9½ feet overhead. That is a ceiling, not a timetable, so it decides what boat a buyer can keep here. We still buy these lots. We price them for a boat that fits under the lowest span.

Dock decks and dolphin piles under Dania Beach's code

Dania Beach writes its own dock rules in article 240 of its land development code. A dock deck may sit no more than 3 feet above mean high tide, unless the ground at the seawall is higher, and a boat lift may not reach more than a quarter of the waterway's width or 15 feet, whichever is less, without a variance.

The Dania Cut-Off Canal has a rule of its own. Where a dock already existed on 22 September 1987, mooring or dolphin piles may extend as far into the canal as that dock does. The seawall standard in chapter 12 is the regional one: 5 feet NAVD88, with 4 feet allowed on applications filed before 2035.

Eighty-one sales, and cash buyers up 61%

Miami Realtors recorded 81 single-family closings in 33004 in 2025 at a median of $550,000, almost exactly the 2024 figure. What changed was who paid: 29 buyers used cash, up 61.1% on the year before.

Homes took a median of 63 days to find a buyer and sold for 91.8% of their original list price. These are ZIP-wide numbers for every house, many of them away from the canal, so a Florian Isles lot is priced on its frontage and the boat it can hold rather than on this median.

Questions from 33004

Can a large sportfish boat reach my dock in Florian Isles?

Only if it fits under 9½ feet. Coast Pilot 4 gives that as the overhead limit on the canal west of the yacht basin. A tall boat cannot get in, and our offer is based on what can.

Do I need to call on the radio before taking my boat down the canal?

Coast Pilot 4 asks vessels over 50 feet long or with more than 7 feet of draft to make a Sécurité call on VHF 13 and 16 before transiting, because cargo ships use the first mile. Smaller boats should still keep clear of them.

My address says Dania but the lot is near the Hollywood line. Whose rules apply?

About 60% of the land in 33004 is in Dania Beach and about 29% in Hollywood, on the Census Bureau's 2020 file. The city named on your tax bill is the one that issues seawall and dock permits for your parcel.

Is Whiskey Creek a shortcut to the ocean?

No. Coast Pilot 4 describes it as a sound about 1.6 miles long between the Intracoastal and the ocean, crossed by bridges with 10 feet of vertical clearance. Boats from 33004 reach the ocean through Port Everglades.

Own a waterfront lot in 33004? Send us the address.

From 7,000 sq ft with a route to the ocean for a big boat, vacant or with a house on it. Not sure it fits? Send it anyway.

Know someone selling? Send them our way.

Neighbours, agents, dock builders and captains usually hear a waterfront lot is coming free long before it is listed. Point us at one. If you hold a Florida real estate licence and we buy it, we pay you a referral fee through your broker, agreed in writing before we approach anyone and paid at closing.

Not licensed? Send it anyway. Florida law does not let us pay you for it, but we still want to know.