The Davis Islands Waterfront Now Runs on Two Calendars

"We sample on the non-dog beach side of Davis Island. Seaplane basin is across from where we sample, it shares the same body of water." Kevin Watler, then the public information officer for the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County, said that to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay in August 2020, when Davis Islands Beach was under a no-swim advisory. The headline of that story ended with the word "again."

Six years later, that same water is under another advisory, and a few hundred yards away the island's public marina has just finished coming back from the 2024 hurricanes. The two are on the same waterfront, but they run on separate calendars. One was a repair job with an end date, and that job is finished. The other is a recurring water test that came before Helene and Milton and doesn't depend on them. If you want to use the south tip this fall, it helps to know which calendar you're dealing with.

The Repair Calendar Has Caught Up

As of September 2026, the City of Tampa lists Marjorie Park Marina at 97 Columbia Drive as "back online," with recreational and diesel fuel pumps and pumpout stations all running.

The recovery took a long time. In March 2025, WUSF reported that the marina's dockmaster office was still expected to reopen by the end of that May. The same report put Helene and Milton damage to Parks and Recreation facilities at an estimated $8.4 million, with the department expecting a total of $21 million to $22 million. The city hasn't published a separate repair figure for Marjorie Park, and the public record doesn't give exact dates for when each service shut down or came back. What the record does show is the gap between an office reopening projected for spring 2025 and full fuel and pumpout service by September 2026.

The marina is still a City facility. Tampa's FY2027 recommended budget has separate lines for Marjorie Park boat-slip rental, transient fees, and marina gasoline, so the city still runs the operation. The City's marina page lists these services and rates:

• Fuel and pumpout
• A ship store
• 32 monthly slips
• Transient dockage at $2 per hour for up to four hours
• Transient dockage at $2 per foot per day, or $7.15 per foot per week, plus tax

The page itself dates from 2018, so treat those numbers as the City's listed rates and confirm them with the dockmaster before you plan a week at the dock. The page doesn't mention a restaurant or boat rentals at the marina. It points visitors to the Davis Islands business district for food.

The Test Calendar Never Stopped

The beach runs on a different schedule. On Wednesday, October 7, the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County tested the water at Davis Island Beach, 900 Martinique Ave., and found that it didn't meet state recreational criteria for Enterococcus bacteria. The DOH-Hillsborough advisory issued the next day advises against any water-related activities there and says it stays in effect until bacteria levels drop below the accepted health level.

This year has had more advisories than usual. These are the DOH-Hillsborough notices for Davis Island Beach since the start of 2025:

That's two notices in all of 2025 and four in 2026 through early October. The table counts notices, not separate closures. An advisory can be lifted and reissued, and the notices don't give the full length of each one. Still, the 2026 pattern is clear enough. The beach failed a test in February, failed again less than three weeks later, failed in April, and failed again last week.

The pattern goes back further than the storms. The 2020 Creative Loafing story called high enterococci levels "a reoccurring problem" at the beach and pointed to a closure earlier that same February. That's why the marina's return tells you nothing about the water. Rebuilding a fuel dock doesn't change what the sampling picks up.

The Florida Department of Health's beach water quality program describes enterococci as an indicator of fecal pollution. It lists possible sources as stormwater runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage. None of the Davis Island notices say which source caused a given result, and this post won't guess.

Reading This Week's Result

When this was written, the City's advisories page said the Davis Islands Beach advisory would stay in place until at least October 15 or 16, when the next test results come in. That's later this week, so by the time you read this the status may have changed in either direction.

You can check it yourself on the state's Florida Healthy Beaches results page for Hillsborough County, which posts the testing results behind each advisory. The City suggests checking that site before any beach visit. Its advisories page also explains that if bacteria levels are high enough, a beach may have to close until the water recovers. DOH-Hillsborough takes questions at 813-559-4065.

People with dogs have a more specific question. The City's dog parks listing still names the Davis Islands Dog Park & Dog Beach as a designated dog beach. Dogs aren't allowed on other City beaches unless they're service animals, and they must be leashed outside designated dog areas. The current advisories page doesn't list the dog beach as closed. In 2020, though, DOH said it sampled on the non-dog side, and Creative Loafing reported that the two beaches technically share a shore. That comment is six years old, and no current DOH statement describes separate testing or closure for the dog beach. The safest reading is that both beaches sit on one stretch of water and only one of them gets tested.

The Same Water, From the Seawall

The water that's off-limits for swimming is still a sailing venue, and the next two months are busy. Davis Island Yacht Club at 1315 Severn Ave. has this fall schedule:

• October 24: Halloween Regatta / Boat of the Year
• November 7: Sailing Sisters Regatta, open to women skippers and crews and followed by a potluck
• November 21: Egmont Boat of the Year Race
• December 4–6: First weekend of the J/70 Winter Series, which continues January 8–10 and February 5–7, 2027

DIYC describes itself as a private, member-owned club, so these are club races, not public events. If you're not a member or a registered crew, check with the club about access. Otherwise, the way to enjoy them is from the shore.

The seawall shapes how you can use this water. In the 2020 interview, Watler said there's no beach or bathing access around the seaplane basin "because it's a seawall all the way around," and that the public access point is the non-dog beach where DOH samples and the City posts signs. So the only public water access he named on the south tip was the non-dog beach, which is the one DOH tests and the one under advisory now. The other access point is the neighboring dog beach, and no current DOH notice says it gets tested on its own.

The Next Repair Calendar

That seawalled basin is next in line for a rebuild. The City's Seaplane Basin project would replace the failing docks and add a mooring field and navigation aids. The project is in design, with construction planned from March 31, 2027, to January 31, 2028. The project page was first published in 2024, so treat those dates as the City's current plan, not a commitment.

On the north end, Tampa General Hospital's Taneja Surgical, Neuroscience & Transplant Tower, which runs to more than 565,000 square feet, topped out on April 6, 2026, and is scheduled to open in 2028. TGH hasn't published any road or traffic impacts for the island tied to that project.

Projects like these have dates, budgets and an end point, the same way the marina recovery did. The beach's advisory history has none of those, and nothing in the City's posted project list ties a fix to the water-quality results. For now, the best guide to whether the south tip is swimmable is that Wednesday sample and the results page that follows it.

Waterfront homes on Davis Islands carry their own version of this split between what's been repaired and what keeps changing. Docks, seawalls and boat access all affect value, and buyers ask about them. If you're thinking about what your home's waterfront features are worth in today's market, Onyx Collective can walk you through it. Get your free home valuation.