Call it floating home wars, part three.

Fane Lozman, who embarrassed the city of Riviera Beach by twice taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court and winning, is gearing up for another battle over yet another floating home.

While the city, the longtime target of his wrath, is part of the looming legal battle, his immediate sights are set on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Claiming neither agency has the right to demand that he relocate a 20-foot-long floating home that is drifting atop submerged land he owns off Singer Island, the self-proclaimed corruption fighter is taking on the two powerful agencies.

Last week, in typical Lozman fashion, he fired off a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice. It is representing the Army Corps in its quest to get the former Marine to move the home that was created from a shipping container and features sliding doors and a rooftop deck.

“I am never moving my floating home off of my private property!” he wrote in an email to attorneys in the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Your request is Un-American. What country do you represent?”

His response to a lawsuit the state environmental agency filed against him is similar.

“The public interest is best served by leaving Lozman alone to enjoy his private homesteaded property,” he wrote. “The taxpayers should not have to fund DEP’s retaliatory lawsuit.”

In letters and court papers, the two agencies say much is at stake.

The floating home, which Lozman installed late last year on 50 acres of submerged wetlands he purchased for $1.4 million, is damaging fragile seagrasses that are critical to marine life, said Jason Andreotta, a district director of the state agency.

Lozman’s land in Munyon Cove, just south of John D. MacArthur State Park, is part of a particularly environmentally sensitive area of the 20-mile-long Lake Worth Lagoon, Andreotta wrote in court papers.

It is the only area in the lagoon that supports all seven types of seagrass found in Florida, including Johnson’s Seagrass, the only marine plant on the federal government’s threatened species list.

In addition to providing shelter and food to manatees and juvenile green turtles, the area is a fertile habitat for various varieties of fish, he said.

Because the submerged land Lozman owns is extremely shallow, at low tide the bottom of the floating home often rests on the seagrass or rams nearby mangroves, he said.

“The battering and scouring caused by the structures are altering the substrate which will lead to seagrasses not being able to regrow,” Andreotta wrote. “The species of mangroves being damaged by the structures is sensitive to this type of impact.”

The Army Corps meanwhile claims the floating home is a hazard to navigation. 

In a letter, Justice Department attorneys urged Lozman to settle the matter by removing the home that they said constitutes “ imminent threats to public safety and navigation.” 

Lozman, who made millions inventing software used to track stock trades, scoffed at the claims.

The Intracoastal Waterway is littered with partially submerged or derelict vessels, he said. Why, he asked, aren’t the two agencies concerned about their removal?

He said he suspects the two agencies are acting at the request of city officials, particularly City Commissioner Julie Botel, who represents Singer Island residents. She didn't return a phone call for comment.

Further, Lozman said, contrary to Andreotta’s claims, he never dumped fill dirt on the submerged land or sunk pilings to secure it permanently. The home is tied to the shore with chains.

Vandals, he suspects are nearby condominium residents who don’t want his floating home to obstruct their waterfront views, broke the chains and busted up the home, allowing it to get loose, he said.

He said he quickly retrieved it.

In 2016, he wasn't as lucky. A floating home used in the Frank Sinatra movie, The Lady in Cement, was intentionally sunk in the middle of the night by unknown people, he said.

Lozman also dismissed Andreotta's description of the environmental harm posed by his floating home.

“The state can’t even get its facts straight,” he said in his response to the lawsuit. “For starters, the West Indian Manatee is not an endangered species, but is a threatened species.”

Further, green turtles, which are listed as endangered, aren’t found on his submerged land, he said.

“These turtles are on the Atlantic beaches on the east side of Singer Island, while Lozman’s property is on the west side of Singer Island!” he wrote.

Many marine experts say green turtles, particularly juveniles, feed on the seagrasses in the Intracoastal Waterway.

Lozman’s prime beef is that he owns the land and can’t be forced to preserve it. 

If Riviera Beach, the state or the federal government want the 50 acres he owns and the 55 acres owned by his neighbors, they are going to have to buy it, he said.

In the meantime, he is making plans to expand his floating home.

Had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic, he said his existing 20-foot home would have a 40-foot extension.

A second container, built and outfitted by a company he co-owns in China, has been unable to ship the addition due to coronavirus restrictions, he said.

Further, he has made it clear that his long-term plans are to use the land to build multi-million-dollar homes on it.

Lozman promised the battle over the floating home would rival the one that began in 2006 shortly after he docked his first floating home at the Riviera Beach marina.

After a contentious battle, the city seized the home, had it towed to Miami and destroyed.

That legal battle ultimately ended up before the nation’s highest court. 

In the case that Chief Justice John Roberts called his favorite of the term, the court in 2013 ruled that everything that floats is not a boat and the city was wrong to destroy Lozman’s floating home using centuries-old maritime law.

Five years later, Lozman was back before the Supreme Court, arguing that the Riviera Beach City Commission retaliated against by having him arrested because it didn’t like him berating them at public meetings and blasting them for a long-defunct billion-dollar redevelopment project.

Again, the high court sided with Lozman, sending the case back to lower courts to determine whether his First Amendment rights were violated.

The suits were settled in 2020 when Riviera Beach agreed to pay Lozman $875,000. The money was paid by its insurance carrier, officials said.

But, Lozman said, government officials should have learned from Riviera Beach’s mistakes.

“The last time the government got involved in a floating home, it didn’t work out so well for them,” he said.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the settlement between Fane Lozman and Riviera Beach.