HARC asks for ethics ruling
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
KEY
WEST — Feeling that he needs to defend his integrity, Historical
Architectural Review Commission member Don Craig has asked the State
Ethics Commission for an opinion on whether he can vote on changing the
city's restriction on the number of stories a new building in Old Town
can be.
City Attorney Bob
Tischenkel suggested the idea during a review commission meeting
Tuesday. Craig asked Tischenkel to ask the state for its opinion, and
said he will not vote on amendments about height until he receives it.
Residents criticized
Craig for calling a special meeting to discuss changing the height rule
and other guidelines that govern the review commission, despite the city
attorney asking the board to drop the issue. The board issues
certificates of design appropriateness for buildings in the city's most
historic neighborhood. Without the certificate, the City Commission
cannot approve a project.
Several residents of the
Key West Bight, who were fighting a development Craig has been working
on, and members of the environmental group Last Stand asked Craig to
recuse himself from voting on recommendations on guideline changes. The
City Commission ultimately will decide on the changes. The review
commission makes recommendations only to the City Commission.
A group of developers,
the Caroline Street Partners, hired Craig as a planning consultant on
the posh 25-unit Watermark condominium project, which a judge eventually
ruled violated the review commission's height cap. No new construction
in Old
Town can be more
than 2.5 stories. Developers have argued that the rule means 2.5 stories
over parking, but the judge disagreed and quashed the project approval.
However, the city has
land development regulations that say a building in Old Town can be 35
feet and 40 feet with a pitched roof. Craig and some developers have
asked that the review commission's and the city's land regulations be
the same.
On Tuesday, nearly 80
people, including Key West Bight residents who fought Watermark,
developers and the president of the Key West Chamber of Commerce,
attended the meeting to give their opinions on possible changes.
Some argued passionately
about historical character and keeping the 2.5-story rule. They wanted
to know the intent of the people who drafted the review commission's
guidelines.
"This is a historic
district built at a pedestrian level and pedestrian scale," review
commission board member and architect Matthew Stratton said. "This is a
very complicated issue and there is a lot to talk about."
Developers talked about
the need to build out of the flood plain, provide more parking in Old
Town and rebuild the existing number of hotel rooms or condos after a
hurricane.
"This is not about one
project, this is about our economy and building and development rights,"
Craig said.
The board did not make
any recommendations on Tuesday. The board plans to ask the city attorney
for back-up materials on each guideline that needs to be reviewed. All
board members agreed that the review will take some time to accomplish
and asked the residents to be patient.
tohara@keysnews.com |