And still they build.

Next up is a 101-room hotel at the Key West Bight where Jabour's campground currently stands. The courts gave those building rights to developers based on development plans made before city law prohibited certain types of building. This "vested" concept means Key West still has transient rental and dwelling units out there to build, even if Rate Of Growth Ordinance building rights are virtually gone.

Under construction are 48 units at Seaside, which is the last phase of a vested rights property that includes the Salt Ponds condos, which are deed-restricted for affordable housing, Sunrise Suites and the 216-room Grand Key Resort.

Ed Swift purchased 12 vested units from a family that had the rights on a salt ponds property, transferred the rights to the waterfront spot behind Home Depot and built Bayside Villas.

The pricey condos are right behind Key Cove, another development that sprang up in the past few years based on agreements made some time ago. It does include 16 affordable units, as worked out with the city.

Swift's project at the old City Electric System steam plant relies on 25 vested units purchased from another development to construct 19 luxury condos and 38 affordable rentals.

Every time we turn around, more building rights pop up on this "built out" island.

Key West has a formula that requires one-third of any new units, at least for residential space, to be built as affordable housing.

Yet we're constantly on the losing side of accomplishing affordable housing, as out-of-towners buy rental homes and convert them into second homes lived in only part of the year. At least there are a few walls up at Roosevelt Gardens, a 96-unit affordable housing rental complex on North Roosevelt Boulevard.

Across the Keys, the battle between property rights and preserving Keys character plays out constantly.

Many have given up. But we can't do that.

Even when the Jabour's campground is turned into this new hotel and the steam plant becomes luxury condos with affordable units in the back parking lot, we'll still be watching hotels redevelop old rooms into considerably larger suites.

It forces us to wonder, when will it end?

Undoubtedly never. So we need to come up with more solutions to deal with this growth problem in Key West. Apparently we're not built out yet.