Last Stand pushes purchase
Weekley: Key West pursuing acres around Salt Ponds
By Alyson Matley
amatley@keynoter.com
It could be the only one of its kind: A single-family home nestled in
the middle of Key West’s Bridle Path, facing Smather’s Beach and
adjoining the city’s endangered Salt Ponds.
That has Last Stand, an environmental organization that has its
beginnings in preserving the Salt Ponds, worried.
A three-acre parcel is one of the last little portions of privately
owned land that surrounds the wetlands known as the Salt Ponds and, says
Last Stand board member Joan Borel, the city could buy it now if
officials don’t redirect funding.
According to the city’s budget planners, some of the funding that
could be used to purchase the parcel is going to be redirected to help
expand the Key West Botanical Gardens on Stock Island.
That would mean, says Borel, that all of the money allocated for
buying Salt Pond properties would be used for the Gardens.
The city has been trying for two years to purchase a six-acre plot
that formerly housed county offices to expand the Gardens. It was
assessed last year at $3.7 million. The Monroe County Commission has
given the city until the end of this year to come up with the funding.
But the city has also aggressively pursued acquiring the land
surrounding the Salt Ponds, and in 2001 convinced the state Department
of Transportation that the Bridle Path – the popular path the skirts
South Roosevelt Boulevard – must be preserved in a natural state.
"The city has spent literally millions to buy the rest of the Bridle
Path," said Borel. "To allow this last little keystone chunk to be
developed would basically destroy everything they’ve been working so
hard for, for the last 20 years."
The parcel is owned by Old Town Key West Development Ltd. Originally,
there were 14 units allocated for the site, a vested right that was
affirmed by a 2000 court order.
Ed Swift, one of the partners in the development company, moved 13 of
those units to the old Steam Plant project at the Key West Bight. That
left one unit that, says Borel, is moving ahead.
"I talked with Ed Swift," she said, "and he is a willing seller. But
in the meantime, he’s proceeding to build." She says the property has
already been surveyed, and fill areas are already delineated.
Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley says that although some funding may be
diverted from Salt Ponds acquisitions to the Botanical Gardens, that is
only one scenario the city is exploring.
"We have applied for grants to purchase each of two parcels at the
Salt Ponds that need to be purchased," said Weekley. "At the same time,
we have applied for $3.7 million for the Gardens, and we have to come up
with 25 percent. We’re looking at all kinds of possibilities.
"Both projects are worthwhile projects. And we need to save the
Botanical Gardens; it belongs to the city and we need to reinvest. We
can’t ignore it as it has been for so many years. But it’s not
sacrificing one for the other."
"This
is something that needs to be done right now," said Borel. "The city
should be seriously negotiating right now and not waiting until that
someday we get a grant to buy it."
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