City admits Parrot Key transfers error
By MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff
An environmental group and several concerned residents have won
a battle in the war against transient rentals that displace
permanent housing.
Key West city commissioners on Tuesday will consider a
settlement agreement that would end a legal battle with the city
and prevent further license transfers from the Parrot Key Resort
to downtown properties.
Last Stand, along with several individuals, last year sued the
city of Key West for allowing developer Pritam Singh to transfer
surplus transient licenses that came from the redevelopment of
the resort from the Hampton Inn to Parrot Key.
The lawsuit claimed the city violated its own code of ordinances
by allowing the transfers to take place between different zoning
districts when transient rentals are allowed in the district
that surrounds the sender site.
In other words, because transient rentals are permitted on North
Roosevelt Boulevard, where Parrot Key is located, then those
transient licenses may not be transferred out of that zoning
district.
"You can transfer them to a hotel across the street, but not
downtown," said City Commissioner Bill Verge, blaming the city's
lack of affordable housing on the conversion of long-term
rentals to transient ones.
Verge said he supported the resort's development, but opposed
allowing the licenses to be transferred, especially since they
were going to properties that formerly had offered long-term
rentals for residents. Yet he, and four other city
commissioners, voted in favor of the Parrot Key development
application, which included the plans to transfer surplus
transient licenses.
"I totally missed it," Verge acknowledged, and said he should
have asked for the item to be tabled until he could have further
considered its implications and unforeseen consequences.
Commissioners Mark Rossi and Clayton Lopez were absent from the
July 18, 2006, meeting and did not vote on the application.
In passing the resolution, commissioners interpreted their own
laws "so as to allow the transfer of transient rental licenses
from a zoning district where transient rental uses are allowed,"
which is contrary to the actual law, "which expressly applies
only to transfers ... from an area where transient uses are
prohibited."
In addition, Verge said, the commission amended an ordinance, or
law, with a resolution, which is illegal. The commission must
change the law with a new law that requires two public readings
and prior public notice.
The settlement, if approved by commissioners Tuesday, would
invalidate that resolution and prevent additional transfers
planned from Parrot Key. The two transient license transfers the
city's Planning Commission already approved will be allowed to
move forward.
Assistant City Attorney Larry Erskine will recommend the
commission approve the settlement agreement.
mbolen@keysnews.com |
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