| Very, very
interesting. The move
last week by three misguided County Commissioners to shrug off
the county's wastewater responsibility, because they couldn't
wrest away control of wastewater in the Keys from the Aqueduct
Authority, may be backfiring. Florida DCA doesn't like it.
The BOCC's reneging on its wastewater commitment endangers the
deal between the county and DCA to allow increased development,
the deal that Last Stand
challenged. The county already pulled a bait-and-switch on
habitat protection by gutting the Tier System. Now
they've done the same with wastewater. DCA
Secretary Cohen wanted to address the BOCC on workforce
housing last Wednesday, but the mayor wouldn't let him.
That pretty much covers the three areas in which Monroe County
so earnestly promised to do better. Now Commissioner
Nelson is throwing daggers at DCA, saying they weren't good
partners from the beginning. Fickle, fickle...
Monroe County is not living up to the Work Plan
required by its Comprehensive Plan, and is not inclined to.
It's what we've been saying for some time, and they keep proving
it. That is why we opposed the "DCA deal"
from the beginning, and that is why we challenged
it. Three-fifths of our county commission is very strongly
making our case for us. Stay tuned.
This latest wrinkle is described in this article from the
July 23 Keynoter: |
|
DCA deal in jeopardy
By
Alyson Matley
amatley@keynoter.com
Following county vote not to fund sewers, agency implies Cabinet to get
tough review
Just one day
after a controversial decision by the Monroe County Commission to
withhold funding for any future wastewater projects, the state
Department of Community Affairs is registering serious concern.
And when it comes time for the state to give its annual report card to
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet on how the county is progressing on its
10-year work plan, county officials may not like what they hear.
The direct result could be fewer building permit allocations coming down
the road - the direct opposite of what the county is now expecting - and
the collapse of a deal with the state to provide money for buying
sensitive lands and help create workforce housing.
The possible turn in
the county's future development - whether more or less - apparently came
out of the County Commission's 3-2 vote Wednesday to not fund any more
sewer projects.
Mayor Dixie Spehar and commissioners Murray Nelson and Sonny McCoy voted
to withhold anymore sewer money, commissioners David Rice and George
Neugent opposed that move and lost.
State Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen had
requested to speak on the issue at the commission meeting, but Mayor
Dixie Spehar said his request came too late.
But Thursday - the day
after the vote - Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger sent an e-mail
to County Attorney John Collins saying a DCA attorney called him and
said "he had been advised ... that DCA would find it difficult to
recommend to [Bush and the Cabinet] that the county was in substantial
compliance" to make progress on its work plan, which primarily includes
sewering the Keys.
The e-mail specifically points out Wednesday's vote to withhold sewer
money, as well as adoption of the so-called tier land-mapping system.
The e-mail indicates the tier system doesn't go far enough to protect
environmentally sensitive land.
Each year, DCA gives Bush and the Cabinet its progress report, and that
report directly affects how many building permit allocations the agency
will give to the Keys. This year's report card is due in Tallahassee in
either September or October.
Last year, the county hammered out a deal with DCA, along with the city
of Marathon, in which each entity agreed to invest in wastewater,
environmental land acquisition and workforce housing.
According to the agreement, the county would receive 255 building permit
allocations, an increase over the 158 allotted annually. The deal also
would allow the county to regain 181 allocations that were taken in
penalty after the county received poor report cards in the past.
For Marathon, the agreement would mean the current allocation of 24
annual permits would increase to 30 and the city would recoup 65 lost
allocations. The increased allocations, according to the agreement, are
for affordable housing.
The two local governments, as well as Islamorada, agreed to bond out
more than a combined $200 million to finance sewage treatment upgrades
in exchange for the extra permit allocations. The state would also
allocate $93 million in over three years to acquire environmentally
sensitive lands deemed unbuildable.
"I'm not surprised that [DCA may] renege on their deal," said
Commissioner Murray Nelson, who drafted the 2004 agreement. "We have
been a good partner and they have not been a partner at all. Our
agreement calls for them to provide $30 million on wastewater and $20
million on workforce housing. We've put up over $33 million and they
have brought none of their money to the table."
"The county promised to provide a grant to Key Largo and to Big Coppitt
for $20 million each," said Jim Reynolds, executive director of the
Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, the state-designated wastewater utility
for the county's unincorporated area and Marathon.
The county has moved forward on the Key Largo project, bonding money
that will be repaid through infrastructure sales taxes. But Big Coppitt,
the next neighborhood on the agenda for sewering, does not have the
estimated $22 million needed for the job.
Spehar, who introduced the controversial resolution Wednesday, said her
intent was to create a starting point for negotiations between the
commission and the Aqueduct Authority.
For months, Nelson, Spehar and McCoy have insisted the county should
wrest sewer authority away from the Aqueduct Authority, accusing the
utility of overspending. However, the utility's board has refused to
hand over its wastewater role to the county. |
