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Cabinet pledges building, dollars in deal
BY TRAVIS JAMES TRITTEN
keysnews.com
TALLAHASSEE —
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet approved major revisions to Monroe
County's mandated land-use work plan Tuesday, opening the door to major
spending on sewage treatment, habitat protection and about 337 new homes
in the next year.
The landmark
deal guides Florida Keys development for the next three years.
The changes,
drafted by county Mayor Murray Nelson and brokered with the state, were
criticized by environmental groups for allowing immediate growth in
exchange for promises of future progress on environmental projects, such
as allowing new housing in exchange for planned sewer construction.
"A new dawn
has risen over Monroe County and the state of Florida," Nelson said
during the Tallahassee Cabinet meeting.
Nelson has
lauded the changes as a new chapter in a historically tense relationship
between county and state officials — a chapter that requires expensive
and arduous environmental stewardship.
The Cabinet
annually has reviewed county progress on its comprehensive land-use plan
since 1996, when a hearing officer determined that it was not complying
with that plan. Monroe County is now in the seventh year of what began
as a five-year work plan, and the changes approved Tuesday will extend
the plan to 10 years.
The changes
will:
* Require the
county to spend $200 million over the next three years to upgrade aging
sewer systems that are blamed for nearshore water pollution.
* Create a
one-year ban on building in the county's most pristine hardwood hammocks
and pinelands.
* Provide $93
million in state funding to buy environmentally sensitive lands, plus
identifies another $18 million that could be approved by the
Legislature.
* Allow the
county to build many new affordable and market-rate houses — 337 over
the next year.
Agreements
with Islamorada and Marathon were approved by the Cabinet, as well. The
cities also are under strict regulation and must demonstrate progress
each year.
State Rep. Ken
Sorensen, R-Key Largo, touted the changes as a solution to a problem
that has long plagued the Keys: state insistence that land can't be
developed but little help compensating property owners who have lost the
right to build.
Marathon City
Manager Scott Janke said the city's new plan will supply $60 million for
a new sewer system and 200 to 210 affordable homes in the next year.
"I plead one
thing: Don't let us fail," Janke said to Cabinet members. "Everyone is
watching."
Bush said the
state has committed substantial amounts of funding and told Janke it is
now up to the city to succeed by building a citywide sewer.
Several
environmental groups, which also lobbied for changes during last week's
Cabinet aides meeting, asked the state to have close oversight of the
new work plan and to require real progress before allowing continued
development.
Charles
Pattison, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Florida, criticized
some of the changes allowing the county to borrow housing rights in
exchange for a promise to build sewer systems in coming years. In past
years, development in the Keys has been closely tied to the replacement
of cesspools and septic systems by regional wastewater treatment
systems.
"Any increase
in [home-building] permits should depend on the wastewater facilities
being online and providing credits," Pattison said.
The proposed
building ban in hammocks should be clarified and new housing should
include a higher percentage of badly needed affordable homes, he said.
The work plan
changes are "very ill-conceived" because past commitments to spend money
on the environment have not been honored, said Richard Grosso, a
land-use attorney and executive director of the Environmental and Land
Use Law Center.
Allowing
damaging growth endangers the $100 million generated annually by tourism
in the Keys, Grosso said.
"In the Keys,
the environment is the economy," he said.
The Cabinet
asked that environmental groups continue to be involved with the Keys
work plan as it evolves.
ttritten@keysnews.com |
