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Developers are posing as
Sir Galahads of housing
Most existing mobile home
parks contain what is known as excess density. Simply stated, more
trailers than would be allowed under today's building code. Excess units
that could be transferred to receiver sites are going to developers
buying these parks. While the county and the municipalities sit idly by
watching 30, 40, 50 or more transferable units at a time disappear, we
hear the same old saw: We're losing our work force housing; we must
build more, say the Galahads.
How intellectually
insulting is the insincere banter from the Commissioners Three, task
force after task force (made up and led by many of the Galahads),
elected municipal officials and School Board members, while mobile home
parks disappear?
The Galahads propose
replacement units for mobile home units lost at a mere $250,000 to
$300,000. Now really, what percentage of those who presently live in
these units can afford their replacement? How intellectually dishonest
is that?
I've heard Commissioner
Neugent state many times, and I could not agree more, "If you're not
going to protect the existing housing, you can't expect to positively
affect work force housing." He's right on the mark. In buying existing
mobile home parks, you acquire the existing excess density within the
park, which can be transferred to receiver sites. This can be done
through attrition without having to displace anyone immediately; as
people die and/or voluntarily leave, that development right would be
transferred to a receiver sight, brought into present compliance while
reducing density at the existing site.
One county commissioner
laments [that] those environmentalists have cost millions in delay.
Hogwash; it was he and the others that created delay by sitting like
toads, croaking ad nauseam at those who want protection of community and
environmental resources.
The hypocrisy of this
troika led by Czar Nelson should be transparent. How many mobile home
parks could have been bought, at market rate, with the $12 million that
will be spent on another government building that will cost another
$500,000 annually to operate — the Murray E. Nelson building? How many
mobile homes parks, i.e. affordable homes, could have been bought with
the $17 million that will be used to build the $35 million terminal in
Key West when just 50 miles away in Marathon sits an underutilized,
relatively new [airport terminal] with a longer runway airport?
Why are we not using
organizations like Habitat for Humanity of the Lower Keys, which builds
units for about $125,000 ... as opposed to the $250,000 to $300,000
units the Sir Galahads are building them for?
Czar Nelson, don't scream
at the enviros, look in a mirror if you're truly looking for someone to
blame. Yes, you and the Swiftys of the county should take credit for
those true working-class folks who are leaving; and the whispers I hear
as they leave: "Thanks Ed & Murray; you have no idea, sirs, how
difficult it is to be the victim of your benevolence." Take another bow,
boys.
John McCrory,
Marathon |
