| Last Stand
will hold a Neighborhood Information Forum on The Status of the
Truman Waterfront on April 8. For more information,
click here. The event is described in the following article
from the March 10 Key West Citizen: |
Forum focuses on waterfront
Florida Keys News
By MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff
A grassroots organization that focuses on quality-of-life issues
in Key West now is turning its attention to the city-owned area
called the Truman Waterfront.
Last Stand, which calls itself "a roundtable of environmentally
conscious citizens," has organized a neighborhood forum to
"remedy the uncertainty" surrounding the future development and
use of the Truman Waterfront.
The Navy gave the city the 33-acre waterfront property -- part
of the Base Realignment and Closure program -- with the
requirement that 60 percent of the land be used as open space.
Plans call for a multi-use park area, a marina, an
independent-living center, affordable housing, a cultural center
and commercial space.
Last Stand's forum will consist of four panelists representing
stakeholders in the property, and questions from the audience,
said Last Stand board member David Lybrand, who said he likely
will be the forum moderator.
"We thought it was time for an update because it's been five
years since we had one," Lybrand said. A statement Last Stand
released says, "A lot has happened behind the scenes, but public
reporting of any progress being made has been sketchy."
The forum will be in the auditorium of the Florida Keys
Eco-Discovery Center at the Truman Waterfront and will feature
panelists Norma Jean Sawyer, Bookie Henriquez, Doug Bradshaw and
Mayor Morgan McPherson.
Sawyer represents the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust (BCCLT),
which wants to develop about six acres of the waterfront for
retail space, a cultural center and affordable housing.
The citizens of Key West, by voter referendum, gave city
officials the authority to negotiate a long-term lease between
the city and the land trust for use of those acres. City code
states that any lease longer than 10 years requires voter
approval.
The lease has not been finalized or approved, City Attorney
Shawn Smith said at the March 3 City Commission meeting.
Henriquez is chairman of the Florida Keys Assisted-Care
Coalition. The group has a 99-year lease with the city and Keys
Energy Services. Both entities have provided a total of nearly 5
acres of waterfront property that will be used to construct an
independent/assisted-living facility for aging Key West
residents.
Voters, in a separate referendum, also gave city officials the
authority for that long-term lease.
Bradshaw is the city's ports project manager. He will discuss
the city's plans for the remaining parts of the waterfront that
will include a park area and possibly a marina.
McPherson has publicly criticized the land trust, and recently
said the group will not be able to fulfill its development
commitments for its six acres of land.
According to Last Stand, McPherson will sit on the forum panel
"to comment on these existing plans and to outline other
possibilities." However, McPherson, who along with the City
Commission established the Truman Waterfront Advisory Board to
guide the development, on Monday said he does not plan to unveil
any possibilities at the forum.
"My part is to describe why we started this new board, whose
goal it is to look at what conceivably is feasible out there,
and come up with a plan to address the 'what if' the BCCLT can't
pull off their end, or if the assisted-living group pulls out.
We need to know our alternative options," McPherson said.
The forum is scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 8 at the
Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center at Truman Waterfront.
For more information, go to http://www.last-stand.org.
mbolen@keysnews.com |
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