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State needs to
stay in control
Monroe County officials have become increasingly adamant that the
Florida Keys’ designation as an Area of Critical State Concern is a
washed-up has-been that is no longer necessary. They claim this because
they say they have done much toward protecting the environment, getting
sewer systems off the ground, and pushing forward affordable housing in
the last few years.
It’s true, the state has agreed to pony up $93 million over three years
to purchase environmentally sensitive lands. But it did so because
Monroe Conroe carried the ACSC designation. The county still has
identified few continuing funding sources for land acquisition, and has
instead tapped current reserves and bonded money, which will be paid
back from taxpayer shoulders, to do a small part of the job that needs
to be done in land acquisitions.
Current estimates to purchase lands, which is the only way to completely
remove them from the development pool, are upwards of $200 million. The
$15 million pledged by the county and the $93 pledged, but not yet
authorized, by the state, fill a large part, but not nearly enough of
the void.
And the question begs to be asked. If we ask to be removed from ACSC
designation, will the pledged money go elsewhere? Based on our
leadership’s history of reneging on deals made, the money will probably
disappear the first time our leaders pull one of the stunts they are now
infamous for and do something that takes away that funding source.
The only sewer system the county has been responsible for is the Stock
Island fiasco that wound up with a Grand Jury berating the county for
its flawed handling of the matter, extra bucks from county coffers to
fix the mess, and a denial by our ruling triad that anything was ever
wrong.
We’re sure the Governor and Cabinet find that as an enticing reason to
let our leaders off the leash.
The other sewers that have been completed were done under the auspices
of the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, the state mandated agency to do
so, but even then the county tried to sabotage the completion by
withholding money promised and dragging its collective feet.
That’s another sterling resume bullet with which to seek removal from
state oversight.
As for affordable housing, the county has given the matter a lot of lip
service, but very little action. Our leadership is just now beginning to
identify funding sources and purchase lands. That’s after 30, you read
right, 30 years of state oversight.
But as yet, the only affordable housing projects completed in the
unincorporated county are those handled either by non-profit agencies
with county blessing or by private developers without county
involvement. A total of 148 units.
Our leaders can try all they want to tout the small successes they have
made in the last few years, but those fall far short of where we should
have been, and tomorrow all of them could change based on some obscure
political power play, or vengeful reversal of decision by this deeply
divided board.
We don’t see any person of sanity and intelligence letting this
particular commission off the leash even long enough to sniff the
neighbor’s flowers. Doing so would be a dangerous precedent. What the
state would be doing is rewarding our leadership for school yard
bickering, lying in public, chastising reasonable opinion, and
attempting at every turn to overturn their own progress.
Perhaps with a more reasonable commission, one that has a track record
of forward progress without halts, backsteps and fuzzy, often
manufactured facts used as reality, the lifting of the ACSC designation
might indeed be warranted.
But since we have seen all of the above progress completed only at the
end of the state’s hammer, with state leadership constantly threatening
the only thing our ruling triad seems to care about—more building
permits, we can’t fathom why they think they’re entitled to run their
own ship.
Our support would swing toward keeping state oversight for a few more
years. If this commission shows real signs of moving forward, and not
taking four steps back for each one ahead, and keeps just one deal it’s
made without application of the state or federal whip, then we would
support removal of the designation.
Mr. Governor, please keep the leash on for a while. The only folks to
suffer from removing it will be the residents of Monroe County.
If it be your wish Mr. Governor, and that of your Cabinet, to punish
Monroe County residents for the hell-bent-to-buildout mentality
displayed by our current commission, then by all means lift the ASCS
designation. And when you do, make it possible to place the leash
back on the next year when you see the fallacy of your ways.
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