If Key West and county governments want to curb the
severe shortage of housing for the work force, they
should stop changing rules for developers and
waiving protections put in place to promote such
housing while protecting the fabric of the
community.
Key West housing advocate Tom Milone has pointed
out one case in which the City Commission altered
its rules to allow developers of Parrot Key,
formerly the Hampton Inn on North Roosevelt
Boulevard, to transfer surplus transient rental
licenses to an Old Town site.
Under the city's code of ordinances, transient
rental licenses can be transferred only if the
sender site, in this case Parrot Key, was in an area
no longer allowed to have transient rentals. The
intent of the ordinance was to transfer licenses to
areas where transient rentals were allowed and phase
out those licenses in areas where they were not
allowed.
But the City Commission, in approving the Parrot
Key development of fewer, larger units, allowed the
transfer of 17 transient rental licenses off-site.
It's these very licenses that have caused a stir
in Old Town, where residents do not want to see
transient rental units because they would replace
long-term rental units that have housed Key West
residents for years.
And it's these types of decisions that gradually
eliminate the possibility of sustaining any housing
that is affordable to the Florida Keys' work force.
Each time these exceptions are made, it sets a
precedent for more exceptions. Developers, with
attorneys savvy in picking apart land-use rules
until they no longer apply, are doing what they do:
making money.
We count on the staffs of the county and city
governments to make appropriate recommendations that
will retain work-force housing, and we count on
elected officials to thoroughly review their
decisions and consider their long-term effects.
The Key West City Commission's July 18 decision
allowing transient rentals to be transferred, in
apparent opposition to city code, was a mistake that
City Commissioner Bill Verge said is a "done deal"
because the commission already passed the
resolution.
But city and county governments must stop
stretching the rules for developers, who are taking
advantage of every loophole and gray area, if any
progress is to be made on retaining an
ever-dwindling work force.
