Last Stand urges the Monroe County Planning
Commission to reject a sub-area policy and
future-land-use-map designation requested by the owners of
Wisteria Island.The sub-area policy
is a land-use designation requested to change the Monroe
County comprehensive plan for the benefit of the owners.
Today, Wisteria Island has a land-use zoning designation of
Offshore Island that permits two housing units. The owners
have proposed 75 housing units, 55 docks and a
restaurant/bar.
The owners justify the units as necessary
to support a mooring field and upland amenities. Key West
residents resoundingly disapproved of a similar plan not
long ago.
The development would create negative
environmental impacts to the wildlife inhabiting the island
and nearby waters. We know from the carrying-capacity study
that subtracting uninhabited land from the Florida Keys is
detrimental to animal and plant life. We know that placing a
fuel-dispensing station on this island would be detrimental
to animal and plant life. We know that doubling the amount
of sewage, water and electricity in the pipes under the
harbor, pipes installed in the 1940s by the U.S. Navy,
increases the risk of a spill.
The development would also stress already
overcrowded Old Town. The owners' projections show a small
increase in Key West visitors because the assumption is that
boaters already anchored around the island will sign up to
pay monthly fees. We believe it is more likely that the
boaters will relocate and continue their environmentally
unfriendly habits. We expect mooring-field tenants would be
incremental visitors, particularly during the winter, when
Old Town is most congested.
Last Stand's mission is to protect the
Keys' natural environment. We are all for clean water,
increased legal moorings and enforcement of boat pump-outs.
We do not agree that the benefits from a managed mooring
field are a reasonable exchange for the wealth to be created
by the sub-area policy for Wisteria Island.
Mark Songer, president, Last Stand
Key West
