| Trailer
owners plan to ask for repeal
BY JULIEN GORBACH
keysnews.com
ISLAMORADA -- Trailer
park residents promise to show up in force Thursday to demand from
Islamorada village councilmen protection against a new policy that may
threaten their homes.
Pete McAuliffe,
president of the homeowners association for the Seabreeze Trailer Park,
said he has gone door to door to distribute 300 copies of a pamphlet
warning about the recently passed transferable development rights
policy.
"We're definitely
planning on going to the meeting," McAuliffe said. "I am expecting a
large number of people to be there. We are hoping hundreds turn out.
They are very angry and very interested in going."
Concerned the
transferable rights policy may have a devastating effect on affordable
housing overall, Councilman Bob Johnson is asking the council to
consider repealing it Thursday night. The village council is scheduled
to meet at 5:30 p.m. at Village Hall, Mile Marker 87.
"I would like to put
the entire ordinance on hold and take a second bite at the apple,"
Johnson said. "The better option may be to repeal the ordinance and make
a better one. All sides are unhappy with this one anyway."
But Mayor Chris Sante
said that instead of devoting considerable meeting time to comments from
park residents, he plans to request the scheduling of a public workshop.
The transferable
rights policy allows property owners to knock down structures and sell
off building rights -- which are highly coveted and tightly controlled
by the state -- for use on another piece of land. The policy could
entice park owners to clear away mobile homes and sell off the valuable
rights to build.
But McAuliffe
maintains that the policy will also strip away protections for trailer
park residents that are currently in the village's comprehensive
land-use plan.
Over a year ago,
Seabreeze park owner Joe Wieselberg went before the Village Council to
request permission to redevelop his park as condominiums. The council
refused the request because of a comprehensive plan provision that
designates trailer parks as affordable housing.
According to
McAuliffe, the transferable development rights ordinance effectively
amends the comprehensive plan, drawing a distinction between
recreational vehicles, or RVs, and mobile homes. Before, the whole
package was lumped together as multiple use affordable housing, he said.
But now RVs are transferable as market rate, transient or affordable
units.
"That's what put
anything at risk that used to be truly affordable," McAuliffe said.
"This village has been the safest place to be in the Keys up to the
passing of that ordinance."
At a homeowner's
association meeting Saturday morning, McAuliffe warned about 30
Seabreeze residents that with the transferable rights ordinance in hand,
Wieselberg may want to bulldoze the entire park, replace some 65 units
with luxury condominiums and supplant the remaining homes with what the
village defines as affordable housing. Or he could sell the remainder
off as transferable rights.
McAuliffe added that
village and county standards for "affordable housing" establish far
higher costs than what residents now pay to live in their mobile homes.
Wieselberg did not
respond to requests for comments about his plans.
McAuliffe said park
residents have not received notice that Seabreeze will be redeveloped.
But they are always notified only after such deals are in the works.
Residents say they
have been told that a majority of the council -- Johnson, Sante and
Councilman Mike Forster -- would favor exempting trailer parks from the
transferable rights policy.
Johnson affirmed his
basic opposition to the policy, and his concern for park residents.
Forster did not return a call for comment.
Sante said the matter
was not so simple.
"I am in support of
the idea of exempting trailer parks, but I want to review the matter in
detail," he said. "I can't just say yes or no. There's too many
different angles to this issue."
Sante is the owner of
the 36-unit Coral Sands Trailer Park, which is outside the village.
Thirty-two of the units are occupied by locals who work here, he said.
"I feel strongly that
I have to protect the people of the park," he said. "But I also know,
being a park owner, that I have six residents who are weekenders. If I
want to sell off those sites, it wouldn't bother me to tell the
weekenders they are going to lose their sites, because they won't lose
anything."
Local, county and
state law applying to mobile homes is a complicated morass, and no one
could say definitively this week just what protection Seabreeze or other
park residents might have against redevelopment.
Seabreeze has 101
lots. McAufliffe estimates that Islamorada has 400 mobile homes overall,
three-quarters of which are in parks.
The village's
comprehensive plan states that mobile homes can only be replaced by new
mobile homes or by affordable housing. But RVs, which are not protected,
can be knocked down, with their building rights sold off for market rate
or transient development -- a bonanza given the spectacular demand for
growth in the Keys.
Village attorney John
Herin said two factors determine whether lots are recognized for RVs or
mobile homes. One is village zoning. The other is state licensing.
"You can have a fully
licensed by the state recreational vehicle park," he said. "It may not
have a corresponding RV zoning designation. Obviously, we try not to do
that."
At meetings with
Middle Keys trailer park residents last spring, Key West attorney Robert
Cintron urged each community to protect their homes by forming
associations and obtaining "rights of first refusal," which entitle them
to match an offer by a redeveloper to buy their park.
But McAuliffe said
there is a loophole "big enough to drive six trucks through."
Essentially, the provision only requires park owners to honor the right
of first refusal if they advertise to sell the park. Park owners do not
have to honor it if they receive "unsolicited" offers.
jgorbach@keysnews.com
Moratorium
flip-flop killed hope for council, hope for housing
The winds of change blow
frequently in the Keys, sometimes bringing surprises that can feel like
sand in the eyes.
Or so it seems.
The Marathon City
Council quite frankly stunned many residents recently by flat out
slapping down an ordinance that would have temporarily halted
redevelopment of an important source of affordable housing in the city.
Although, granted, councilmen had not officially signed on to the
proposal imposing the one-year delay, they had offered every indication
that this would be the case in previous meetings.
So much for taking
anything at face value.
The moratorium died,
as is sometimes written in obituaries, "suddenly and unexpectedly," by a
vote of 4-1. Councilman Jeff Pinkus stood alone in his support for the
measure.
And demolition began
this past week at Gulfstream Trailer Park, with no posted permits.
Sandler at Greater Marathon Bay LLC claimed a misunderstanding, and
subsequently secured permits to be able to take out five units at a
time.
In the interest of
clarity, it must be noted that the councilmen did not vote down the
moratorium as the city council. They did so standing as the Marathon
Planning Commission, since the newly appointed planning commission has
not yet taken up those reins.
But many are shaking
their heads at the appointment of the new pro-development planning
commission anyway, so the moratorium more than likely would have
suffered the same fate at the hands of either body.
In all fairness, the
city is working at present on getting two areas of affordable housing
ready for occupancy. Overseas Village will be officially unveiled today
and there are a few more affordable units in the hopper down on 73rd
Street, which will be ready in the near future.
But this housing is
still more expensive than the homes that are being demolished now and
the other parks that are still unprotected from redevelopment.
The council did vote
Monday night to support the Carlisle Housing Project in Marathon, which
is supposed to create more than 80 new, lower-income affordable
apartments. Interestingly enough, Pinkus cast the lone dissenting vote
on that issue. He questioned the use of 42 affordable housing permits
for lower-income housing, when middle-income homes are at this moment
being destroyed.
There can exist a wide
separation between "moderate" income and "lower" income in Monroe
County. Trailer and RV parks often house our neighbors who will not be
able to afford, ever, to buy a home in the Keys. Period.
The quality of life
afforded such residents by being able to live in their own RVs and
mobile homes is better than the quality of life achieved by renting an
apartment dwelling.
Perhaps we should stop
referring to these areas as RV/trailer parks and call them what they are
-- homes. We're not just tearing out old trailers, we're razing the
homes of our neighbors.
The winds of change
have blown away that sigh of relief expected to be heard in Marathon
when most believed the council would temporarily ban redevelopment there
until long-term strategies were developed. What a shame. |
