| Several local groups, including
Last Stand, are fighting to keep the Area of
Critical State Concern (ACSC) designation, as the designation and the
increased state oversight that comes with it are crucial to keeping
development in balance. The article below, from the June 20 Key
West Citizen, features another group fighting to retain
the ACSC designation. |
Residents fight unsupervised development
A group of Monroe County residents have banded
together to keep the Florida Keys designated as an Area of
Critical State Concern, as the governor and Cabinet this year
will decide whether to lift the status and let local governments
regulate development without oversight.
“If they do that, high-rise buildings and condos will begin
being constructed in months,” said community activist Phil
Shannon, who has started the grass-roots group Citizens Not
Serfs.
Monroe County Growth Management Division Director Andrew
Trivette recently completed an in-depth and lengthy report on
the Keys’ progress on becoming free of the designation, he told
the County Commission on Wednesday. His report will wind its way
through local channels, then go to the state Department of
Community Affairs, which oversees growth in Monroe County.
Lifting the designation would make it easier for developers to
build, as the state could not object to local commissions’
approval of certain projects.
Keeping the designation helps the Keys receive funding for
buying sensitive land for conservation.
In March 2006, Shannon commissioned the Washington, D.C.-based
polling group Lake Research Partners to conduct a poll about
residents’ feelings on the issue. The poll found that 82 percent
of people supported staying in the Area of Critical Concern,
said Shannon, who lives on Summerland Key.
“The Florida Keys with highrises is purgatory, not paradise,”
Shannon said. The process for possibly lifting the designation
was outlined in state legislation passed in April 2006. The
Department of Community Affairs is to submit its written report
to the governor and Cabinet between July 12 and Aug. 30. That
report will detail the Keys’ progress or lack thereof.
The governor and Cabinet then will decide by Oct. 1 whether the
Keys have made “substantial progress.” If they have, the
designation would be lifted Oct. 1, 2009. If they haven’t, the
Department of Community Affairs would have to produce another
such report next year. As part of the designation, Monroe County
governments must submit annual reports to the Department of
Community Affairs on the Keys’ progress in meeting goals
regarding wastewater and other issues tied to development. The
state agency reviews the reports and then issues its own report
to the governor and Cabinet. The Department of Community Affairs
issued a report last year that slammed the Keys for not doing
enough on wastewater issues.
The state agency has not yet gone to the governor and Cabinet
with the report. The agency will go before the governor and
Cabinet in September with its report on the Keys’ progress,
Trivette told the County Commission Wednesday.
Citizens Not Serfs also is tackling the issue of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s policy of requiring inspections of
downstairs enclosures.
The policy was implemented in low-lying coastal areas in 1974 as
a way to reduce rebuilding costs and the dependency on FEMA
after flooding from hurricanes. The group is opposed to the
inspections, saying the agency has cost Keys families thousands
of dollars each in deconstruction costs and is forcing families
out of the Keys. The practice also has led construction
companies to refund deposits from families who want to build
them, Shannon said. “The results of this practice have been
atrocious,” Shannon said. “Local contractors have lost millions
in revenue, residents have been forced to incur bills for
deconstruction costs and attorneys fees, and most importantly,
good Keys-loving families have been forced out of paradise.”
The group held its first meeting on June 13 and plans to hold
another meeting from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at 1076 Flagship Drive.
For more information, go to the group’s Internet site at
www.citizensnotserfs.com.
tohara@keysnews.com |
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