State may increase Keys building allocations
BY ANN HENSON
Citizen Staff
The Florida Keys could
get an additional 3,500 building allocations for affordable housing if
such a measure clears several obstacles.
The projects would have
to be built within two years and the number of people and vehicle
traffic they would add cannot overwhelm roadways during a hurricane
evacuation, the Department of Community Affairs secretary said Monday.
Thaddeus Cohen, who met
with county and municipal officials in Marathon, said the number of
added allocations was in the realm of possibility.
"This is a very large
decision for the agency and the decision doesn't rest with us," Cohen
said, referring to final approval required by the governor and Cabinet.
"There are political issues that you will face."
Pressure not to allow it
could come from pro-environment or anti-development factions.
"Where did he come up
with that?" asked Debra Harrison, Keys manager of the environmental
group World Wildlife Fund, who did not attend the meeting. "We have four
minutes of available hurricane capacity and that doesn't translate into
3,500 units. Clearly we need to do something for affordable housing, but
you don't put everyone in the Keys at risk, especially after the last
two hurricane seasons.
"You don't put in a
stopgap measure for failure to take action [on affordable housing] over
the last two decades."
Cohen said the 3,500
units will be plugged into a regional evacuation model expected to be
completed in September. If the model shows that roads do not clog and
everyone can evacuate, then the odds are good that the extra allocations
will be granted.
Diane Quigley, a DCA
state planner, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the regional
model that includes Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward counties. "It will
consider all the traffic in an evacuation event in the region including
components of the Miller Model," she said.
The Miller Model,
developed as part of the Florida Keys Hurricane Evacuation Study, said
Keys residents and visitors could not evacuate within the state-imposed
time frame of 24 hours before a storm hits. The model stopped at the
Monroe County line, which DCA now says is a big flaw.
Since the model was
developed, DCA agreed to allow the county to remove tourists and mobile
home dwellers from the calculation, as they will be evacuated 36 hours
before a storm is supposed to hit.
Cohen warned the extra
allocations also will hinge on the continuation of Keys central sewer
projects.
"It will be a key
component on how we can frame this" to the governor and Cabinet, he
said.
Monroe County currently
has no extra affordable housing allocations that are not already
committed for projects, officials said Monday. Marathon and Key West are
in the same situation.
Ed Swift, a developer who
is part of the county's latest affordable housing task force, said a
2004 study showed the county needs at least another 6,500 affordable
housing units.
"That study was
challenged but the challenge did not prevail and it now serves as a
baseline figure," he said.
When asked how many
allocations each government agency needs, most officials appeared
reluctant to ask for a specific number, except for Key West's Mayor
Morgan McPherson. He said a proposed project on 50 acres in Key West
would need 1,350 affordable permits.
"We've been working with
the Coast Guard, Navy and School Board on a project, with the acres
owned by the city, and all will move forward in a land trust, all will
be affordable housing with 20 to 25 per acre," he said.
County Administrator Tom
Willi said Monroe's needs "are harder to quantify," but he threw out 300
as a figure. Swift jumped in, saying a realistic breakdown would give
the Upper Keys 400 permits, Islamorada 100, the Lower Keys 150, Marathon
200, Key West 1,200, 500 for Stock Island and 1,000 to save the trailer
parks.
"You'll notice we are not
even wincing at the numbers," Cohen told the group.
He also reiterated that
he is not opposed to allowing Keys residents riding out storms in their
homes, if the county and municipalities can assure the DCA that they
will be safe. He first broached the subject at a meeting of Keys
emergency management officials in October 2004.
"But you need to have a
conversation with emergency managers on how to maintain being safe," he
said.
Another issue he raised
was the 3,000 cars lost during Hurricane Wilma. "Will the public be
willing to lose them again?"
Swift said cars can be
moved to higher ground.
"What we are assuming is
that everyone evacuates," he said. "Until there's something different,
that's the baseline. From there you can start running other scenarios
such as shelters."
The other question that
must be answered is what happens to people who do not have cars. All of
these scenarios can be plugged into the regional model, Cohen said.
One issue Cohen said he
would not discuss is fractional allocations for affordable housing. DCA
denied requests from the county and Marathon to use only half a unit for
affordable units of 750 square feet or less, saying the governments did
not provide studies showing how many additional people and cars the
developments would add and how they would affect hurricane evacuation
time.
ahenson@keysnews.com |
