Tier system to be tweaked a little more

Local environmentalists are lauding a decision by the Florida Department of Community Affairs they say will go a long way to preserving Keys habitat.

In a final order issued on Sept. 26, DCA Secretary Tom Pelham denied several challenges to an administrative law judge's recommended order that came out in June.

Pelham's order finalizes a ruling by Administrative Law Judge Donald Alexander, which will force the county to revise some aspects of its controversial tier land-mapping system.

Pelham upheld the judge's ruling that the tier system's four-acre threshold for protection is arbitrary.

“This means they will have to reexamine some of the maps,” said Dennis Henize, a board member of Last Stand. “The judge was clear that the maps must be based on science rather than just boundaries based on arbitrary acreage.”

The county has been working for close to three years to institute the tier system, which would control growth in the coming years.

It categorizes vacant parcels into one of three tiers based upon environmental sensitivity, Tier 1 being the most sensitive and Tier 3 the most desirable for building. The system is designed to replace the county's rate-of-growth ordinance, which controls growth based upon a point system and hurricane evacuation times.

In 2006, Last Stand and the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition challenged the proposed tier system, saying it does not do enough to protect sensitive Keys habitat. Together, they filed the challenge to it with the state's Division of Administrative Hearings.

Alexander ruled on the challenge June 16.

Pelham's order upholds all of the judge's findings and denies two requests each by the environmentalist groups and the county to modify the recommended order.

In one, Last Stand and the Citizens Coalition asked that “certain parcels be given a Tier 1 designation because they contain wetlands,” Pelham wrote in the final order.

He denied the request, saying wetlands are adequately protected in the county's land plan.