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Waterfront
ordinance may sink early
BY STEVE ESTES
News-Barometer Editor
The South Florida Regional Planning Council has taken a somewhat
dim
view of Monroe County’s working waterfront preservation
proposal, which
was approved unanimously by the Board of County Commissioners in
September.
The regional planning board, on which District Two County
Commissioner
George Neugent sits, is another layer of review above Monroe
County and
before the state Department of Community Affairs, which has
final
authority over county land use decisions.
According to DCA spokesmen, the regional body isn’t a deciding
authority, but its input is heavily weighted, and may well cause
DCA to
reject the proposal and send it back to the county for further
work.
The regional planners said the wording of the ordinance was
vague in
many cases, as it referred to managing the evolving nature of
the Keys
waterfront.
They also questioned how the ordinance would protect the
environment and
the classic working waterfront by allowing permanent residential
units,
other than workforce, and hotels in the new Maritime Industries
Services
zone.
Regional planning staff said the ordinance is generally
inconsistent
with the supporting data used by the county to justify its
origination.
Monroe County has been looking for ways to save a rapidly
disappearing
waterfront as traditional commercial working waterfronts are
sold to
luxury residential developers who place gated communities there
and
restrict public access.
The new developments also usually displace commercial fishing
fleets as
working docks become boat slips for owners, or rented space for
visitors.
One of the problems the regional planning council had with the
proposal
was a last-minute addendum to the ordinance tacked on by a Stock
Island
development interest to allow hotels to be built in the MI
district.
Monroe County has had a moratorium on new transient rentals for
several
years.
There were many opponents to that addition in the audience when
the BOCC
approved the resolution. Under the terms of the addition, the
waterfront
hotels would be built outside ROGO because they would be built
to
hurricane shelter standards, and therefore outside the
moratorium as well.
The ordinance also approved a new height limit in that zoning
district.
Where the building height limit is 35 feet from the natural
grade in
every other district, the MI district as proposed would allow 35
feet
from the base flood elevation, which in some cases would allow
buildings
of 43 to 44 feet in height.
The regional planning staff also said that the proposal did not
take
into account existing infrastructure capacity, nor did it
outline
specific requirements for the developments to upgrade
infrastructure to
meet the needs of the new projects. The staff wanted more data
analysis
of the developmental impacts on other areas of the Keys since
the area
is served by only one major through road.
Even though the BOCC unanimously approved the resolution to
forward to
DCA, Neugent said he wasn’t happy with the last-minute add on
for hotels
and height limit.
“Personally I think what we’re sending won’t come close to
passing DCA
muster and that we’ll get it back,” said Neugent.
Growth Management Director Drew Trivette said the commission did
not
approve the version supported by the planning staff, and knew
there were
problems that would draw scrutiny from other approving agencies.
DCA will make its determination after the comment period expires
Dec. 8.
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