Group to city: Please buy Salt Ponds
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
KEY WEST — A local group
of conservationists, worried about possible development in one of the
island's most environmentally sensitive areas, is asking the city to buy
three acres of property in the Salt Ponds.
The city has purchased
other property in and around the Salt Ponds in order to protect the
wetlands. City officials have recently embarked on a campaign to make
the Bridle Path, which borders the Salt Ponds, a no-parking zone to keep
people from using the mangroves as a bathroom. Last year, city workers
evicted dozens of homeless people living in the mangroves. Homeless
people removed trees and built fire pits in the mangroves. Stacks of
tents, old bikes and other trash were removed from the area.
Ed Swift and his business
partners at Old Town Key West Development Ltd. own a 3-acre plot across
from Smathers Beach. They have recently inquired about installing sewer
and electricity lines to the MacKay property, named after the former
owners. Workers also recently cut down six poisonwood trees on the
property.
"I haven't made up mind,"
Swift said Thursday about developing the property. "It's something we
have talked about.
"About 98 percent of the
property could not be developed on. There would be less intrusion on the
Salt Ponds than there was last year," added Swift, referring to the
homeless camps.
City Park Ranger Russ
Draper and other members of the not-profit group Guardians of the Salt
Ponds would like to purchase the property and set it aside as open
space. The city receives 50 cents from each visitor to Fort Zachary
Taylor State Park, with the money going to a fund for Salt Ponds
conservation. With the help of the fund, the city has purchased three
plots around the Salt Ponds.
Draper would like to use
$500,000 in the fund to purchase MacKay property, which also carries
building rights to one unit with it. If that is not enough, he said he
would like to see the city move money from another fund until the Salt
Ponds fund could pay back the money. There is also money for
conservation projects through the Monroe County Land Trust.
To sweeten the offer,
Swift and his partners could keep the right to develop one unit
somewhere else, Draper says. Such building rights have become a
commodity in recent years.
Draper has sent e-mails
to various city officials asking for support. City Commissioner Merili
McCoy has been in contact with Swift about the project. She said Swift
has said no "in pretty certain terms."
"I made a sincere offer
and he said he had other plans for the area," McCoy said. "I know he had
offered to sell it in the past and we should have bought it then. It's
too bad. It was a missed opportunity."
Swift had offered to sell
the property in 2002 for $375,000 plus a year's interest. The City
Commission did not agree to buy the property, because most of the land
acquisition money was tied up in the Poinciana Plaza housing project,
Draper said he was told.
Swift purchased the
property in 2001 from the MacKay family. Raymond and Irene MacKay sued
the City of Key West and the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection over the right to develop the land. They argued they had the
right to build 13 single family homes there. A settlement gave the
MacKay family one building unit and the right to place 770 square feet
of fill on the property. The owners were also given 12 units to be used
offsite.
The property extends to
the road and development could block the Bridle Path, a favorite spot
for runners and bikers, Draper said.
"I just don't want him to
develop on the property," Draper said. "I would like for the city to be
able to buy it. He is a private property owner and I respect his
property rights ... We never thought in our wildest dreams that he would
build here. We all spent so much time trying to save the Bridle Path."
Draper is also concerned
about a row of trees on the property that were cut down earlier this
year. On Oct. 19, the City Commission gave final approval to an
ordinance that placed poisonwood trees on a protected species list and
required developers to obtain a special permit to cut down the trees.
The day before, someone cut down six large poisonwood trees on the
MacKay property.
Swift said Thursday he
doesn't know anything about it.
Poisonwood trees are the
main food source for the white-crowned pigeon, listed as a threatened
species in the state of Florida. The white-crowned pigeon reaches North
America only in the Florida Keys and some small sections of southern
mainland Florida, including Everglades National Park. Habitat loss is
currently the number one threat to this species, according to an Audubon
Watchlist Web page.
tohara@keysnews.com |
