| As expected, Florida's Department of Community
Affairs (DCA) turned down the county's proposed "working waterfront"
plan, with a long list of objections. The South Florida Regional
Planning Council, an advisory board, earlier recommended rejection.
Details are in the following article from the December 15 Keynoter.
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DCA nixes
waterfront plan
By Alyson Crean acrean@keynoter.com
Definitions and goals all called vague
State objections to Monroe County's plan to protect its working
waterfront came as no surprise to most county officials after
the ordinance designed to do so failed to gain approval from the
South Florida Regional Planning Commission in October.
“I think the goal now is to not lose our momentum in sending up
something acceptable based on the recommendations by the
[Department of Community Affairs,” said County Commissioner
George Neugent, who has led the charge to protect traditional
fishing industry in the Keys.
On Dec. 7, DCA kicked back the county's working-waterfront
ordinance with a long list of objections and recommendations to
fix the problems. In a letter to Mayor Sonny McCoy, DCA
Comprehensive Planning Chief Mike McDaniel explained that DCA
supports the concept of preserving the working waterfront but
that “several concerns must be addressed.”
Like the Planning Council, DCA's biggest
objection had to do with vague language in the ordinance.
“Vague language,” McDaniel wrote, “does not provide meaningful
and predictable standards or provide meaningful guidelines for
how the activities will be implemented....”
Among the specific objections:
-
The policy
calling for regulatory incentives lacks meaning because it
does not provide specific incentives, nor does it outline
criteria that would “ensure continued commercial,
recreational and public access.”
-
It includes
several “offshore” islands that could be home to marinas,
and DCA says the county's own policy does not allow marinas
on “offshore” islands. In addition, for offshore islands,
the county cannot create new bridges, causeways, paved roads
or new commercial marinas.
- The ordinance does not address “potential
water-supply issues for the proposed increase in density and
intensity.”
“The proposed objective states the loss of working
waterfront in one geographic area must be balanced by a gain
elsewhere.” That, according to the report, “could result in
an oversupply of working waterfronts in one area of the
county and an undersupply in other areas.”
DCA recommends solving the problem by applying the concept
of no net loss within regional areas of the Keys rather than
countywide.
The County Commission approved the waterfront preservation
ordinance in September with a last-minute addendum that
would allow construction of a hotel on the waterfront where
current zoning would not allow one.
In DCA's objections, that amendment conflicts with the
county's land-use plan, which prohibits new transient
residential units including hotel and motel rooms. A new
hotel would also be higher density than the zoning on the
working waterfront allows.
The county has been working for nearly three years to come
up with a plan to retain public access to the waterfront and
ensure commercial fishing is not made extinct by high-end
condos.
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