State: 18 hours not in comp plan

BY ANN HENSON

Citizen Staff

A Monroe County commissioner said he hopes the Cabinet reconsiders a report it approved Tuesday that sets the Florida Keys hurricane evacuation time at 18 hours, maintaining the county administrator misinformed the governor.

Gov. Jeb Bush's spokeswoman said he has asked the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to handle the matter.

The dispute focuses on whether the time frame is included in the county's comprehensive plan, an official document that guides all development in Monroe, in which case it could be a determining factor in whether the state allows the Florida Keys to build more homes.

The 2006 version of the Monroe County comprehensive plan refers to achieving and maintaining an "overall 24-hour hurricane evacuation clearance time." The DCA, a state agency that oversees development in the Keys, as well as County Commissioner George Neugent and the county's former growth management director, all maintain the 18-hour time frame is not an official part of the comp plan.

County Administrator Tom Willi, who told the governor and Cabinet on Tuesday that it is, maintained his stance on Wednesday, saying to suggest otherwise is "splitting hairs." Willi said when the County Commission in September 2005 approved a comp plan amendment adopting a phased evacuation plan, a phrase in a staff report that was included in the board's background material inherently became part of the public hearings and the comp plan. The staff report says the county can shave six hours off its evacuation time, reducing it from 24 hours to 18 hours, by ordering tourists and mobile-home residents out of the Keys before the general evacuation of full-time residents begins.

"Every piece of information is part of that amendment," Willi said. "There's a lot being said about this; it's nothing. This is totally blown out of proportion and I blame the media."

DCA spokeswoman Alexis Antonacci said the words "18 hours" for hurricane evacuation "are not present in the Monroe County comprehensive plan" — a fact she said will be clarified in a letter to Cabinet aides today.

Former Monroe County Growth Management Director Tim McGarry on Wednesday said he remembers the County Commission approving the comp plan amendment, but said it was based on a 24-hour time frame. "I worked there, I would remember it," he said. "It has not been codified, the commission did not vote on" the 18-hour evacuation. McGarry said when he resigned his post in January, DCA and county officials still were discussing how to decrease the time frame, but had not agreed on anything.

Commissioner Sylvia Murphy said she has asked for a copy of the latest comp plan so she can see for herself what it actually says. Commissioner Dixie Spehar and county Mayor Mario Di Gennaro, both of whom attended the Cabinet meeting Tuesday, continued to support Willi on Wednesday.

"I have all the confidence in Tom Willi," Di Gennaro said. "I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't represent something that wasn't true. If he did make an error, anyone can make an error," he said. "I feel that the newspaper is just looking for something to tear apart. I don't want everything torn apart all the time."

Before approving the time frame Tuesday, Bush asked Willi several times if pubic hearings on the 18 hours had been held and if the County Commission had approved the time. Willi replied they had. Neugent called that "intellectual dishonesty."

"I would hope the governor and Cabinet, based on concerns of the National Weather Service and [others], might reconsider this," Neugent said.

Others unhappy with the seeming approval of 18 hours included Debra Harrison, Keys manager of the environmental group World Wildlife Fund, who attended the meeting and spoke against adopting the plan. Richard Grosso, an attorney for Last Stand and the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition, sent a letter to the governor protesting the 18-hour time frame, as did dozens of Keys residents.

Neugent said whether the 18-hour time frame is in the comp plan or not, he also is concerned that it does not consider the safety of Florida Keys residents because it is based on a best-case scenario. It does not take into consideration the evacuation of hospital patients and special-needs people, saying they are all evacuated 36 hours ahead of a potential residential evacuation for a Category 3 or higher hurricane.

This scenario also leaves out seasonal residents, all residents north of the Snake Creek Bridge and 25 percent of the population that officials estimate will not evacuate.

It does not consider the potential for traffic accidents or more people from Florida City Commons, a proposed development of 6,000 homes just south of Florida City. It also disregards a quickly forming hurricane just off the Keys.

Neugent said he was "very upset as a commissioner that we're not running our government down here; someone else is."

The County Commission approved the phased evacuation comp plan amendment to keep the time frame under 24 hours, which the state requires in order to issue Monroe more building permits.

If it takes less than 24 hours, the DCA can give the county 197 permits for unincorporated Monroe County each year.

The agency also is deciding whether to give Monroe 3,500 additional permits for work-force housing.

Critics say the evacuation time has been manipulated and the report rushed through the Cabinet approval to get the building permits.

ahenson@keysnews.com