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Four sites may get height limit lifted
By Alyson Crean
acrean@keynoter.com
Posted-Friday,
October 13,
2006 7:04 PM EDT
Carlisle Group is developer on the parcels
Not yet ready to give up on the idea of
relaxing Monroe County's building height restrictions in the name of
affordable housing, the county's Growth Management Division has added a
proposed ordinance to the County Commission agenda for Wednesday.
The proposed ordinance would increase the height
limit of 35 feet for four specific affordable housing projects. In the
four instances, the average height allowed would be 38 feet with a
maximum of 44 feet to allow for a more aesthetically pleasing pitched
roof, according to the proposal.
The four parcels are:
·
Big Coppitt Key: Close to an acre fronting U.S.
1.
·
Key Largo: Three quarters of an acre in
the Mandalay subdivision.
·
Cudjoe Key: 1.15 acres along U.S. 1.
·
Key Largo: 2.72 acres between U.S. 1 and a
state service road zoned suburban commercial.
The proposal, according to assistant County
Attorney Jerry Sanders in a memo to the County Commission, is aimed at
helping the projects qualify for up to $5 million in grants allocated by
the Florida Legislature through the Community Workforce Housing
Innovation Pilot Program, or CWIP.
Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger
says relaxation of the rigid county height restriction would not ease
restrictions anywhere else.
“We specifically limited it to these four
projects,” he said. “These are a test to see if there will be buy-in
from the community. We intend to take it back through the regular comp
plan amend process with full public hearings.”
Easing height restrictions has been an unpopular
proposal, even as local governments try to get a handle on what they say
is a dearth of affordable workforce housing.
In September,
Key West voters trounced a ballot measure that
would have allowed the City Commission to relax limits for affordable
projects.
At the same time, developers argue that just a
few feet up would make the difference as to whether a project was
feasible since parking could be under the first floor.
“A relatively minor change in the current height
limitation would allow a 50 percent increase in the affordable housing
which could be built on an available parcel of land,” wrote developer
Lloyd Boggio, chief executive officer of the Carlisle Group. The company
has developed numerous South
Florida projects including Meridian West on Stock Island - 102
low-income units.
The proposed ordinance names the Carlisle
Group as the developer for all four projects. By including them,
Shillinger says the four projects are more likely to happen.
“This way, if we lose the CWIP money but [the
Carlisle Group] can get it from other sources, this would allow the
project to still go forward.”
The commission convenes Wednesday at
9 a.m. at the Harvey Government Center in
Key West.
(note: the hearing on the county's height
limit was advertised for 3PM) |
