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Should
Monroe County Increase Allowed Building Heights?
Height Limit Preserves Keys Rural Character
by Dennis Henize
The
one rule that has most prevented the Keys from looking like Downtown
Florida, the 35-foot height limit, is in danger. Following Key West
voters’ recent overwhelming rejection of the idea of waiving, for
affordable housing, the city’s height limit, Monroe County wants to
waive its long-standing height limit. Another developer-friendly
proposal to change good, effective rules, under the affordable housing
banner.
Monroe
County and Key West differ in that in Key West, the city charter
requires that voters approve exemptions to height limits, which they’re
likely to do only if convinced it’s in the public’s best interest. In
the county, amending the comprehensive plan (Policy 101.4.24 of the comp
plan limits height) is done simply by a majority vote of the County
Commission, and state Department of Community Affairs approval.
Normally, comp plan amendments require multiple public hearings, at
County Commission meetings throughout the Keys over about three months.
The height increase, however, is being attempted under special
“fast-track” provisions of a new state law (Community Workforce Housing
Innovative Pilot Program) intended to foster workforce housing. The
county intends to approve this major comp plan change with one hearing,
Oct. 18, in Key West.
The
county’s height limit came about in the ’70s, after Bonefish Tower
popped up near Marathon. Completed in 1975, at 14 stories (160 feet),
it’s the tallest building in the Keys. Public outrage over Bonefish
spawned the “No Hi-Rises in the Keys” movement, leading to the 35-foot
height limit, which was incorporated into the comprehensive plan when it
was written in the ’80s. It’s been effective at preserving community
character by preventing buildings from overshadowing the neighbors,
keeping local “skylines” in scale.
Community character is subjective, but with respect to building heights,
I like what Mayor McCoy said in a recent column in another local paper,
referring to Key West’s height limit: “…scales and height were then
proportioned to the size of the islands and the height of the island’s
tree canopy.”
Most
all the Keys are small, most with lower tree canopies than Key West. The
35-foot limit is totally appropriate for the Keys. It is one of the very
reasons that the Keys look like the Keys and not the southward extension
of Florida’s Gold Coast.
If the
county is trying to win hearts and minds, they’re doing a poor job of
it. A couple months ago Jerry Coleman, the county’s workforce housing
legal consultant, told the County Commission a height limit increase
from 35 to 37 feet was needed to accommodate developers of affordable
housing.
Even a
2-foot increase didn’t sit well with the public. Although first County
Commission discussion of it was an add-on item to a budget hearing in
Key Largo, about 20 citizens showed up to protest what was thought to be
a “slight” relaxation of the height limit, only to find that the
proposal is for a 9-foot increase, to 44 feet.
The
additional increase is to allow pitched roofs. How quaint. Those pushing
the height increase offer to make the higher buildings look nice and
pointy instead of flat-topped if allowed to go even higher. At best
it’s a bait-and-switch; at worst, extortion. And a slippery slope.
Whether
the height limit needs to be waived, and by how much, depends on whom
you ask. The developer whose proposal was cited to support the 2-foot
increase (Carlisle Group) says he can build three stories over parking
within a 37-foot limit (Citizen article 9/10). There are architects who
believe three stories over parking can even be done within the 35-foot
limit, depending on base elevation.
A
legitimate concern is that exempting specific structures would open
loopholes eventually leading to not-so-affordable structures above the
35-foot limit. The definition of “affordable” changes over time (as does
the housing market, which is on the downturn as of late) and something
so fluid as median income should not be used to determine how high
buildings can be.
The $5
million of CWHIPP funds with the deadline touted to justify
fast-tracking the height limit change is only the beginning of funds
that will be available. This is not the only chance to get state
workforce housing funds, and the program does not require that sound
planning principles be discarded.
The
Area of Critical State Concern designation won’t be lifted until 2009 at
the earliest. Now is not the time to make significant changes to the
2010 Comprehensive Plan.
At the
Sept. 13 County Commission meeting, Mayor McCoy assured the public that
multiple hearings on the proposed height change would be held throughout
the Keys. So far the only hearing advertised is the single hearing at
the October 18 County Commission meeting in Key West. Stay tuned.
❐
Dennis
Henize is president of the environmental and civic group
Last Stand. |
