|
Key West residents return wish list
Hundreds respond to request
for input on city's future
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff Writer
KEY WEST — The
city asked residents what they wanted, and hundreds responded that they
want more affordable housing, better policies and programs dealing with
homeless people, programs to protect beaches, better noise control
policies and a comprehensive tourism plan.
The city
recently finished compiling information from a survey of residents and
business owners called the Strategic Planning Survey. The survey was
sent to 1,000 residents and 200 business owners, city clerk Cheri Smith
said. Roughly 40 percent of the surveys were returned, according to
Smith.
The city is
developing a strategic plan, and is asking residents for their input so
they can provide "high quality services at the lowest possible cost,"
the survey states. The report comes as the city begins its budget
workshops for next year.
City Manager
Julio Avael has placed the priorities handed down in the survey into
seven categories — economic development, human services, organization
excellence, environmental management, community enhancement, mobility
and infrastructure and affordable living. A Planning Task Force
Committee is being established to study these issues and make
recommendations for future action, Avael wrote in a memo to
commissioners Sunday. Avael could not be reached for comment Monday.
- Under
economic development, respondents asked for assistance in startup and
plan development for new businesses.
- In human
services, people wanted better policies and programs to deal with the
homeless situation.
- Under
organization excellence, taxpayers wanted trash collection with fewer
missed pickups and less spillage, more health and code inspection
coverage and better handling of citizen inquiries and complaints. They
also wanted a review of possible unethical behavior in some city
departments.
- Under
environmental management, residents said they wanted assurance of a
good reliable water supply in the future and asked for better
policies and programs to protect the beaches. They also said they wanted
to protect the barrier reef and ocean waters, improvements in recycling
of refuse and stricter by-laws to control cruise ship pollution.
- Affordable
housing has long been an issue in the Keys and residents want
construction of more affordable housing, consideration of housing
subsidies for some key employees, an increase in the homestead tax
credit and consideration of the adoption of a Living Wage Ordinance.
Some
commissioners had just received the memo Monday and said they could not
comment on specifics.
tohara@keysnews.com |
