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Affordable housing no excuse for degrading environment
The magnificent
environment of the Florida Keys that sustains us all is in collapse.
Water quality,
already critical, is getting worse. Polluted beaches plague our tourist
economy, and the world-renown coral reef is becoming a pile of dead
rocks. On shore, according to the $6 million Florida Keys Carrying
Capacity Study, the remaining tropical hardwood hammocks and pinelands
cannot survive any more development. Overpopulation of the low-lying
Keys threatens human life, as well; already, residents cannot be safely
evacuated under National Hurricane Center guidelines. The amount and
type of development and tourism are ruining the very things that make
the Keys the Keys.
In challenging
the state's administrative rule to increase the growth rate in the Keys,
Last Stand is living up to its name and its mission to protect the
natural Keys and the quality of life for residents. For years, Monroe
County has promised to take action to protect native forests and to
clean up wastewater and storm water, but again and again has failed to
meet the goals required by its comprehensive plan's work program and
previous legal settlements with environmental groups.
For 20 years,
the Keys have been designated an area of critical state concern because
of their ecological importance and the rate of growth. Because of the
link between development and environmental degradation, when the county
fails to meet its work program goals, the state's rules require it to
cut by 20 percent the number of permits that can be issued annually.
This is designed to keep things from getting worse. Once again, in 2003,
the governor and cabinet determined that the county had failed to make
substantial progress on the previous year's work program. But, instead
of cutting the number of permits, this administrative rule, in exchange
for more promises, now proposes not only to increase the annual number
of permits by 25 percent, but also to restore 165 units forfeited in
previous years because of the lack of progress.
Last Stand
supports the goals laid out in the state/county agreement to buy and
protect environmentally sensitive land, to provide effective wastewater
treatment and to increase affordable housing. We oppose only those
portions of the administrative rule that would reward the county with
increased development in advance of real compliance. Wastewater
improvements should be fully operational before nutrient reduction
requirements are removed, and no credits should be advanced for
treatment improvements not yet accomplished.
Water quality,
habitat and evacuation limits have all been exceeded. Instead of
increasing the annual number of permits, we need to increase the ratio
of affordable housing permits. Currently, a measly 20 percent of the
permits are allocated for affordable housing, while 80 percent go to
market rate housing. Affordable housing should get 80 percent of the
annual permit allocation. For years, local and state governments have
allowed conversions to transient housing, transferable ROGO exemptions
and other practices that have actually reduced the existing affordable
housing stock. And in the proposed administrative rule, the majority of
annually allocated permits would still be for unaffordable homes.
Affordable
housing impacts the environment just like other types of development and
should not now be used as an excuse to increase development before the
long-term protections are in place to ensure that the unique environment
of the Florida Keys will be preserved for future generations.
Dennis Henize
Vice president,
Last Stand |
