Emily Schemper, Director of Growth Management for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
What is the Habitat Conservation Plan for Big Pine Key and No Name Key?
Schemper said, “The Habitat Conservation Plan and incidental take permits for Big Pine and No Name Key, which is a plan that talks about impacts to endangered species, the key deer, the Lower Keys marsh rabbit, Eastern Indigo snake. That all expires on June 30 of this year. We’ve been working with US Fish and Wildlife Service and with FEMA, because they’re involved, in a sense as well, to determine how we’re going to deal with certain types of permit reviews on Big Pine after that. We’re still waiting for the official letter announcing this. But what the agreement at this point is that those will be transitioned to review under the county wide permit referral process, so people who have gone through permitting are familiar with this. For a set of, I think it’s nine endangered species, including those other three, county wide have to go through a process where it’s determined whether or not they have to do extra consultation with US Fish and Wildlife. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed that we can transition the Big Pine permits into that process for those three species that were previously covered by the Habitat Conservation Plan. One of the big questions from the community, though, has been a cumulative cap on species impacts that was established in the Habitat Conservation Plan. Will that continue? Will it be tracked? How will they decide how much impact is too much impact? What the Fish and Wildlife Service has told us is they will incorporate that same cumulative impact cap into the permit referral process for those species, so that will still be tracked in the same way. It’s almost like an extension, but they’re rolling it into this other process. So that’s good. What was also in that Habitat Conservation Plan was a set number of new residential units that was really initially set by our own ROGO process, but it equaled out to about 200 units over a 20 year period. That was consistent with what we were giving out limited amount through our ROGO process for Big Pine and No Name Key, but they evaluated species impacts and had it all set up for maximum impact and mitigation associated with that. They have agreed that we could increase that residential unit cap In order to continue giving out permits for 10 more years with our new set of ROGO allocations that the state offered up and finally approved last year, but those will only be allowed if we still remain under that cap on the impacts to the species and the habitat.”
A community meeting in person on Big Pine will be held Thursday, May 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 at St Peter’s Church.
Schemper said, “That will be an in person meeting where we’ll talk about the history of the Habitat Conservation Plan, how it’s expiring and what the changes will be going forward, how that’s going to work. We’ll talk about the impacts of all the mitigation land that’s already been bought. It will be an opportunity for owners and residents to ask questions, give some input, and try to understand how this process will change going forward. People who cannot attend in person will be able to attend virtually the Board of County Commissioners meeting following that, that’s on June 10, their normal meeting that, of course, is always available to either watch online or participate by Zoom if there’s comments. So we’re trying to give people a chance to ask questions and comment and get as much information out there as possible.”
Will the stipulations eventually be similar to what the rest of the Keys have?
Schemper said, “Yes and no. So it’s similar to what the rest of the Keys goes through in terms of permitting, but we will still have a specific limit on impacts to the species for Big Pine and No Name Key. I know that was very important to some of the community members who have asked questions already. So US Fish and Wildlife will continue to track that and have that cap. It was very specific to the key deer. It also included impacts of Lower Keys marsh rabbit and Eastern Indigo snake. But the main focus was the key deer. The Environmental Resources office, they can call 305-289-2500, Michael Roberts is our assistant director for environmental resources. He is a good contact for questions. They can also call me or email me directly. They can use that same number to find me, depending on where I am that day. But we’re more than happy to answer questions and go through things because it is very complicated and very confusing.”
There will also be a virtual meeting about food trucks on May 21 at 5:05 p.m. held via Zoom.
Schemper said, “I just want to make sure people understand that we held the previous workshops on the survey to gather information. This is a different meeting where staff will actually present a draft amendment to our code with regulations specific to food trucks that are not temporary food trucks. So it’s important, even if people participated in the workshops or took a survey, attend this meeting if you want to hear now what the draft regulations will be.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov