Kimberly Matthews, the director of Strategic Planning for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
One big topic recently has been ROGO and BPAS.
Matthews said, “The county is facing towards the end of the numbers of the amount of ROGO and BPAS that we all have in the county and unincorporated areas, we use ROGO or Rate Of Growth Ordinance, and then in most of the municipalities, they refer to it as BPAS, which is Building Permit Allocation System. So as those numbers start to go down, we’re really looking at the future. The state has done a new hurricane evacuation model. They’re getting ready to relook at the numbers of allocations that they give us. It’s important to remind people, it is a state decision. The state manages these allocations. They decide how many to give us, but they have asked us for a recommendation. They’ve asked all of the municipalities and the county what we would like to see happen. Wo as a result of that, the Board of County Commissioners, their number one most important concern is what the community thinks. They have staff working on a lot of other things, such as infrastructure reports. What would additional growth due to infrastructure? How would it impact that? Impacts on environment, traffic, all of these different things, levels of service. But along with that, we really want to factor in what is it the community is telling us that they want to do? The only way to know that is to get out and talk to people, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. So since the first of June, I’ve had a presentation that we’ve dog and ponied it up and down the county to Rotaries and Chambers, and at this point I’m somewhere in the twenties, the meetings that I’ve been to, talked to hundreds and hundreds of people, gotten a lot of really great feedback, but we also know that not everyone is a member of a Chamber or a Rotary. We’ve also talked to property owners associations. I’ve been invited into people’s homes and just gone to their homes and done a presentation for them and their neighbors. But not everybody’s had a chance to go to those meetings. They are listed on our county website, if anybody’s interested, along with a lot of really other great information. But in order to make sure that all the members of the public have an equal opportunity to see this presentation and to participate in the conversation, we are holding here at the very end of my process with the public outreach, we’re holding three open public meetings where I will go to the Marathon Government Center, the Key Largo Murray Nelson Government Center, and the Key West, the Harvey building, and so that any members of those communities that would like to come see the presentation, participate in the 12 survey questions that are involved. We invite them to come and do that. The details, if you don’t get them from me here today, the details are on our county website under ROGO planning 2024. In Marathon, I’ll be there next Tuesday evening, the 27th at 5:30. I’ll be at the Key Largo Marie Nelson on Thursday the 29th at 5:30 and then on September 4, and this is for all your Key West listeners, September 4 is going to be a big day at the Harvey Government Center at three o’clock in the afternoon, we have invited all of the directors of the different utilities to come and do a presentation or a special workshop for the Board of County Commissioners. So they will attend at three o’clock and do presentations about this topic, about what the rate of growth and what increase in growth in the Florida Keys would have an impact on the utilities. What impact it would have? So they will be there at three o’clock. At 5:05, our first budget hearing begins and then directly after that budget hearing ends, then I will present my final presentation of the process to the Key West audience. So everyone in the city of Key West and or anywhere in the Keys that wants to come on down to Key West, they are invited to come in, listen to that presentation. We will also have it available on MCTV. There’ll be additional information coming out about when and where to watch that. We just want to make sure that we hear from and engage as much of the community as possible.”
Is the county pleased with the amount of participation so far?
Matthews said, “We really are. We are so impressed, and it tells us that the community really cares about this topic, and that’s super important. We want to make sure that they’re engaged, and we want to make sure that we as the county give them outlets to tell us what they’re thinking. Again, along with all of these presentations, along with the surveys, the Board of County Commission meeting every single month, has a dedicated spot where we talk about this, and we do take open public comment, and we will do that clear up until December, when the board has to make their recommendation to the state. The online surveys, we are currently on survey number three. Each one is different, so please make sure if you’ve done one and you’ve done two but you haven’t done three, go in. This one focuses on hurricane evacuation, and it’s about how you and your household deal with hurricane evacuation, what your thoughts are, the 24 hour evacuation model, and it’s going to end on Sunday. So if you haven’t taken it, make sure you go in and take it, and then on Monday, survey number four starts, and that one focuses on some of the more legal issues surrounding this topic, things like property owners rights, liability, taking cases and things like that.”
Who comes up with the survey questions?
Matthews said, “There’s an entire team of people working on this, and while I may be quarterbacking the project, as I always tell people during my presentations, you have to picture that I am not up there alone. I am working with the entire county attorney’s office. The entire planning department is up there with me and our Department of Emergency Management. So these are the three key departments that are really focused on this issue, although that does not mean we’re not tapping other county staff for help. Then, of course, our wonderful PIO officer, Kristen Livengood, who’s helping us get the word out on all of these things. So it truly is a team effort, and the content you’re seeing, the questions that you’re seeing, those are coming from the team.”
Are people becoming more aware of the issue?
Matthews confirmed, “We are. One of the questions that we ask on the surveys online, you always want to ask a couple of foundational questions that you can then measure some growth over time as people continue to take the different surveys and one of the questions we ask is, are you aware that we’re having this conversation? That number is steadily going up. In our first survey, about 75% of folks were aware that there was a conversation. We’ve now increased that on survey number three to 87% of people know that we’re having the conversation. Then we ask people how informed they feel about the topic, and on the first survey, only about 50% of folks that responded said they felt informed on it. As of this last survey, and it may not feel like a big increase, but again, remember, it’s only survey number three, this push goes all the way to December. We’re now from 50% to 64% of folks are saying that they feel very informed on this issue. So that’s great.”
This issue could affect the Keys for the next 30 years.
Matthews said, “Whenever we talk about any number of allocations, whether it be, the bare minimum that the Florida Commerce has recommended of the 220, whether it’s that number or it’s more, as has been discussed, potentially, those can be stretched out over 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or whatever the different municipalities and the county ultimately decide. So this absolutely is something that could affect us for decades to come. So it’s really important for folks to engage in the process and tell us what they think.”
Is there the feeling that the state will certainly take these recommendations and requests seriously as they move forward?
Matthews said, “We do feel that they will take them seriously. They have asked for our input. Again, we feel like just as we’ve asked for the community’s input, with the full intention to take that very seriously, conversely, we expect that the state has asked for our input, and they will take that very seriously when they make their final decision.”
For more information on ROGOs and the surveys, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/1321/ROGOBPAS-Workshop-Presentations