Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
There’s been a lot of talk recently with the Monroe County Land Authority about the Truman Waterfront Project.
Johnston said, “We’re working diligently to create those 28 opportunities for home ownership in Bahama Village. We ran into a glitch, and that is with land authority funding, which the City Commission unanimously approved about $4.2 million in order to subsidize the project to bring the prices down and, and the mortgages down and we ran into a glitch regarding the regulations on median income that that’s allowed. So we are going back, we’re working with Christine Hurley, who is the Executive Director of the land authority and their attorney. We are working with planning, we’re working with the developer to find out how we can overcome this little glitch and find a source of funding so that we can keep these units affordable for home ownership. It’s really important that we find the monies in order to start these multi generational families in home ownership that they can pass along from generation to generation to generation. One of the one of the big topics that we have had is that we are losing multi generational families in Key West. That’s our history. That’s how Key West started and we certainly want to maintain our history, we want to maintain our multi generational families. Because right now in the city of Key West, anywhere from between 90 and 95% of our residents have come from somewhere else. They may have been here for 50 years, but the vast majority of us have come from other communities and have chosen Key West is as their home. So it’s an important aspect that we maintain our multi generational culture.”
There was a case made to make the 3.2 acres rental units.
Johnston said, “It’s a topic, but we are going to do everything that we can in order to make sure that we have a source of funding to get those prices down, so that these young families and they’re incredible families, they are two income families, that are making a very respectable living. But you know the prices in Key West and with the advent of COVID, they’ve done nothing but go up. So, we are working probably in one of the most difficult housing markets to try and accomplish this.”
When the project began, interest rates were at three percent. They are now between six and seven percent.
Johnston said, “We are working diligently to find a source of income to make that up and to make good on our promises. We’ve got some time. When we say that we’re going to start construction in September, we’re really talking about 18 months out before anybody really has to get mortgage. It really starts a process, probably a little bit before then, but we’ve got some time. So there are lots of funding avenues out there and we’re going to research every single one of them to see what we can do in order to bring those prices to a level where we can get multi generational families in there.”
The land authority may have some funding available as well, so that is a good partnership.
Johnston said, “It is. And we’ve got several opportunities, we’ve got some opportunities with Key West Housing Authority with scattered sites. We’ve possibilities in Poinciana. There’s a joint partnership between AH Monroe, and FKOC, which is Florida Keys Outreach Coalition. They’re looking at infilling a number of units three, up to 100 units. So there’s some creative thinking going on in Key West, because we don’t have any more land, don’t have anymore BPAS units. We’ve got a hurricane evacuation time to maintain. So we have to be very, very creative here in this community.”
When will the application process begin for rentals?
Johnston said, “I’m sure that if we go into the ground in September, and we’re talking about 18 months, I’m sure that they will start taking applications I would guess about six months out before they are available. I’m basing that on what the Key West Housing Authority did out on College Road for our 103 one bedroom, one bathroom units out there.”
The next City Commission meeting will be in September.
Johnston said, “Right now we are in some conversations for the very first time, we are moving them forward. I’ve been in Key West for 16 years, we have been talking about bonding being a source of revenue, where we can get several things done. Our roads have increased about 50 percent right now. Every major road like United Street repaving and curb and gutter and sidewalks is costing us between $4 and $5 million. So we’re looking at bonding out several roads. We’re looking at bonding the public swimming pool. We are in need of a new fire station on Flagler Avenue as well as a number of repairs in our other two fire stations. So we’ve got some major, major items out there that we need to take a look at. So we’re going to sit down and have a serious conversation as a City Commission about issuing general obligation bonds in order to get the things done to keep up with our infrastructure needs in a community that that welcomes about three million visitors a year, and about 80,000 people a day. So we’ve got a lot of things on our plate, we have to figure out funding strategies that are equitable for everyone in the city of Key West. We need to move forward on them, which is, which is one of the things that Al Childress, our new city manager is excellent at.”
Budgeting has also been a topic of discussion.
Johnston pointed out, “We did not increase the millage rate. We are at the same millage rate as we were in the 2022/2023 budget. That based on the increase in property values, brings us in at a 9.3 percent increase, which is the lowest of any municipality in the Florida Keys. So I’m pretty proud of our first pass. Even after that we’ve asked everyone to sharpen the pencils and see if there’s things that we can take out to bring that even lower, but Al did exactly what he said he was going to do. He held the millage rate where we were last year. And he’s gone back and he’s having meetings with every one of his department heads to see if we can even reduce it. Because these are times where we need to be very, very tight with our dollars. We need to keep up our services and our infrastructure, but we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing it very effectively.”
The mayor spent last week at a tourist convention in Tampa.
She said, “Very well received. Lots of issues going on right now. People want to go where people feel welcomed. I think that that’s a theme across the United States. So we need to make sure that we’re an all welcoming community and that people come to Key West. They’re respectful of our community and our residents and our businesses, but that they have a great time and come back.”