Michelle Lincoln, Monroe County Commissioner, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Lincoln is just getting back from a trip to Washington, DC.
She said, “I returned on Valentine’s night and was up in DC for about six nights. I was invited to be on a on a global panel discussing resiliency after natural disasters and boy that was quite an eye opening panel to sit on. There were members there who were experiencing the fire in Hawaii and wildfires out west and tornadoes in the middle of our country. Then of course, us here on the coast with hurricanes. So that was an interesting panel to participate in. Then I was up there with the National Associations of County for our legislative conference. I sit on a steering committee for the Community Economic and Workforce Development Board and really got some interesting takeaway messages on how other people are utilizing FEMA funds for projects that they have in their community. So I, I think that was probably a really good takeaway messages that I got there as well. Then finally, I did have breakaway meetings with Congressman Carlos Jimenez staff and he has secured up nearly $10 million for the county with specific projects like in Twin Lakes, and the airport and now we’re trying to get some help with some funding for Card Sound Bridge. So had a nice discussion with his staff about all of that. As well as just again, trying to prioritize our flood insurance issues and how we really need those funds capped. So then went from there over to the Senate side and met with Senator Scott and Rubio staff, and again with them where we’re thanking them for the coral reef reauthorization bill, which, again, is just helping us get funds to help stabilize the coral reef. That was a bipartisan bill that Senator Rubio and Scott were instrumental. So talked about that, and then again about the NFIP, and then also talk to them more about just changing some of the language in how we get reimbursed during a natural disaster, during a hurricane. I kind of had some takeaway messages from that panel I was on earlier in the week that I was able to then reiterate, with the staff of all of our elected officials up in DC on how important it would be for us not to have to wait for the FEMA money to get funded through the state before it got down to us as a small rural county, and how it would be better if that those funds could just be directly given to us here in this county. So got some head nods there. This is something that they’ve all been working on that it’s always nice to be able to remind them again, when we’re not in a crisis mode, and how important it would be to have this in place when we are in a crisis mode.”
The experience of Monroe County was discussed.
Lincoln said, “I love when I can take a photo with me and I had a photo of how clogged our canals were after Hurricane Irma and there were no funding resources to reimburse us to get all of the debris out of those canals and our County Administrator remembered an avenue for fund sources that was kind of unique and we were able to access funds from a different funding source. I tried to explain to them that our canal is like the highway, that our second largest economic driver in our county is commercial fishermen and they had to be able to get their boats out of their canals and into the ocean to fish. Yet they couldn’t get out of their canals right away and that $40 million we got was a unique ask. We again said, this shouldn’t have to be unique. We should always be getting the debris out of our canals after a hurricane.”
What is happening with the Publix project in Tavernier?
Lincoln said, “So when this project started, it was going to be a 70,000 square foot box on this 30 acres of property in Tavernier that is currently zoned as them having the ability to do industrial. It’s been a dormant project, a dormant piece of property for a very long time. We were all approached with this idea of a Publix grocery store and 86 workforce housing units, which of course, piqued all of our attention, because we all know the importance of needing workforce housing. Our planning commissioners weren’t comfortable with the size of that store. They heard the message loud and clear that that box needed to be reduced in size. As it stands, the way it’s currently zoned, they would be allowed to put 15 10,000 square foot buildings on that site, which adds up to 150,000 square feet of stores. They didn’t want that kind of density. But they also didn’t want it in small little 10,000 square foot boxes. As we looked at it, and I listened to the planning commission meeting and listened to the people in the community talking and the need we have for workforce housing is humongous. They needed an economic driver for the affordable units, the workforce housing units, and so this was sort of the compromise that we were all able to come up with in reducing the size of the grocery store. They’re going to make some other concessions where there’s going to be sidewalks put in around it. We also put in for the development agreement that they also have to do a road safety study, which is a little different than just a road study, because we heard everyone in the community discussing how it’s very challenging to cross over all the different streets that go out to US 1, but it’s right where the road is divided into the center lane having that commercial spot as well. So it’s just very tricky in that area. So we wanted also a safety road study conducted so we can see how that area can be mitigated to make it a little more road friendly. We heard a lot of people who didn’t want it because they’re concerned for the extra traffic. Yet we also heard from younger people in the community who brought up some good points about our the Community Key Livable Plan was created 30 years ago, 20 years ago, before vacation rentals had started eroding the fabric of our communities, and that the younger people are really struggling, trying to find places to live, that they grew up here. They were third, fourth, fifth generation Conchs, lived here, went away to college, tried to come back and had inadequate living experiences. So they were really encouraging us to look at maybe revising our Community Key Plan to make it up to where we are in today’s society for our future, and also really encouraging us to approve this for the workforce housing units that it will provide. So it was some good debate, Commissioner Cates did weigh in with us on what we would do with the affordable units and with the safety study and so he said, while he was in favor of the changes we made, he still didn’t feel it was in the right spot. So he did vote no, but the rest of us solidly voted in favor of the project.”
Were the staff concerns addressed?
Lincoln said, “Yes, I believe that the safety road study that we’re going to conduct will address some of their concerns. Some of the other concerns they had were about this overlay not being in the same community character as the rest that followed the Community Key Plan, which I think is why several of us said maybe this plan needs to be updated, because it was looking at Tavernier remaining the way it was and the census is showing that that hasn’t happened. With vacation rentals coming in and taking over all of the houses in these communities, how it was scheduled to be conducted or how they expected our county to look into the future isn’t how we look today. So maybe part of the Community Key Plan is outdated.”
A lot of the plan will require additional ROGO units for the developer to be able to do that.
Lincoln said, “I know that at first, the developer wanted us to open up our ordinance on the 300 early evacuation units that the county’s been banking, and we didn’t want to muddy the water with that discussion yesterday. I feel like that’s going to be part of the whole discussions we’re going to start having on the state offering us those scenarios of different allocations to our county, whether it’s the 8,000, or something lower and smaller or none of them. So I felt that it was premature to discuss these 300 when I need I think we need to be including those in all of the discussions we’re going to start having about all of our different options on hurricane evacuation and additional ROGOs from the state.”
The annual Easter egg hunt will be held on March 23 at Big Coppitt Fire Station.
And tomorrow the Middle Keys Marathon Habitat for Humanity is having their first annual putt putt golf tournament. You can still sign up.
Lincoln said, “It’s teams of four and I have to tell you that I do believe that my team is going to win the entire putt putt golf tournament tomorrow morning. So any listener out there who wants to sign up it’s not too late. All you have to do is contact the Middle Keys Habitat for Humanity and they will gladly sign up your team to lose to my team. That’s tomorrow, Saturday at one o’clock I think is when the shotgun is going off and it’s going to be here. It’s a new putt putt golf facility right by Porky’s here in Marathon.”