Sam Kaufman, Key West City Commissioner for District II, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
The City Commission met this morning at 9 a.m. and will meet again this evening at 5 p.m.
Kaufman said, “The big ones that are of most interest, probably, to the members of the public, have to do with housing and developments that are being proposed. There’s quite a bit of controversy with regard to the Casa Marina project. That’s items 44 and 45 which will be in the evening session. There’s quite a bit of controversy with regard to the changes, reducing the amount of affordable housing or eliminating the amount of affordable housing required in new development and redevelopment. There’s also Searstown redevelopment, which is, I think, quite disappointing, not including any affordable housing. There’s the lease, what I call a sweetheart lease with the golf course that’s going to be on the agenda, which is really an unfortunate missed opportunity, from my perspective.”
The Casa Marina project originally had some affordable housing.
Kaufman said, “It does include workforce housing, housing for Casa Marina employees. But what resonates with me from the neighbors, and we’ve heard from a lot of neighbors and emails, I think there’s a lot of discussion online, is the dramatic intensity of use in a residential neighborhood, and then also the concern is transfer of hotel units or transient rentals. I believe there’s 32 villas that are being planned on that parcel. What concerns me, and what really makes sense to me from the perspective of the neighborhood, is that dramatic intensity of use. I can just say, if it was in my neighborhood, I would be very concerned of having such an increase in numbers of hotel rooms. What this item is, it’s a rezoning effort to allow for the transfer of hotel rooms known as transient licenses, transient vacation rentals, into a zone that is only permitted for residential use, and so that’s where the objections are coming from, from the neighbors and folks in the Casa Marin area.”
How much impact will the decisions from the state in terms of ROGOs and BPAS have on the city of Key West?
Kaufman said, “It looks like not much. Representative Mooney took leadership and dramatically cut the request. That’s my understanding of the number of new dwelling units in the city. We call them BPAS. In the county they call it ROGO. That’s the number of new houses or dwelling units that can be built. I think we’re talking county wide, in the hundreds. So that would mean probably, for the city, two or three dozen, maybe, new units. It doesn’t look like that’s going to have much impact on the city of Key West.”
Kaufman represents District 2. What does that encompass?
He said, “District 2 starts on one end where the house boats are at the city Marina and Garrison Bight. It goes up North Roosevelt Boulevard up through Home Depot, the Key Cove Association there, Roosevelt Gardens, which is the Housing Authority development there. It includes Sigsbee Park, the military base. It includes Searstown and goes over to North Side Drive. It includes Santa Clara stadium trailer park and goes up to 16 Terrace in the residential neighborhoods. Usually there’s some deference paid to individual Commissioners with regard to their district. But as far as policy decisions that impact everyone, which could impact one district more than another, that requires the vote of the seven members of the City Commission. There’s no autonomy with regard to a district and a district commissioner with regard to making decisions, necessarily. But like I said, there is deference paid and mutual respect among the commissioners to try to allow individual Commissioners to achieve their goals.”
What will the Searstown development look like?
Kaufman said, “I think that the city is not doing nearly enough for affordable housing. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of talk during elections, but what? When the actual policies are made and work is done, it’s rather disappointing year after year. That’s what I see, unfortunately, and this is a good example, last year the public will remember that the City Commission directed staff to develop a requirement for affordable housing to be included in commercial redevelopment, and specifically targeting Searstown. Unfortunately, the Chamber of Commerce opposed that effort. I don’t understand that. Also the attorney who represents Searstown, spoke publicly against it, and at the end of the day, there will be no affordable housing in the Searstown redevelopment, even though they will be knocking down all the buildings, and it will be a completely new development. There will be a new restaurant there. It’s a disappointment, but folks who care about affordable housing need to pay attention, and they need to make their voices heard. There were a lot of opportunities. The city could partner with Publix, who now owns Searstown. There could be a second level of housing there. There’s a lot of land, and there’s a lot of opportunities for small businesses. We need to work together in order to achieve the housing stock that we need for our employees and for our families and for our workforce. That’s something I’m passionate about, and I’m very disappointed about.”
Where are with Truman annex as far as the transient licenses or the short term rentals?
Kaufman said, “I don’t think that there’s any movement towards extending or renewing the transient licenses there. I don’t believe there’s any movement towards extending that or renewing that. So those units will revert to residential use I believe in December.”
There will also be voter resolution vote for extending the mayor’s term.
Kaufman said, “I’m not in favor of that either, for a couple of reasons. I think that the public should consider why leaders in the past structured our government the way it did. The way it is now every two years, the voters get to decide the majority of the City Commission. With this change, that will go away, and there will be the majority set every four years. So it’s disempowering the electorate. I’m concerned about that, and I also do not think this is so important that it needs to be set for a special election, which the mayor and I believe management is proposing for November of this year, which will cost the taxpayers probably $60,000 or $70,000, when this was considered last year and it wasn’t deemed important, and now all of a sudden, we need to do this to extend the current mayor’s term by four years, because now she’s limited to eight years, but this would extend her to 12 years. So I don’t think it has merit, and I think it’s not good for the public at large. Elections have consequences. We had an election last year, and the City Commission changed four new members, and so it’s a completely different commission, and it is what it is, but members of the public should understand the issues and make up their own minds. I really think it’s important for members of the public to come to our meetings and stay informed. I think the golf course lease is another real boondoggle for us. We’ve got a 99 year lease. The information we’re given is that the golf course gross revenue is three and a half million dollars, and they pay $150,000 of that to the city, and the request to open up the lease so they can build market rate, not affordable housing, market rate housing on their property, and the city is not taking advantage of that to renegotiate the lease to get a better deal for our taxpayers. I think members of the public should ask questions about that, and I certainly will be today.”