Mayor Pro Tem of Monroe County Michelle Lincoln joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Where are we with ROGO and BPAS as of this moment?
Lincoln said, “We are having a special meeting this morning, and I believe the word of the day will be flexibility, so many moving parts. At our county commission meeting last week, when we were speaking about the ROGOs and the situation and the municipalities were coming in with their numbers, and all of a sudden we realized that there was a disconnect, and that some of us had spoken to our House Rep Jim Mooney, and some of us had spoken to Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez, and some staff had spoken to the people at the Florida Commerce and other people heard from our governor’s office and there was a disconnect. So the commissioners requested that staff go back and have a meeting with the all the municipalities, administrators, planners and attorneys, along with Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez and Representative Jim Mooney, because we thought it was extremely important that they were all in the same Zoom meeting, hearing the same thing at the exact same time, and that each municipality and county could weigh in on their needs and their thoughts behind the requests they were making for additional BPAS or ROGO allocations, because we were hearing so many different stories and so that meeting actually took place two days ago. One of the commissioners asked can we listen in? And our county attorney immediately screamed, no, that would violate sunshine. You all cannot. No one can attend the meeting, but people who don’t vote on it, and they were able to have a very frank conversation. So that took place, like I said, Tuesday, late afternoon, and here we are, Thursday morning with some solid direction from our legislative team, from Jim Mooney and Anna Maria Rodriguez, with a number that they are comfortable with. If it’s going to be a bill that needs to be passed by the legislative body, they have to be comfortable with the bill and with how many units they would support asking for. So if we ask for more than 220 it’s going to take us opening up the 24 hour evacuation time, and then that would require us requesting a bill from Ana Maria and Jim for the legislators to change the 24 hour evacuation model.”
Didn’t the city of Marathon already vote to open up the evacuation time window?
Lincoln said, “They did, as well as Key West and Islamorada. So they’ve all weighed in on that and then there was this meeting with Rep Mooney and Senator Rodriguez and staff. That happened, as I said, after the municipalities had all written their resolutions requesting additional units that would open up that 24 hour window. So that is why this meeting took place Tuesday afternoon, and now we have new direction. So our commissioners are going to be deciding on a number and the number that Representative Mooney and Anna Maria Rodriguez said they’re comfortable with is 500, which is a huge decrease in what we were expecting.”
That will be divided up among all the municipalities?
Lincoln confirmed, “Yes. The reasoning behind it is they said they’re hearing strong, strongly, loudly from Florida Commerce and from the governor’s office that we still have allocations and because we still have allocations, they’re like, why are you asking for more? Even though we’re saying because we’re planning, we have to plan our future, we’re budgeting which is responsible things to do, and because we have to open up our comprehensive plan if we accept more units, which takes a 12 to 18 month process, we need to plan out now. They’re not comfortable with that, and so that’s kind of where we are right now. So we’re going to walk into this meeting this morning with a whole new set of ideas. So that’s why I think the word of the day is going to be flexibility, of what can we do? What can’t we do? All the while with this excitement over the ability to change and have a category called market rate workforce units, which would be, I know we’ve discussed it briefly, but that would be the way our middle class families can have a house here. It would allow a building permit given out to somebody who wants to work here, or who works here and wants to have a house here that they drive 70% of their income from employment here in the Keys and deed restricted for 99 years, so it will never have the possibility of being a vacation rental house. So we might want to hit a pause button and write our comprehensive plan for that and preserve a few units that we have left to have this new category. So that’s kind of the moving parts of what we’re going to be discussing here in just a very short while.”
How exactly did this get all askew?
Lincoln said, “A year ago they were like, here’s eight scenarios. Have at it and then something happened. Conversation stopped, and then when they started up again, it was like, well, what do you mean? So I don’t know what happened. I think this is still very fluid. I think we’ll make a decision today, but then I think just as soon as legislative session starts, we’re all going to be on pins and needles and tiptoes to see how this evolves.”
Would there be any defense against takings cases if the state mandates what the county does?
Lincoln said, “We’ve always considered the state our partner in this and I think it goes both ways. So if we ask for a number of units, and they say yes, and then we don’t ask for enough, they’re going to say, then why didn’t you ask for more? You’re on your own. Versus we ask for units, and they say, no, well, then they truly are on the hook. But that is the gamble, right? And each of these takings cases are heard individually, because each case is different. I think that’s part of it too. None of us want to get there. I don’t think any of us want to start having legal battles. I think what we all want to do instead is be able to provide building permits for people who truly want to build a house and live here.”
It is all still an ongoing discussion.
Lincoln said, “That’s the good thing about it. Our legislative priorities and our agenda, we do have the future development of ROGO on there. But we also have securing our stewardship act appropriations, which is possibly 20 million, and then marine protection. That is kind of, again, what Representative Mooney and Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez was saying is on the one side, we’re asking for $20 million to preserve our area of critical state concern. On the other side, we’re asking for more ROGO units to build more houses. How do you balance that?”
What about the insurance costs?
Lincoln said, “Just like we did last year, we’re asking if we can do some kind of a safety measure as well for people who rent their homes long term, to workforce, to even if there’s some kind of a way, a mechanism that they can be homesteaded, that they can get a break on their insurance. I mean, we’re just trying any way we can to help support our working families here in the Keys. Also supporting our Habitat for Humanity. Because, boy, that’s another great way to get families here in the Keys.”
The Florida Keys also hosted the annual Climate Leadership Summit this week and more than 400 people were in attendance.
Lincoln said, “That was the 16th year that this summit has taken place and it gets altered every year where they hold it, but it’s a very interesting room of people, because you have the scientists, you have the engineers, you have the administrators, you have the finance people, and you have the policy makers all in one room hearing the same message, and then break out panel discussions with, how do the policy makers see this? Meaning, the elected officials, and then how do the administrators see it, and how do they implement the policy makers decisions? Then you had a panel with the engineers, and it’s like, well, how are they doing it? Then great guest speakers, like for me, Wes Brooks, he’s just been a fan of the Florida Keys forever, and he is Governor DeSantis’s chief resilience officer, and part of that he worked for Senator Rubio’s office, and I just remember him coming down here after Hurricane Irma and looking at all of our disaster and looking at the homes that withstood the storm, that were the stronger built, elevated homes, and he got it. So as the state of Florida’s chief resilience officer, he manages the Florida resiliency fund, which is like, I don’t know, $500 million and our county has received a great share of those grant funds every year because we’re so much further advanced in our projects and in our mapping of our county, and so we’ve been able to receive a lot of grant money that’s helped us. He was at this conference giving an update and he gets to see our faces again, and that always just helps.”
The mooring field in Boca Chica Harbor has been another topic of discussion for a while now and an administrative law judge recently issued an order upholding Monroe County’s future land use map amendment, which will kick start the Boca Chica Harbor public mooring field.
Lincoln said, “That’s huge, because we’ve had this plan in place to make this beautiful mooring field, but it requires an upland shore facility site and so that’s a lot of moving parts. You’ve got to find where you can have it. Then you need to purchase the land, then you need to change your comp plan, and it’s just so many moving parts, and then somebody protested it, so it had to go through another court hearing and now we’re finally at the end, and this is again part of the helping us with a bill that was passed several years ago to help protect us from derelict vessels, and requiring that vessels must move or they have to be on a mooring ball. This just takes this long right for government to get out of its way and actually accomplish something. Again, this is just one more way to help our environment, to keep our waters clean, to protect us from derelict vessels, and for a quality place for somebody who lives on their boat to have a mooring ball, and then be able to dingy over to the shore side with their trash, with their wanting to get on the land. So it’s going to be a win, win. I’m really excited about it.”