Monroe County commissioners are expected to take action on two major growth management initiatives this week, including new building permit allocations under the Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) system and updated residential height regulations.
Emily Schemper, Monroe County’s director of growth management, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The county is “nearing the finish line on several big-ticket items” in planning and zoning as commissioners prepare to consider the proposals.
One of the most significant items is the adoption and transmittal of amendments implementing a new round of ROGO building permit allocations after the county exhausted its previous allocation pool.
“We’ve come to the end of our previous set of building permit allocations that the state had awarded,” Schemper said. “We’re kind of going on a pause now for about a year, and the board is about to adopt and transmit state amendments that accept the new set of allocations that was given to us by the state last year.”
Last year, the State of Florida approved 657 new residential allocations for unincorporated Monroe County after increasing the Florida Keys hurricane evacuation planning time from 24 hours to 24½ hours.
According to Schemper, the state also established a 10-year distribution schedule for the permits.
“What the state approved last year was 657 new allocations for unincorporated Monroe County,” she said. “It was a total of 900 Keys-wide, but 657 for Monroe County.”
Although the first two years include a large number of allocations, Schemper said they cannot be distributed until the county updates its comprehensive plan and land development code.
“You can’t just start giving them out,” she said. “You have to amend your comp plan and your code to put the system in place.”
Applications under the new system are expected to begin in July 2027.
Schemper said the first application cycle will include 24 traditional market-rate permits and 195 permits in a new market-rate workforce housing category.
“It’s sort of like affordable, but it doesn’t have the income and rent restrictions,” she explained. “It has a restriction that the occupants, whether owner or renter, have to earn 70% of their income working in Monroe County.”
She noted that county commissioners are expected to reserve many of those workforce allocations for future years rather than issue them all at once.
“I don’t see 219 permits going out in one year,” Schemper said.
Current applicants will not lose their place in line during the transition.
“We do have quite a few permits that are on the waiting list for ROGO,” she said. “They will remain on that waiting list for the market-rate units that become available starting next summer. They’ll also be given the opportunity to switch over to that workforce line if they choose.”
Commissioners will first vote on whether to transmit the proposed comprehensive plan amendments to the state for review.
“If the state looks through it and finds no issues with it, then they send it back and say, ‘Okay, go ahead and adopt it,'” Schemper said. “The board has a second hearing, which we think will be in October for final adoption.”
Commissioners are also scheduled to consider final adoption of revised residential height regulations.
The proposal would increase the maximum height for single-family and multifamily homes to 42 feet while exempting rooftop mechanical equipment, elevator shafts and air conditioning equipment from height calculations.
“It would allow single-family and multifamily residential structures to go up to 42 feet,” Schemper said. “It will also allow things on the roof like mechanical equipment, AC equipment and elevator shafts that in the past have been problematic because they’re still subject to the height limit.”
The ordinance would also permit rooftop railings up to 42 inches above the height limit if they are stepped back from the roof edge.
“For each foot that the railing is above the height limit, it has to be stepped back one foot,” Schemper said. “You’ll kind of see those rooftop decks being pulled back on the higher buildings.”
Beyond planning issues, Schemper said Monroe County continues making progress on resiliency projects.
She noted canal restoration work has begun near Lobster Lane and that the county recently completed its first living shoreline project near the Long Key Transfer Station.
“That is a very cool project,” she said. “They put more natural elements in, and it helps mitigate storm damage, sea level rise and all of those things with a natural shoreline in a conservation area.”
Schemper also announced new online tools that allow property owners, contractors and real estate professionals to access building permit and code compliance reports without filing public records requests.
“We’ve been able to actually get some reports on the website,” she said. “I encourage people to take a look at that before submitting your records request because you may get the information more quickly.”
If approved by county commissioners and state reviewers, the new ROGO allocation system is expected to become effective in time for the July 2027 application period.