Emily Schemper, director of Growth Management for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
What’s going on with ROGOs?
Schemper said, “The previous legislative session from last year seems to have sorted this out. Offered up 900 additional Rogo units to the entire Florida Keys, but then we were in a holding pattern, waiting for the state to confirm what we needed to do to get these distributed throughout the county. We did have an update at the December meeting of the Florida cabinet, the administration commission approved and confirmed the distribution of those per the same conditions that were in the statute. So it was things like prioritizing affordable and workforce housing, one unit per lot distributed to all the municipalities based on their proportion of vacant land left that changed a little bit. The state did its own analysis. So Monroe County is getting, they confirmed numbers for us, Monroe County will be getting 657 of those additional ROGO allocations. But they’re only releasing a third of them in the first two years, and then every two years after that, they’ll release half as much. So, 300 the first two years for county wide, then 150 every two years until they get through the 900, so we’re working on the comprehensive plan amendment. But now we have clear direction. We’ve had a little delay in some of our text amendments to our codes and ordinances because of something else that was passed in the legislative session last year. But we’re seeing a potential fix to that this session, so we’re hoping that will be fixed for us, kind of waiting on that.”
Where will the ROGOs go?
Schemper said, “The applicants that are currently in the pipeline have generally applied for what we call market rate ROGO allocation, so there’s no affordability restriction or income restriction or anything like that. The new set, a large proportion of those, will have a restriction for, we’re hoping to get approved by the state workforce, a housing market rate category, so it’s still market rate. It’s not limited to a certain sales price or affordable rent or anything like that. There’s no income cap for who can own or live there, but it would require that the people occupying the unit earn 70% of their income working here within Monroe County. So it’s really prioritizing the actual workforce of the county and the Board of County Commissioners has really been pushing for this, and we had many conversations at the state level as well with the Department of Florida Commerce and even the governor’s office about that category over the last year and a half. So that’s the plan at the moment, we’re just ironing out the final details of that, and of course, we have to get through our public hearing process. So the distribution of these probably won’t begin until close to the end of the year, and those who are already in the pipeline would automatically stay in the queue for the few regular market rates that will be given out, but they’ll have an opportunity to switch over to this workforce market rate category if they feel that that would work for them, and there will be more of those available than regular market rate, so you have a better chance of getting your permit sooner. If that makes sense.”
The 299 square foot rule concerning storage space received a final order from the state yesterday.
Schemper said, “Just yesterday, we did receive a final order from the state of Florida Department of Commerce approving that amendment to our code that eliminates the limit to 299 square feet. So the final order approves it. There’s now a 21 day challenge period during which someone could challenge that the state’s order. But as long as there are no challenges, we expect that rule to be actually effective on February 3. So anyone who’s already applied for a permit, or wants to apply for a permit to expand their downstairs enclosure or they’re building a new house and they want that larger enclosure, February 3, we think that’s our date now. So we’re excited about that. We’re close to the finish line. As always, it’s a long process, but we’re close.”
What’s going on with food trucks?
Schemper said, “This is sort of a new development, but the BOCC had asked staff to start working on changes to our local code that will allow food trucks within certain conditions and parameters to be on certain types of property without needing to get essentially a full on restaurant permit, which is the status quo today. As of today, nothing has changed. They can either get a temporary permit, or if they want permanent approval for a food truck site, they basically have to get a full restaurant approval, which is a more timely and costly process. The board asked us to come up with regulations that would allow food trucks within their own rules, not a full on restaurant set of rules. So the idea would be that it would be more tailored to the needs and issues surrounding food trucks, rather than a restaurant and my guess is, will be a simpler and easier process for them. So the Planning Department is planning to host a couple of public workshops in February or March to gather some input. These have not been announced yet officially, and there’s no dates set, but please keep an eye out for that. I’m hoping that we will get good input from those who are affected and those who have concerns about food trucks as well, because I know there are people on both sides of the line there.”
There are two public hearings coming up at the January 28 BOCC meeting.
Schemper said, “It’s in Marathon. January 28 there’s a hearing, the first of two public hearings by the board for the changes to the height regulations they asked for, which would change the height for residential structures to 42 feet. And also the actual public hearing for the Tavernier Creek slow speed zone. They had an item in December on that. The public hearing is this month as well.”