Moratorium for Big Pine, No Name Tossed: Planning Panel Says to Issue Building Permits

By Alyson Crean, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Jan. 9–Some property owners on Big Pine and No Name keys might be lucky enough to get long-awaited building permits after Tuesday’s meeting of the Monroe County Planning Commission.

In a unanimous vote, commissioners shot down a proposed renewal of a moratorium on issuing permits on the two islands. It was put in place to give county staff time to come up with a mitigation plan.

“I see no reason to hold people up,” Commissioner Jim Cameron said. “Let’s keep issuing permits. If it’s a problem, then let’s lay it on Fish & Wildlife’s table. We’ve been pushed around by Fish & Wildlife for far too long.”

Growth on Big Pine and No Name is tightly controlled under a habitat conservation plan and an accompanying incidental-take permit issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Under the plan, the county must provide environmental mitigation for new or renewed development to protect the habitat of endangered Key deer.

The HCP allows eight new market-rate and two new affordable-rate homes annually for the next 20 years on the two islands.

This “is a change in tone,” Commissioner John Marston said. “They have all the power and we have to always kowtow. Maybe we can be the little guy to say we’re not doing that and see what they do.”

The decision to go ahead and issue permits will likely only affect a handful of people since the HCP allows just two market-rate permits per quarter.

In November, the County Commission enacted a 60-day freeze on issuing permits on the islands after the Planning Commission recommended a three-month freeze. All issues that come before the Planning Commission must ultimately be approved by the County Commission.

In November the Planning Commission balked at a proposal that would have tacked a $98,000 fee onto permits for new homes on Big Pine and No Name. The money would have been earmarked for the county to purchase environmentally sensitive land for preservation.

During Tuesday’s meeting, acting Planning Director Townsley Schwab explained the formula that created the high fee. A new calculation, he said, could bring it down to just under $47,000.

In the meantime, the commission directed him to issue the two permits that would have been issued in December as well as those eligible in January.

The county will mitigate the impact from those permits from its own mitigation bank. The county has been using publicly owned lands for private mitigation over the past year, depleting the county’s store of mitigation land. However, there is enough to provide mitigation for a few new homes, Cameron said.

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Copyright (c) 2008, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

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