Mitigation Plan Delayed Again

By Alyson Crean, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Apr. 26–Despite a unanimous decision to continue the discussion until next month, the Monroe County Planning Commission is inching forward to create a more acceptable means of environmental mitigation for new development on Big Pine and No Name keys.

Since rejecting a November proposal that would have forced new-home builders to pay upward of $100,000 to set aside land for habitat for Key deer and other endangered species on the islands, the commission has been seeking a more user-friendly proposal.

Wednesday, county staff provided the commission with a list of 288 properties the county has purchased on the two islands for conservation and donated to the state.

“The plan would be to use them for mitigation for public projects like widening U.S. 1 and Mariner’s Park,” Planning Commissioner Jim Cameron said, “then use our bank of mitigation [land] we still have for private construction.”

But land the county has sold to the state for conservation cannot be used for mitigation, Cameron said.

“We bought it, and the whole idea is conservation, so who cares who actually bought it as long as its conserved?” Cameron asked.

Development on Big Pine and No Name keys is limited by a habitat conservation plan because of the endangered species.

Since the plan was adopted in 2006, the county has been using land it’s acquired and been holding it in its so-called mitigation bank to offset private development. But that land bank is running dry.

The delay in creating a mitigation plan will allow county staff to come up with an actual conservation value for each of the parcels on the list presented Wednesday.

The habitat conservation plan requires a certain amount of land be set aside for conservation to offset development, and hinges on how many Key deer will be killed by human encroachment. This so-called harvest — or H factor — has been assigned to every parcel on the islands.

Ten new homes are allowed each year on Big Pine and No Name, and two of them must be affordable housing. The county allocates building permits on a quarterly basis and has been issuing them since a moratorium was removed in January.

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Copyright (c) 2008, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

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