Affordable Housing A Priority In 2016 Mayor Senmartin To Call Special Meeting

By Terry Schmida

The unhealthy ratio of affordable worker housing units to the growing number of luxury resorts will be front and center at a meeting Mayor Senmartin plans to call in the new year to address the issue.

The gathering will likely take place in February, Senmartin said, since both he and Council Member Bill Kelly will be attending separate, out-of-town city business meetings in Tallahassee, and Washington D.C., respectively. New City Manager Charles Lindsey is also starting work this week, and will need to get acquainted with the job, Senmartin added.

“When I talked about this issue during my campaign it wasn’t just campaign talk,” Senmartin said Tuesday. “This is something I’ve been thinking about and working on for a long time. We’re going to convene a meeting with all the people involved, including developers, Habitat for Humanity, and the Middle Keys Land Trust.”

The city’s affordable housing advisory board will also be major players in the upcoming discussions, Senmartin said.

The city’s growing shortage of worker housing – and affordable tourist accommodation – was thrown into stark relief in September, when yet another luxury resort was approved by the City Council.

The 25-acre Knight’s Key parcel will be redeveloped by The Singh Company, owned by Marathon businessman Pritam Singh, who made a name transforming Key West’s Truman Annex in the ’80s, and more recently, Tranquility Bay, in Marathon, among other sites.

Plans call for Knight’s Key’s 200 RV spots to be transformed into an equal number of hotel room units, pools and other amenities, and 31 affordable worker housing units. The current 24 boat dockings would remain in some form.

The property’s size could have allowed for more than 600 transient-licensed units, city staffers say.

While acknowledging that the redevelopment won’t help the current situation, Mayor Senmartin said there was never any question that local government could have acquired Knight’s Key for affordable housing purposes.

“You’re talking about a $25 million piece of property,” he said. “It’s literally the biggest piece of property left in the Keys. There’s literally no way that the City of Marathon could buy that. We’d have to hit the lottery several times over to do it.”

The city’s affordable housing fund is currently running with about $1 million to spend on the issue, with current building plans centered on a government-owned parcel at 104th St.

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