Payne pressures Navy to return access to Truman Harbor
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Key West City Commissioner Richard Payne wants the Truman Waterfront harbor back. And he is going to Washington to ask for help.
Commissioners voted Feb. 2 to send letters to the city’s three Congressional representatives asking that they intercede in what is shaping up to be a turf battle between Key West and the U.S. Navy. Although the Navy gave back a 32-acre parcel in 2002 that it had used since before Harry Truman was President of the United States, it restricted use of the water portion of the parcel in 2013 when the city proposed to build a marina in that area. The reason, Navy officials said then – and are still proclaiming today – is that it needed the harbor area to be free of recreational vehicles that could interfere with military training exercises.
Payne presented a 10-page report arguing that the 2013 water restriction was illegal and that Key West has been “wrongfully deprived” of the use of the valuable harbor.
“You simply cannot deed away property and then retrieve it by the way they did,” he said, referring to the Navy’s 2013 harbor restriction. “I cannot ignore what is going on here.”
Payne is worried that the Navy’s restriction will prevent Key West from creating a ferry service to Cuba now that relations between the two countries are warming. Once the Cuban harbor is opened to ferries and cruise ships, Key West is the closest city to Havana, giving a local ferry company a competitive advantage over ferries in other Florida cities such as Ft. Lauderdale or Miami.
“We are only 90 miles away from Havana and will be able to offer a one-day trip, departing and returning the same day. This is something that others will not be able to do,” Payne said in his report, adding, “Without a ferry in operation we will lose significant tourism dollars.”
Another benefit of reopening the harbor, a location inside the Outer Mole that includes a 711-foot ship berthing area, is the city could resurrect a plan to build a recreational marina there. The original plan was envisioned to create a revenue source that would pay for the annual maintenance of the Truman Waterfront Park, a $58 million project that broke ground in December. Annual park maintenance is estimated at $1.3 million a year.
“We need to get some money coming in for that park,” said Commissioner Billy Wardlow.
Commissioners voted 6-1 to send letters to U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, and U.S.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo asking that they take “immediate action to intercede on behalf” of the city to regain full use and access to the Truman Harbor Development Zone. The resolution points out that when the Navy transferred the waterfront parcel to the city in 2002 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990, Key West dutifully submitted an economic development application showing plans for the marina that included 30 slips for mega-yachts plus another 100 commercial slips for other vessels. That application was signed off on by the Navy in a memorandum of understanding and both sides agreed to work together to determine which parts of the Truman Harbor would be restricted for Navy-only use.
But in 2013, when park financing plans were in full swing and when two tour operators in Key West were contemplating or already offering “duck boat” tours of the harbor, the Navy – without consulting city officials, according to the resolution – cut off public access to the harbor and existing public boat ramp. That, Payne argues, was Illegal.
“We just want them to give us back access to our property. So we can do what we need to do before we lose the opportunity,” he said.
The lone vote against the resolution came from Commissioner Margaret Romero, who warned that the Navy has been a generous neighbor to Key West for decades. In addition, she said, the Navy provides 7,000 jobs in Monroe County, leading to annual spending by military and civilian personnel and their families of $404 million.
“The military is a very, very large player in our economy,” Romero said. “I think this is a case where national security trumps a ferry at Truman Waterfront.”
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I completely agree with Commissioner Romero on this subject. She was prepared with the facts of the matter. There are other options for a ferry to Cuba. The City already has underused marina space, and there are private options as well. Our Navy needs to keep that area for their options of use.