Affordable housing on Stock Island moves forward

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

A critical social issue that has bedeviled Key West city officials for years took a solid step forward recently.

The planning board passed two significant changes to the zoning and future land use maps on Stock Island that will allow almost 70,000 square feet of city-owned property along College Road to be developed as affordable housing and a new homeless shelter. If the city commission approves the land use changes, the issue will go before voters probably next year.

“Clearly this is a high priority of the city commission and we believe that these parcels make sense to be able to do affordable housing,” city Planning Director Thaddeus Cohen told planning board members.

The land use changes would affect three parcels on College Road on Stock Island. Currently, those parcels are home to the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District offices, the local animal shelter and the former Easter Seals building. Both Mosquito Control and the animal shelter are planning to move to new locations within the next two years.

The planning board unanimously voted to change the zoning for the three parcels from “Public Service” to “High Density Residential College Road.” If the city commission and voters agree, that area could then be developed as multi-family residences and group homes for up to six people. The “Public Service” designation currently allows 22 units per acre at a maximum height of 40 feet. The new designation would allow up to 40 units per acre with the same height limit.

City commissioners have long eyed the College Road properties as a potential location for an affordable housing development. While no firm plans have been laid out yet – the zoning changes have to be made first – the creation of affordable housing has been a priority for both current and past commissioners.

A housing “white paper” written by former planning director Don Craig in 2014 said Key West has had a housing crisis for at least three decades. One of the most telling statistics in the planning department’s six-page white paper was the percentage of annual income residents have to pay in rent or home ownership costs. City and federal guidelines state that not more than 30 percent of a person’s income should go towards housing costs. However, in Key West, that figure stands at 40 to 50 percent, meaning that approximately 77 percent of the city’s renters and homeowners are “cost burdened,” as the report says, a term referring to people over that 30 percent guideline.

A second social services challenge facing Key West is the need for a new overnight shelter for the area’s homeless population. The current Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS) is already on Stock Island but commissioners voted in May 2015 to move it from its current location at 5537 College Road to a site a few hundred yards down the road in back of the former Easter Seals building, 5220 College Road. Key West officials are under pressure to find another location for KOTS because of a lawsuit won earlier by the nearby Sunset Marina homeowners, who sued alleging the city didn’t adhere to its own permitting rules when deciding to install the shelter next to the marina and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. A judge ruled that the city must make a “good faith effort” to find another location.

That “good faith effort” has dragged on for more than four years. And the original $1.2 million estimate to build a new shelter could certain increase before a contractor is hired. However, getting the zoning changed to allow a new shelter must occur before any building can begin.

“Ultimately the citizens are going to make this decision,” said Planning Board Chair Sam Holland. “What we’re doing is providing them that platform to make that decision if that is what they want to do.”

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