Bahama Village redevelopment plan in limbo

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Members of the Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee (BVRAC) are slated to vote on a new master plan Aug. 10 that, if approved, could effectively put the nine-year-old board out of business.

After twice postponing a vote on the “Visioning Plan,” BVRAC members are scheduled to meet with the consultant who drew up the master plan to continue asking questions on exactly how the current committee would function if the Visioning Plan is approved. The consultant, Zyscovich Architects, Inc., was paid almost $156,000 to develop the plan, which is based on direction from BVRAC members and numerous meetings with Bahama Village residents. City officials also weighed in with changes they believed would benefit the historic neighborhood over the next 10 to 20 years.

But after more than two years of work to put the Visioning Plan together, some BVRAC members are now balking at voting for it. The plan first came before the committee at its April 6 meeting, where it was postponed. It was then on the May 15 agenda, where it was postponed again. An Aug. 10 special BVRAC meeting was then scheduled for committee members to meet with Zyscovich consultants to more fully understand the impact on the committee if the visioning plan is approved.

At the heart of the master plan is a shift in purpose. In the past, BVRAC has focused on allocating the $800,000 that is raised each year through a special tax fund to smaller projects such as fixing up deteriorating residential and commercial properties, public parks and churches. But while individual properties were improved through the program, the impact on the Bahama Village community as a whole was being questioned. The most recent 1998 update to the Bahama Village Redevelopment Plan encouraged stabilization of existing residential and traditional commercial structures but also recognized “the need to provide economic development and job creation activities for the residents of Bahama Village to enable long-term residents to remain in Bahama Village.”

That’s what the Zyscovich master plan proposes to do. But BVRAC Chairman Aaron Castillo said at the May 15 meeting he was concerned the proposed master plan would stop any future funding for small renovation projects. He said he has four buildings in mind in Bahama Village that need financial help.

“If we adopt this plan, what’s the good of having this [BVRAC] board,” Castillo asked. “If you think I’m going to sit up here and have to go by a 10-year plan, I’m not for that. I’m sorry.”

That sentiment was echoed by BRVAR member Jathon Williams, who agreed that the seven large capital projects outlined in the proposed master plan were worthy of funding but would take up most or all or the annual $800,000 budget for the next 10 to 20 years.

“It [proposed plan] is limiting for anything in the future that could be possible, that needs to be done, that we have not foreseen or hasn’t come up yet,” Williams said.

That drew a puzzled response from BVRAC Vice-Chair Patricia Eables, who said she was “at a loss” to understand why her fellow board members were questioning the priorities that BVRAC itself asked the consultant to include. The consultant held “numerous” public meetings where the wishes of Bahama Village residents were heard and incorporated into the plan, she said.

“It sounds like the board wants to ditch this whole idea. So, I wonder why did we ever spend the money in the first place if we weren’t going to listen to what the consultants had to say in conjunction to what they learned from the public,” Eables said.

BVRAC was established in 2008 as a way for Bahama Village residents to have a say in spending the approximately $800,000 raised each year through a special tax fund. That revenue is specifically put back into the neighborhood to help alleviate blight and make other repairs and renovations to improve the appearance of the historic neighborhood.

BVRAC’s mission has been to make recommendations to the Carolina Street Corridor and Bahama Village Community Redevelopment Agency on specific projects “best suited” for CRA money. In the past, projects have included repairs to private homes and commercial projects such as installing air conditioning in the Bethel AME Church on Thomas Street.

With the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, there will be $1.5 million in the Bahama Village redevelopment fund. The seven priority projects that would share that funding, as outlined in the proposed master plan, include expanding the Douglass Gym, relocating a Monroe County health clinic back to Bahama Village (it moved out to the Gato Building when repairs to the Douglass Gym began) and repairing 37 neighborhood properties deemed dilapidated. Those property owners would have to match the $20,000 proposed grant funding before their individual project could begin.

Key West Finance Director Mark Finigan told BVRAC members that if the master plan is approved, their duties will change from making the decisions on which projects to recommend to the CRA, to carrying out a long-term program with its goals already defined.

“Once this Visioning Plan by Zyscovich is put into motion, essentially your focus shifts from making allocations… to primarily administering a long-term, multi-year capital project program,” he said. “There won’t be any more annual programs or series of applications in which this board could make an award on those increments.”

“I think it’s cutting us off short,” responded Castillo at the May 15 meeting. “I like the hands-on.”

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