Legal challenge to new affordable housing problem

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Although Key West City Commissioners unanimously accepted 300 new affordable housing units allocated by the state last year, a legal challenge has been filed that would reverse that decision.

An administrative appeal has been filed by Naja Girard, who along with her husband publishes Key West The Newspaper, also known as The Blue Paper, asking that the state Division of Administrative Hearings overturn an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan accepting the 300 units of affordable housing. The units were allocated to Key West last year in a state effort to alleviate the dire need for affordable workforce housing and were part of a total of 1,300 units allocated to Monroe County as a whole.

Key West officials had hoped to use a portion of the newly-added 300 units to build a planned workforce housing development on College Road on Stock Island. The development would consist of 140 rental units aimed at low and very-low income local workers, including first responders.

But Girard’s appeal claims that adding 300 new apartments in Key West would overburden local roads, stress existing services and contribute to a deteriorating quality of life. In addition, the appeal says that the 48-hour mandatory hurricane evacuation that would be in force for residents living in the new housing units is dangerous.

“Girard will be adversely affected to the extent that the Amendment’s reliance on a two-phased hurricane ‘early evacuation’ plan for the residents… would make evacuation more time consuming and, due to the risk of inadequate warning of landfall, more dangerous for her and her family,” according to the appeal.

Robert Hartsell, a Pompano Beach attorney representing both Girard and an identical administrative challenge to the city of Marathon for accepting its 300-unit housing allocation, said in a telephone interview with Konk Life that both appeals are based on a threat to public safety. The Keys are already nearing state-mandated development limits that were created to ensure residents have enough time to safely evacuate ahead of a hurricane. Currently, residents are required to leave 24 hours before a hurricane makes landfall. People living in one of the 1,300 planned new apartments would be required to evacuate 48 hours ahead of landfall as a way to ease potential congestion. However, weather forecasters aren’t always able to give a 48-hour warning, Hartsell said. Anything shorter could lead to clogged roads if Keys residents attempt to drive to the mainland at the same time.

“How do you enforce these multi layers of evacuation? It’s just not possible,” Hartsell said. “When you may not have 48 hours, people start to be injured or dying on the roads.”

Key West Assistant City Attorney George Wallace said the city will defend against Girard’s appeal because the lack of workforce housing in the area is “critical.” The ability to build 300 apartments above state development limits will help area workers find affordable, year-round housing, he said.

“We know this will delay the receipt of those 300 units, a conservative estimate six to nine months. But hopefully at the end we’ll get there,” Wallace told commissioners.

Even with the estimated delay, the College Road workforce housing development should not be impacted, according to Key West City Manager Jim Scholl. The city had previously set aside all of its remaining housing development units, under its Building Permit Allocation System, specifically for affordable housing. However, there are few applicants for those units because of requirements the housing be rented or sold for below market rates. With the high cost of real estate in Key West, developers are not willing to limit their profit margins. As a result, there are enough existing BPAS units to cover the 140 apartments planned for College Road.

“That [the appeal] won’t hold us up,” Scholl said.

A third administrative appeal is expected to be filed in Islamorada, where its leaders are planning to approve a similar amendment to their Comprehensive Development Plan accepting the state-offered 300 housing units. Hartsell said he is watching the effort but has not been contacted by anyone in Islamorada to file a legal challenge. He would not comment on whether the Key West and Marathon cases are part of a coordinated effort to overturn the state effort to add 1,300 units in Monroe County. There have been public criticisms of the program by residents and some organizations, including Last Stand, an environmental conservation group based in Key West.

Mark Songer, speaking for Last Stand last November when Key West Commissions voted on first reading to accept the 300 housing units, said already-severe traffic congestion will become worse with new development. And, he said, fast-moving hurricanes may not allow for a 48-hour evacuation.

“These additional 300 units, and potentially [over] 1,000 throughout the county, will overcrowd the roads if [residents] don’t follow their lease requirements. But even if they try to comply, with a timeline like Hurricane Harvey, we cannot all get out safely,” Songer said. Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston, Texas, area in 2017 causing massive flooding and billions in damage. There were 107 confirmed deaths in its five landfalls stretching from Barbados to Louisiana.

Hurricane Irma, which hit the Keys on Sept. 10, 2017, destroyed 1,179 homes in Monroe County. Another 2,977 homes suffered major damage. There are a total of 55,000 housing units in the Keys, according to county records.

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