Wildlife Refuge as an Amenity in an Affordable Housing Community?

This new micro-community contains a leasehold tenant advantage for humans and life-sustaining asset for wildlife. But it is accompanied by a parallel potential disadvantage. This paradox exists in the brand new 16-unit, locally sustainable affordable housing project located at MM 31 on Big Pine Key. The rentals are dependent on income. Monthly leases for one-bedroom units range from $185.00 for low-income residents to $749 for moderate-income residents.  The larger three-bedroom units range from $277 to $1,059. This task-force housing helps fulfill critical needs in the Keys.

The multi-unit residences sit almost exactly atop one of two massive freshwater pools or lenses in Big Pine. This, just beneath the ground spring, is estimated to be in excess of 100 million gallons. It is an amenity, in that it is a life sustaining natural water source for the deer. It is also a habitat for diverse plants, trees, birds, butterflies and other animals. This includes 18 native species of plants found nowhere else in the world and eight federally listed endangered animal species.

The disadvantage for the Key Deer is that this water area is a part of the “Greenbelt” attracting the deer much too close to the proximity of the single highway traversing the Keys.

This has and will continue to occur whether or not any new structure was ever built. Another part of the equation is that biologists thought for years that deer browsed only on specific types of plants. It is now known they eat most of the indigenous shrubbery here in the Keys. This has been one of the factors assisting the attempt at stabilization of their population.

The builders, Keys Affordable are empathetic with the concerns of the Big Pine residential community, the “Key Deer Protection Alliance” members and the Key Deer Refuge managers. The 16-unit affordable housing project is being submitted as a Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) high Platinum Level multi-unit project. The landscaping is 100% natural with no invasives utilizing only native Keys plantings and trees.  100% of the site is designed as a wildlife habitat and refuge. There is no irrigation nor any hardscape. The entire site and grounds are permeable, thus lending itself to the natural biodiversity of Big Pine Key.

To assist in Key Deer habitat protection efforts, the front and sides of the property will be fenced. Yet the entire rear will be open for the deer to travel on and off the property safely. This will help protect them from the deadly vehicular strikes of U.S.1.

Additional safeguards for the deer have been included in the Platinum submitted green sustainable designed project by Keys Affordable. The tenants must attend a workshop and sign their lease, based on learning the green sustainability features included in their units and on the property. This includes tenant regulatory rules against feeding or otherwise interacting with the deer. This is further reinforced to visitors as well with warning signs placed on the building and property.

In excess of 125 deaths were caused by vehicles in 2016. The latest tally shows an approximate 1,000 deer population in the Keys.

About the Florida Green Building Coalition

The FGBC Green Designation represents achievements in a number of categories, such as energy efficiency, water conservation, site preservation, health, materials, and durability, including disaster mitigation.

FGBC-certified homes complete a technically rigorous building assessment and construction process to promote design and construction practices that reduce the negative environmental impacts of the building, improve occupant health and well-being, and reduce operating costs by as much as to 40% for the occupants.

Green certified homes have substantially lower utility bills, and often qualify for advantageous financing, lower insurance rates and government incentives.

About the Green Sustainability Contributor

Ric Lightner is a Green Consulting Certifying Agent who has only certified Platinum level in his career. A total of 95-units in the categories of residential and multi-family residential homes in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

He is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP BD+C and a Florida Builder and Real Estate Broker. He is a designer-builder of rainwater harvesting systems and as an ARCSA AP, a U.S. Southeast Regional Rep.  He has restored dozens of homes, guesthouses and cisterns in the 4,500 home Historic Preservation District of Key West. The average home size was 800 sf and the cisterns beneath 5,000 gallons. 

He is a Design and Analysis member of the FGBC Board of Directors; a member of the City of the Key West Sustainability Advisory Board; a member of the Key West Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional]. He sits on the following FGBC Standards Committees: * Homes * Education * Commercial Buildings * High-rise Residential * Local Government * Programs & Promotions * Affordable Housing * Annual Green Trends Convention * 

As a Green Sustainability Educator and ARCSA Rainwater Harvester, he has conducted a minimum of six Seminars annually since 2012. They have included a variety of global warming related issues including rainwater collecting, green building, restoration of historic cisterns, septic conversions into cisterns, Zika Virus etc. (See sample attachments). [email protected]. 

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