Bills originally filed by State Rep. Jim Mooney and state Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez were noticeably different in the proposed number of additional building permit allocations for the Florida Keys. Now, the two representatives for the island chain are amending their pieces of legislation to reflect similar requests for allocations – no more than 825 or a figure allowed under a 24.5 hurricane evacuation time window, whichever is less.
Changes to the bills came after the governor’s staff recently informed Monroe County officials the 3,550 additional building permits doled out over a 40-year period, as the county supported and reflected in Rodriguez’s bill, was “a little too long” and “not supportable.”
In addition, county officials say FloridaCommerce re-ran an evacuation model to determine the maximum allocations that would be allowed within a 24-hour hurricane evacuation time window. A model run by FloridaCommerce several years ago determined 220 units, but now it says 825 allocations would be allowed under the 24 hours.
Lisa Tennyson, county legislative affairs director, told county commissioners during a March 25 meeting in Key Largo that Rodriguez agreed to change her legislation. That same morning, Rodriguez’s amended bill cleared the Environment and Natural Resources Committee via 8-0 vote.
Mooney confirmed to the Keys Weekly he, too, will amend his bill in the Florida House to fall in line with Rodriguez’s bill in the Senate. Mooney’s bill will go before the House Ways & Means Committee on Thursday, March 27.
Bills by Mooney and Rodriguez sought to change the laws governing the Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, a designation responsible for several stricter building regulations throughout the island chain. The original bills were vastly different, however.
Mooney’s original HB 995 sought an evacuation clearance time of 24.5 hours and 500 units over at least 10 years. Of those units, 220 were accounted for but not awarded to Keys municipalities. The 280 additional units, as a result of the evacuation time change to 24.5 hours, would be spread among unincorporated Monroe County, Marathon, Islamorada and Key West.
Rodriguez’s original SB 1626 detailed 3,550 additional allocations with a hurricane evacuation time change from 24 to 26 hours.
Both bills had similar guardrails as requested by Monroe County, with additional units steered to workforce housing. Allocations could only be used on vacant, buildable properties, with one allocation per property.
County Administrator Christine Hurley told commissioners that they’re unsure how many new allocations will be given to unincorporated Monroe County under the amended proposal.
“As we knew with the 220 that 100 of those would be for the county, in the 825 number, we don’t know what that would yield for the county,” she said. “Because the model evacuates island by island, they have to drill down further to tell us what our share of the 825 would be and we don’t know that number right now.”
Hurley said she asked Commerce what the maximum allocation number would be under 24.5 hours as reflected in the amended bills. She said they didn’t run the maximum number, but they did run a scenario with 1,100 additional building permit allocations. That model stayed under 24.5 hours.
Additional tweaks to Mooney and Rodriguez’s bills would be needed to allow for 1,100 additional units under the 24.5-hour evacuation window.
“(FloridaCommerce) indicated there are probably more than that under 24.5 but unless they do another model run, which costs money and takes time with a consultant, they can’t answer the maximum number of units at 24.5 hours,” Hurley explained to commissioners.
Chris Massicotte, president of Last Stand, told commissioners via Zoom that the group supports Mooney’s original HB 995.
“We believe it strikes the most responsible balance between growth, public input and long-term flexibility,” he said, adding he was encouraged to see Rodriguez was going to amend her bill to shorten the time frame from 40 to 10 years.
County commissioners said they appreciate the cooperation between Mooney and Rodriguez to have similar bills. They also acknowledged the importance of the guardrails within the bill to bring housing for the local workforce.
