Monroe County officials are considering expansion of a program giving property owners in unincorporated areas the ability to initiate — and pay for — neighborhood enhancements beyond flooding and road elevation projects.
A proposal coming before county commissioners at a Jan. 28 public hearing in Marathon would provide property owners an avenue to come to the county and request a canal restoration, beach renourishment, new sidewalk, living shorelines, road adaptation, additional lighting on their streets or other infrastructure or services benefiting the specific area.
“You don’t have to wait for the county to come to you. You can come to us and say, ‘Here’s what we want,’” said Rhonda Haag, county chief resilience officer.
County officials say these are projects beyond core services provided to property owners. Judy Clarke, county engineering and roads director, said the county will continue maintaining roads, repairing damaged pavement, cutting grass and cleaning gravity drainages, among other regular tasks.
But project requests from residents, like added decorative street lighting or canal restoration, would require support from neighbors. The proposal states the property owner or owners would come to the county seeking a certain improvement project. From there, the estimate for the requested improvement and the assessments would need votes of approval from 50% plus one of property owners who’d receive benefit.
Haag said the county would fund research and design for the project. The county, however, would get paid for those services and the project through assessments on each property the project would benefit.
Haag added the county will still support efforts from property owners seeking road elevation and sea level rise projects in their neighborhoods. The county will also seek grant funding for these expensive endeavors.
In the past, the county conducted pilot projects to plan, design and construct road elevation and adjust drainage to address flooding. Several projects were designed and bid out, but the cost of improvements exceeded the grant funding available for construction.
Between 40 and 90 neighborhoods are expected to need some kind of drainage improvement over the next several decades, and county officials say these expensive projects are “cost prohibitive” and “raise a fairness issue,” as taxpayers were asked to fund improvements that benefit only those in lower-lying areas.
Winston Waterways in Key Largo is one neighborhood seeking a road elevation project. The design and engineering process is underway. And $51 million in state and federal grant funds were secured for the project.
A project cost won’t be known until the bid is sent out to interested contractors. In addition to potentially funding the difference in construction costs and the grant, the neighborhood would be responsible for operations and maintenance costs, if enough support is secured from the property owners.
If the community says “no” to funding the difference needed for construction shortfall and operations and maintenance, the $51 million in funds for construction would go back to the state and federal governments. A road elevation project on Big Coppitt, which secured more than $80 million, will go through a similar process.
In addition to expanding the program, county commissioners are seeking to financially help those property owners in neighborhoods where improvement work is approved by the majority and proceeding, but are considered very-low income and can’t fund the assessment. A lien would be placed on the property, with the accrued assessment increase each year until the sale of the property.
“That way, the property owner who couldn’t afford (the assessment) could stay in their home. Whenever that sale occurred, at that time the county would collect the total assessments due,” Haag said.
The county would need to fund the qualified property owner’s assessment each year, and that’s a decision made by county commissioners. If the elected body doesn’t fund the program for any given year, the assessment would be up to the property owner to pay.
