Islamorada residents voiced their opinions on everything from development and vacant parcels to traffic during a series of interactive public meetings held March 24-28 at the Founders Park Community Center.
A future Islamorada began to be drawn as a team of experts are assisting the village with an updated comprehensive plan. The document, which incorporates public input and takes roughly a year to a year-and-a-half to create, guides development, preserves natural resources and ensures infrastructure can support population growth. Housing, open space, transportation, climate resilience and future land use are some elements to a comprehensive plan.
A public kickoff and hands-on design session on March 24 gave village residents the chance to work alongside their neighbors to sketch visions for the future of Islamorada. During the week, residents were able to visit with Able City East’s planning team and offer input and provide feedback on ideas.
“Our job is to create a plan where everybody has an idea,” said Jason King, project director for Able City East. “We say nobody gets everything, right? Our job as planners is to mediate and it’s to find common ground.”
Out of the weeklong session came ideas for more walking, biking and multimodal transportation opportunities, balancing responsible development with the village’s community character and prioritizing affordable and workforce housing. There were also wishes to enhance green space, protect natural resources and upgrade infrastructure.
With traffic sitting atop the issues in Islamorada, ideas were brought forth for public parking areas and trolleys to move visitors and locals around while taking vehicles off the road. There were also ideas for shared paths alongside the Old Highway for pedestrians, bicyclists and those driving golf carts, as well as safe crossings across the highway in village center areas.
As for attaining housing for the local workforce, an idea was brought forward to institute a real estate transfer fee on property sales over a specific amount for the village’s affordable housing trust.
“When property over a million dollars gets sold, a small amount goes to the affordable housing trust,” King said. “We recommend investigating the feasibility of a real estate transfer fee, it’s a 2% contribution on property sales over a million. In other places, this has been a huge source of revenue for building affordable housing.”
With the interactive meetings concluded, a draft comprehensive plan will be developed through the spring and summer. A workshop will be scheduled in the fall to present the draft and garner additional comments from the public. Council members will ultimately need to approve the plan; a timeline shows the process taking place in late 2025 or early 2026.
