With a headlining city manager contract secured, the Marathon City Council moved on to tackle parking at the Harbor Drive boat ramp and a potential transfer of unused affordable building rights from Key Colony Beach and Layton in the remainder of its Sept. 8 meeting.
The boat ramp puzzle
Following recent requests from locals to reopen the four spaces at the Harbor Drive ramp, council members debated safeguards to ensure that parked vehicles would stay within the relatively small spaces, preventing collisions or blocked traffic on the busy street.
Councilwoman Robyn Still said she’d prefer to see the area converted into a “pocket park” for families in the neighborhood to fish or launch kayaks and paddleboards.
Under the current city ordinance, use of the ramp – one of three owned and managed by the city – is restricted to trailers with fewer than three axles, with parking closed during busy holiday weekends, around the start of mini- and regular lobster season, and other high-traffic periods as determined by the city manager.
A traffic pattern established by signs takes boaters through the streets behind the neighborhood before forming a soundbound line on Harbor Drive. But former city councilman and Gulfstream Boulevard resident Jeff Smith told the council about his all-too-common Labor Day Weekend experience, in which multiple boats ignoring the traffic pattern blocked the road and ran over parts of private property around the ramp without city staff present.
Multiple city council members suggested painted lines in front of each parking space to limit the space allowed to any vehicle and trailer, with violators ticketed or towed.
“It really doesn’t matter whether we have the parking or not – people are still not going to read the signs, park on the grass and park on the rocks,” said Vice Mayor Debbie Struyf. “ (But) we’ve had a few people from the general area who like to park their trailers there. Let’s at least give them a shot to see if we can’t work this out.”
The council informally directed staff to reopen spaces on a trial basis and increase enforcement at the ramp while exploring markings to constrain the parking spaces.
Housing units delayed
Citing concerns over how they could be distributed in the city once accepted, the council chose to delay an agreement that could pave the way for accepting unused affordable building rights each from the cities of Key Colony Beach and Layton.
Resolutions 2026-84 and 2026-85 proposed an agreement in which Marathon would receive 50 building rights from each of the two smaller Keys cities – portions of a 1,300-unit award in 2018 from then-Gov. Rick Scott to be divided among Monroe County municipalities.
Restricted for use in multifamily developments (duplexes or greater), the rights require on-site management and carry a 48-hour early evacuation provision.
While Marathon eventually accepted 300 units after a prolonged legal battle that ended in a specialized legislative carve-out, both Key Colony Beach and Layton have yet to accept their 50-unit awards.
Planning Director Brian Shea and City Manager Steve Williams told the council that the extra units could serve as a shield against future takings cases, in which the city could be held liable if owners of buildable lots were denied the right to do so.
Williams said even with the unique restrictions placed on the rights, they should be enough to fend off a lawsuit.
“From a takings case, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “Any use of the parcel is a good enough use. … If we can give you anything, you can’t sue us for lack of use.”
But both Struyf and councilman Kenny Matlock said they were concerned about how quickly the rights could be distributed for large multifamily builds in residential areas, or if they would be given in large chunks to owners of existing properties in order for developers to sell off less-restricted building rights already attached to those properties.
“I don’t want to see a 50-unit request, and then boom, we’ve got another 50 units in a neighborhood,” Matlock said, asking whether the city could impose an extended timeline for distribution or restrict the number of units awarded to any single build. “If a developer requests them, it’s very hard to tell them no if we have them in the pool. … Let’s discuss terms first and make sure we’re all happy before we take on 100 units.”
Shea told the council the city has current applications for a total of seven affordable duplexes and a single triplex on file.
Returning to the podium for public comment, Smith urged the council to accept the units and distribute them to multibedroom projects, but cautioned against awarding them to existing buildings.
“Any new units we get need to be new units,” he said. “We shouldn’t be attaching these to 50- and 60-year-old properties … existing substandard below-flood one-bedroom units … in order to allow developers to profiteer and move them.”
He referenced Key Colony Beach as a potential model for satisfying on-site management requirements, suggesting the city could offer a management training program for duplex owners.
Real estate agent and city housing coordinator Josh Mothner also encouraged the council to accept the units, but said awarding them all to new builds may be impossible in an island with little vacant space left.
“We’re running out of space in town, and I know there’s a desire to do things as single-family units. It’s going to be very difficult to do that,” he said. “I do agree that you need to take a look at what’s going to happen on the back side, whether it’s going to benefit somebody. But the fact that it might benefit somebody doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad idea.”
He added that Marathon has reached a “pivotal point,” in which rents for affordable housing units, calculated based on a percentage of Marathon’s area median income are beginning to exceed market rents throughout the city – negating the basic premise of the affordable program.
The council will take up further discussion of the units at its Oct. 13 meeting. For a full meeting recording, scan the QR code.
