The Marathon City Council wasted no time after a five-week break extended by hurricane evacuation modeling meetings earlier this month, diving into updates on ongoing projects of great interest to residents and a controversial building permit refund request at its June 27 meeting.
Following an extensive presentation briefing the council on the upcoming hurricane season and emergency preparedness efforts by Monroe County Emergency Management Director Shannon Weiner and National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist Jon Rizzo, the council turned to an extended update by Public Works Director Carlos Solis.
Among several other items, including ongoing processes to replace the bridges at 112th, 116th and 117th streets as well as the air conditioning system at City Hall, Solis said the city recently received a report analyzing the seawall and shoreline at the Quay property, now slated for redevelopment for upwards of three years. He called the condition of both “better than anticipated,” likely providing significant cost savings as the area is rehabilitated, and said consultants are in the process of assembling plans for the partial repair of the shoreline and redevelopment of the park.
Solis also said plans for the redevelopment of Seven Mile Marina, acquired in late 2021 by the city, are in review by city staff and will be put out to bid following final revisions.
With the city receiving little response to its last few projects put out to bid, Solis also said the department will seek a Construction Manager at Risk for oversight of several upcoming projects, including bathrooms at the Quay property, part of the work at Seven Mile Marina and an office renovation at city hall that will create a secured reception area re-opened to the public. Such a system will allow the city greater ability to negotiate with contractors outside of an all-encompassing bid price.
Mayor Luis Gonzalez pressed Solis for greater clarity in each property’s timeline, saying there have been “very little to no upgrades” at the Quay property while the Seven Mile Marina still looks largely like “a fenced-off piece of abandoned property.”
“We’ve made the investment, and there’s not much return coming in on it now,” he said. “We need a better time frame, so that way we have answers for our constituents. … It’s just, ‘it’s coming, it’s coming,’ and we sound like a broken record.”
Solis attributed the delays to extensive permit processing times with the Army Corps of Engineers – some of the city’s applications were submitted more than seven months ago – and a lack of realistic bids by contractors for the projects, many of which more than doubled the city’s budget for individual initiatives as the sole respondent. He and City Manager George Garrett also pointed to overlaps and conflicts between the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida Department of Environmental Protection as the permits make their way through state systems.
Parking Fee Enforcement Draws Council’s Ire
An update on the city’s continued struggle to fully implement and enforce newly-enacted parking and usage fees at Sombrero Beach and Marathon’s public boat ramps left multiple council members frustrated with extended delays. While the fees officially took effect April 1, enforcement cameras provided by contracted parking compliance service Pave Mobility are still not installed or operational. Though Solis reported beach and boat ramp revenues at $91,154 for the month of May, with 150 citations issued at the time of his update, city staff have thus far been left to personally ensure compliance at each site, otherwise relying on an honor system for non-resident vehicles.
Addressing the council, Pave Mobility’s municipal division president Isaiah Mouw said the company has committed to provide a full-time employee for enforcement at Sombrero Beach given challenges with traffic in and out of numerous residential side streets in the area. He said that while the company expects to have enforcement cameras installed by July 15, he could not provide a definite timeline for when the cameras would be energized by local power utilities.
Vice Mayor Robyn Still and Gonzalez panned the months-long delay, stressing the system’s importance with lobster mini-season approaching and criticizing unnecessary hours spent by city staff at boat ramps.
“What (the monthly revenue) doesn’t show is the amount this doesn’t reflect because of lack of enforcement,” said Gonzalez, who asked for additional manpower provided by Pave Mobility until the cameras were operational. “The agreement was to have boat ramps covered by your company, and it’s not happening. … You need to come up with a game plan to get our boat ramps covered.”
Councilman Jeff Smith also expressed doubt in the cameras’ ability to accurately identify violators in areas with unconventional layouts and traffic patterns, a concern Mouw said should be rectified by personal review of each violator’s video footage, as detected by artificial intelligence through the cameras, before ticket issuance. Councilman Lynn Landry suggested additional overarching video surveillance at ramps as a way to confirm violations, pinpoint damages or vandalism and enforce additional restrictions, such as a two-axle trailer limit at the Harbor Drive boat ramp.
Developer’s Permit Fee Waiver Request Denied
In a split decision, the council elected to deny a request by developer Vestcor to waive building permit fees for its upcoming 124-unit affordable housing project, colloquially known as Seaview Commons, on Coco Plum Drive.
Speaking on behalf of Vestcor, attorney Bart Smith explained that the waiver in the requested amount of $196,014 would help offset expenses of $3.6 million incurred by the developer due to accrued interest and rising construction, insurance and miscellaneous costs while the project’s building allocations were affected by the Third District Court of Appeals’ 2022 revocation of 1,300 housing units across the Keys. Citing similar fee waiver practices more common in unincorporated Monroe County and Key West, Smith said Vestcor also intended to request a wastewater fee waiver of $496,186 in the near future for the project.
If the council had chosen to grant the waiver, as Finance Director Jennifer Johnson explained, the city would be required to transfer a matching amount from its general fund or affordable housing fund to its building fund, designated exclusively for reserves and expenses by the city’s building department. According to Johnson and Garrett, though the city granted a similar waiver in the past for a Habitat for Humanity housing project, the Seaview Commons waiver would have been the first of its kind granted by the city to a for-profit company.
“We’ve got tax money subsidizing this project (from the state) on top of this, and then we’re going to waive this and have to pay out of our funds to meet the state requirements,” said councilman Kenny Matlock. “Looking at the scale, it’s for profit. … The bigger developments make money, or they wouldn’t bother.”
“To look at the whole picture, these are extenuating circumstances,” said Landry. “We had allocations, they moved forward to build, and we no longer had allocations. They closed the loan, and they’re paying interest on something they can’t build. … Maybe you can say it’s our fault, because we issued something that got taken away.
“But we need to look at all sides of this. There’s a reason why builders don’t build affordable housing.”
The council voted 3-2 to deny the request, with Landry and Gonzalez in favor of the waiver.
In Other News
- Led by Still, the council recognized Marathon’s EMS and fire rescue personnel for their role in the treatment of a shark attack victim last month. Still said staff at Jackson South Medical Center’s trauma were so impressed by the work of Marathon’s crews that they called the city to compliment their life-saving measures, including administration of tranexamic acid to curtail the victim’s bleeding.
- Smith renewed his request to formalize agendas for the council’s monthly workshops in advance and review topics for each upcoming meeting at the council’s first session of each month. With July’s workshop earmarked for budget discussions, the August meeting’s tentative topics are the city’s code and land development regulations as well as workforce housing.
- Following complaints from the Sister’s Creek Townhomes regarding a business’ use of city right-of-ways on 25th Street for vehicle and trailer storage, the council agreed to add a parking discussion as a future workshop ordinance. Landry also renewed his request to examine a residential lighting ordinance throughout the city at a future workshop.
- As design firm K2M Design continues development of plans to revamp Marathon’s 33rd Street corridor, the council elected to postpone evaluation and consideration of an unsolicited public-private partnership proposal submitted by Chris Tel Construction to design, build and finance a replacement fire station on the street.
- Ordinance 2023-10, approved unanimously at its first public hearing, will alter language in Marathon’s code of ordinances throughout the city to better protect sea turtles with lighting regulations in areas near nesting sites. The change provides for closer alignment with a model ordinance from the state, enacted in 2020.
