A short summer session on Aug. 27 saw the Marathon City Council receive a briefing on the city’s ongoing vulnerability assessment before diving into upcoming construction projects and a parking change at Sombrero Beach.
A presentation by attorney and urban planner Erin Deady opened last Tuesday’s session to discuss the vulnerability assessment, focusing on evaluating critical areas throughout Marathon in the face of sea level rise, high rainfall and storm surges. When complete, the assessment will aid in identifying priority resilience projects and maintaining eligibility for future grant funding through the Resilient Florida program, she said.
Presenting multiple maps of Marathon with projected sea level rise through 2040, 2070 and 2100, Deady identified areas predicted to be vulnerable to more than 150 days per year of tidal flooding, discounting mitigating effects of existing stormwater management systems, seawalls or other structures installed to reduce flooding impacts. Studies cross-referenced these projections with the location of city-owned assets and other crucial utilities to identify priority areas for improvement.
“We’ve identified 10 hotspots … (that) are going to be impacted by multiple avenues of flooding, with a lot of assets within that particular area,” she said. “We will rank the assets on a 1 through 5 scale, do a weighting criteria associated with them and rank them over time. We’ll also look at social vulnerability surrounding those critical assets, to make sure that if you’ve got higher census tracts where you have people who are financially or otherwise challenged, we want to take that into account. We produce all of this in a list, ranked, color-coded and provided to the state.”
New kayak launch in the works for 109th Street
Following a controversial right-of-way abandonment at the end of 109th Street, later protested by neighborhood residents due to lost access to a small boat ramp, Marathon will pursue installation of a new launch and pocket park on the city’s remaining waterfront property at the road’s south end. Estimated costs include $35,000 for design and permitting, plus another $200,000 for construction, Public Works Director Carlos Solis told the council.
“I believe that the ramp was wrongfully given away … so this would be a great way to give back to the community something that was lost, that they really do use more than you may know,” Marathon resident Holly Nolan, a vocal critic of the earlier abandonment, told the council.
“The community would love to be involved in this (build), and that would extend to the park also,” added 109th Street resident Chris Nolan.
Public comment challenges golf course development
A public comment by Marathon City Council candidate Dustin Huff challenged the city’s regulation of construction for the upcoming Florida Keys Resort at the Florida Keys Country Club property.
Huff stated that city officials “suddenly seemed to have an interest” in the property after allowing construction to proceed “virtually unregulated” before letters of noncompliance on the property were received from the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).
Huff alleged that further SFWMD violations were withheld at the request of city officials, a claim City Manager George Garrett said was “not true.”
“The question is, did we direct the Water Management District to do anything? The answer is no, flat out,” Garrett said. “We had a conversation with the Water Management District concerning flooding issues. But we’ve had a stop work order, and we’ve been under review for some modifications to their plans.”
In other news:
- Following an agreement last summer to slowly increase the price of Marathon’s contract with Key Colony Beach for fire and EMS services, Garrett said the city’s budgeted amount for 2024-25 is roughly $900,000, a “truer number for what our costs are.”
- Parking in the right-of-way at the end of Sombrero Beach Road outside of designated beach parking, previously marked as a tow-away zone, will instead carry a $500 parking fine following the unanimous approval of Ordinance 2024-09 at its first reading. Originally proposed by councilman Kenny Matlock, the change comes in response to tow operators’ liability concerns in towing expensive vehicles to earn a $180 payout.
- Resolution 2024-65, also unanimously approved at its first reading, removes the city’s existing 12,000-gallon cap on wastewater usage charges for single-family residential properties. Utilities Director Daniel Saus told the council that the change should only affect large dwellings or those with extreme water usage, as a typical two- or three-bedroom home uses roughly 4,000 gallons of water per month.
- After a brief discussion, the council also unanimously approved Resolution 2024-66, providing for a new information and security station to be constructed at Sombrero Beach. The $250,000 project will be largely funded by a $200,000 Tourist Development Council grant, with the remainder coming from city coffers.
- Saturday, Sept. 21 will mark the city’s annual Landry Sayer Clean the Curb day, a community cleanup beginning at 8 a.m. at Coco Plum Beach.
