Key Largo May Lose Another Boat Ramp @ Mandalay Bay
The Monroe County Planning Commission has approved preliminary plans for an upscale condominium project in Key Largo, despite concerns about losing a historical dinghy port at Rock Harbor and not gaining any affordable housing. Mandalay Bay, a project by Ocean Sunrise Associates, which is related to EarthMark Cos., is proposed to comprise 22 market-rate and three transient units at Mile Marker 97.5 oceanside, the site of two former trailer courts. “Transient boaters have used that landing area for at least 41 years,” said Planning Commissioner Randy Wall, whose parents once owned the marina next-door to the development site. “I’m concerned that this agreement will shut down or limit dinghy access to that street.”
County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, speaking as a 54-year Key Largo resident and “a frequent visitor to Mandalay,” said the developer’s proposal to maintain the end of Second Avenue leading to the boat landing area is fraught with risk. “Boats have always been there. The plan for Second Avenue is a way of controlling it,” she said. “They own their property on both sides of that road and there will be a temptation to control it. We do not give any of this away. The county maintains hundreds of roads and they can maintain this.” Sailor Gil Grove, who lives on his boat, said the project robs people of their rights.
“If this were put on a ballot, it would be voted down,” he said.
Aside from concerns about parking and launch access, planning Commissioner Sherry Popham and some Upper Keys residents were upset that Islamorada did not enforce its inclusionary zoning rule, requiring new developments to include a percentage of worker housing in their projects. “The only issue I now have is inclusionary zoning,” Popham said. “I trust the [County Commission] will rule in favor of work-force housing.”
Assistant County Attorney Susan Grimsley said the developer purchased the trailer park in 2004, before the rule went into effect in July 2006. “The loss of this [trailer] park may have been one of the first to give the county insight into the need for inclusionary zoning,” she said. Acting Planning Commission attorney Tom Wright warned the board against challenging Grimsley’s legal position. “The developers have relied on that decision to move forward with their plans,” he said.
One proponent of the project is Sam Stoya, who owns the trailer park and marina to the immediate north of the project. He said the developers have cleaned up the neighborhood. “If they manicure that road [Second Avenue] or even put up a gate, it will be an improvement. The residents there before were unemployed and there were an average of four police calls there every week,” Stoya said. “[The developer] should be allowed the maximum amount of flexibility to get through this. They provide good jobs with benefits. I don’t see 20 neighbors who are opposed to this.”
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