Thank you Florida Bay Forever for providing a website with contact information for both Village and County officials. Click here

(He's also a parent and an Islamorada resident and taxpayer.)

A much delayed Comprehensive Plan update: What is Islamorada’s game plan?

Senate Bill 180 passed in Florida’s 2025 legislative session, 18 months ago. It included an increase in the required hurricane evacuation clearance time for Monroe County from 24 hours to 24.5 hours, with the State of Florida allowing up to 900 additional Keys ROGO/BPAS allocations. 

Monroe County was awarded 657 additional allocations, Islamorada 75 of the 900 total. 

The 900 must be spread over at least 10 years, limited to no more than one allocation per vacant lot. Workforce housing is to be the priority.

What has the Village done? Do they really care about addressing workforce housing as a priority?

To this point - nothing has been done for over a year. Islamorada governance has not publicly discussed any specific plan as to the use of these new allocations. 

And there are no guiding limitations in our “new” comp plan.

Monroe County, by contrast, did approve a plan.  The County submitted a plan to the state. Florida’s Department of Commerce had two recent objections to the amendments the County Commission approved in July 2026 to their Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code:

• Their amendments do not adequately reserve new allocations for deed restricted affordable housing.

• They fail to justify allowing existing early evacuation units in coastal high-hazard velocity flood zones.

In July, County Commissioners created a new category, market-rate workforce housing. This category is intended to use about 80% of new allocations for property owners who are members of the workforce and earn at least 70% of their income in the county.

But the state objected to those workforce allocations being only market-rate, not including some deed restricted affordable units among the 657. 

What about the objection to allowing the units to be placed in a V flood zone?  

Last November the Islamorada Council approved a change that would allow 300 affordable housing allocations (granted by the governor after Hurricane Irma) to be located in a V flood zone after an objection from Florida Commerce. 

The Village argued that there was such a critical need for affordable housing in Islamorada that there should not be any restrictions as to location. 

We believe the Village was wrong and argued against it.

The Village demonstrated the critical need by providing that same old “2007 Workforce Housing Support Study.”

This study has been used to justify more local development as long as there are at least some affordable units included.  “Affordable housing” has been the Trojan horse (see Greek story later newsletter) to trick the village into many bad building decisions.

How is it even remotely possible that the Village makes decisions based on studies over 15 years old!  Where is a current study with valid current data?

It is no wonder there is chaos in our housing and building situations.

Will Commerce revisit that flood zone decision for affordable housing?

Affordable housing in a flood zone defies logic. Higher construction, insurance, and maintenance costs in flood zones will make workforce housing rents unaffordable to the folks they’re supposed to help.  

Additionally, those with transportation hardships would be less likely to evacuate early as required.

The inescapable question remains: What has the Village done, if anything, to address the 75 new potential BPAS allocations?

Is the Village staff or council waiting for the new comp plan?

The only comment in the “final draft” of the amended Comp Plan, “Blueprint for Balance,” simply states: 

“Detailed procedures …. shall be established and maintained in the Land Development Regulations…”

But what are they?

Able City East presented the “Final Draft” of the amended Village comp plan on September 30, 2026.  At that workshop they stated that the next steps would be a public hearing by the LPA and then two public hearings by Council to approve the entire 243 page document in bulk.

Is this new “Blueprint for Balance” truly representative of our needs and ready for prime time? Did it close the decades old loopholes that have helped the overdevelopment and exploitation of our islands?

We can’t wait to see what Florida Commerce has to say about our new comp plan. Is it ready for use as a viable Village plan for the next decade or so?

Able City claimed Islamorada has had far more opportunity for review and updates than any area they have worked in.

I disagree and think they just want to move on.

We are allegedly an area of “critical state concern.”  Let’s hope that Florida Commerce is diligent and thorough in their review of our amended comprehensive “Blueprint.”     

Let’s hope the State does have critical concern about protecting our fragile environment, our limited infrastructure and our quality of life. 

With any holes in the plan we may face years of degradation of the place we love.   We cannot let that happen.

Tom

just a coincidence that all four seats had a member of the Chamber opposed by a non-member of the Chamber.

Click here to view the 2-hour Chamber of Commerce candidate forum that took place Oct 13, with the eight people running for a seat on the Islamorada Council. (Vice Mayor Sharon Mahoney, reelected unopposed)

At the next meeting of the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners on Wed, Oct 21, at the Marathon Government Center at approximately 11 am, the commission will consider the 2026 US 1 Level of Service (LOS) traffic study, which reaches a passing grade for traffic on U.S. One. This means developers will not be required to mitigate for the traffic impacts when doing new projects.

Oddly, average computed speeds on the highway per the LOS traffic studies keep improving. But certainly we can all see that traffic on the highway has been getting worse, not improving.

A Citizens Committee was recently formed to analyze the 2026 LOS study and the LOS methodology on which the study is based.

The Committee has found a number of flaws in the LOS methodology, particularly regarding the treatment of certain types of traffic delays. Construction, school buses, school zones, and openings of the Snake Creek drawbridge are being excluded from travel times. The resulting slowdowns are ignored. The Committee believes this is wrong. The slowdowns regularly impact the traffic and are continual.

The Committee believes that these flaws result in inflated computed speeds   therefore suggesting we have more capacity available on the highway. As a result, the LOS studies are virtually guaranteed to reach a passing grade.

Isn’t it critical to address our very real traffic concerns, not find ways to ignore them?  Let the County Commissioners know how concerned you are with our traffic congestion. It is disruptive to residents and to our tourists.  

Click here for detailed story “A Flawed Traffic Study Could Reshape How the Keys Grow” from Above the Fold.

Ted Yates served as Islamorada’s Village Manager from August 1, 2022, to July 31, 2023. In 2022 he signed a one‑year contract with an auto-renewal option. In July 2023, the Village Council voted 3‑2 not to renew Yates’s contract.

Yates filed a lawsuit in May 2024 (over 10 months after separation) claiming he was terminated  without cause. The court ruled that he was not terminated, but rather the Council voted to not renew his 1-year contract. The remaining question: When voting 3-2 to not renew, Yates argued that Councilman Henry Rosenthal should have recused himself, leaving a 2-2 vote when a majority would be required for non-renewal. The primary question: Did Rosenthal have a conflict of interest that would have required him to recuse himself in the vote to not extend the Yates contract. Without Rosenthal’s vote, there would not have been the required majority to not extend.   A conflict of interest arises when an official’s private financial, family, or business interests could benefit by the outcome of the vote.  The Village argued that Rosenthal would not have received financial benefit from the passage of the vote to not renew.   The Oct 14 trial ran from 9:30 AM to 5 PM, with Judge James Morgan, Upper Keys Division Circuit Judge presiding.  The Village was represented by Eric Stettin, of Weiss Serota, hired and paid for by the Village insurance company.  The insurance coverage limit of $100,000 was reached in the case, so now the Village is responsible for legal costs and are now represented by both trial attorney Erica Hausdorff of Weiss Serota along with Stettin, with the Village paying the legal fees of $250/hour up until October 1, 2026 and then $325/hour starting Oct 1 2026 under the nearly signed contract with Weiss Serota.   The attorney’s for both sides are now to prepared legal briefs and then the judge will make his finally decision, expected near the middle of November.

Bills are already being pre-filed for the session scheduled to convene 3/2/27 and adjourn about 4/30/27.Click here to view bills filed and other information about the upcoming session.

When questioned about the lack of public participation in the Village, Mayor Don Horton has this to say: “I firmly believe that the lack of attendees at most council meetings is a sign that the citizens of Islamorada are pleased with the accomplishments and the decisions that we are making with my leadership as mayor.” Is this really the case?

Do you know the story of the Trojan Horse? The Greeks built a massive, hollow wooden horse and hid a select force of elite warriors inside its belly. Overjoyed Trojans believed the Greeks had withdrawn from battle. They dragged the horse inside their city walls as a victory trophy.

That night, while the city slept after a massive victory celebration, the hidden Greek warriors crept out of the horse, killed the watchmen and opened the city gates to the rest of the Greek fleet,  leading to the complete destruction of Troy.