At the Council Land Use meeting last Thursday, Sue Miller, representing the Islamorada Community Alliance (ICA), spoke against adding 42 affordable housing units to a 1-acre oceanfront lot on Windley Key as being too dense, especially in a “Coastal High Hazard,” V Flood zone, location.

The applicant’s attorney commented at the podium that the ICA would be against anything the applicant wanted to develop there.

 

Perhaps so.  The ICA has consistently pointed to evidence of “overbuilding.”

• Windley Key is listed in the 2025 Traffic Study as a “D” classification - a segment that should be given particular attention when approving development applications.

• Serious evacuation and safety concerns have been repeatedly mentioned for decades by various speakers like Captain Ed Davidson quoting flaws in the evacuation methodology.

  
  

The ICA does not appear to be alone in their concerns. And the State objected to the change after first reading as it conflicts with our Comp Plan.

At the County Commission meeting last week, a resolution was passed asking for help from South Florida Regional Planning as they review a planned project along Miami-Dade’s Krome Avenue (an important way out for the Keys during an evacuation): 954 acres of agricultural land along Krome  Avenue would include 7,800 new residential units, more than 2 million square  feet of office, retail and industrial space, and three new schools.

The Monroe County Commission is rightly worried. But they have no jurisdiction in Miami-Dade. (Click here for the story in the Keys Citizen Saturday)

Florida Keys elected officials do have jurisdiction in Monroe County. And the ICA has often voiced concerns when Keys elected officials find ways to ignore traffic studies and evacuation methodology, ignore limited water sources, upzone properties to add more building rights; ask the legislature for more ROGO building allocations.  Silent on the tens of millions of annual TDC spending to bring in more tourists.