We are currently watching as our most important document, our Constitution, Islamorada’s Comprehensive Plan, is being completely rewritten, not amended, in a less than ideal and efficient process.
This document has been more than 18 months in the making and only since March 2026 have we seen the proposed plan.
In our founding years, Council meetings and workshops were once standing-room only. Critically important workshops and meetings have been few and far between with very limited attendance for the last decade.
After waiting 18 months, the Village seems to be in a giant hurry to finalize the Comp Plan.
One of the most critical processes that any municipality ever deals with is the creation of their Comprehensive Plan.
The Council hired Able City East, a planning organization, in Oct 2024 to help get the Village through an UPDATE, NOT A REWRITE, of our defining rules – the Village Comprehensive Plan.
The importance of the plan is on Page 1 of the draft plan written by Able City:
Why it matters for residents: For residents, the Comprehensive Plan influences everything from how easy it is to walk or bike safely, to whether affordable housing is available, to how well the Village protects its coastal resources. By tying local decisions to state and regional frameworks, the plan helps ensure Islamorada remains a livable, resilient community for generations.
Also on the very first page of the draft plan:
2. Public Involvement: The process requires meaningful public participation, ensuring residents, business owners and stakeholders have a voice in shaping their community’s future.
Able City East’s approach and promise from the start:
What separates us from other planning firms is our conviction that every citizen should be given the chance to become citizen planners for life. Often times, public participation processes will engage citizens for a number of hours or days. We take a different approach, one that makes planners out of lay people.
Village Manager, Ron Saunders, reported the results of an April 29 Comprehensive Plan workshop for the public in last week’s Village newsletter:
“Consultants from Able City East shared an overview of the plan, followed by a productive Q&A session with attendees. The meeting was well attended, and we appreciate the thoughtful feedback received from the community. We want to hear from you. The public comment period is open through June 1, 2026.”
June1st?????? June 1 - come and gone! What’s the hurry?
The Plan cannot be carefully reviewed by the resident lay planners in that time frame.
If rushed - we will not have a quality product that represents the Village.
Perhaps Saunders needs to take off the rose-colored glasses.
Ron, for a town of 7000 residents, 20 attendees at such a critical workshop should hardly be considered “well attended.”
Twenty residents is not exactly standing room only.
Ten of the attendees at the Oct 29 workshop were there to object to an affordable housing project planned for their immediate neighborhood.
The format of the new Comp Plan draft document made a meaningful review of the changes an impossible challenge.
We believed that we simply were updating the existing plan to bring the antiquated data and procedures into the present-day setting.
Instead we got a totally new 242-page Comp Plan… a highly technical manuscript with sophisticated planning jargon presented by Able City.
Able City promised to make planners out of lay people.
They didn’t. The plan was, at times, incomprehensible to us “lay people.”
Our own initial review uncovered many typographical errors, misconceptions and misstatements.
We need to know the following:
· What exactly was changed?
· What was added?
· What was deleted?
· Keep it simple! Use normal coding with cross-thrus and underlines.
Last week Planning Director Jennifer DeBoisbriand was the featured speaker at the Islamorada Chamber lunch.
The Chamber posted:
Islamorada Village Planner Jennifer DeBoisbriand did a fantastic job breaking the Comprehensive Plan update down into understandable and manageable pieces while helping attendees better understand the process and why it is important.
This is exactly what the residents should receive at a TOWN HALL MEETING at the Village Community Center.
Help us understand!
Residents need to be trained as lay planners in orderto assist in a critical role in planning the future of the community.
WE know what WE want.
The Village public workshop lasted just 1 hour and 20 minutes.
That would make it impossible to unravel 242 complex pages of rules and regulations in the “new” Comp Plan.
Residents and staff also need to figure out changes, coordinating the Comp Plan and new Land Development Regulations. (LDRs)
The planning staff had the initial draft of the Comp Plan from September 2025 until February of 2026 for their professional review.
That’s 5 months.
In March 2026 the draft became available to the “lay planners” of Islamorada who will be subjected to the Comp Plan guidelines and will need to deal with new Future Land Use and Zoning Maps for the next couple decades. With no planning assistance.
Fair? Good governance? Absolutely not!
When the Village approved the first Comp Plan and maps, they held over a dozen public hearings with huge maps hanging on the walls for residents to study.
The promise of public involvement only works if the public is engaged in the process.
We need to make that happen or we will be facing a future with plenty of “I was never told” or “Nobody told me” excuses for years to come.
In last week’s Village newsletter, Manager Saunders stated written comments can be sent to Planning: Jennifer.deboisbriand@islamorada.fl.us by Monday, June 1, 2026.
Now that the comment period is closed, all feedback is to be reviewed. And then the next public meeting date will be announced.
I repeat what Able City wrote:
The process requires meaningful public participation, ensuring residents, business owners and stakeholders have a voice in shaping their community’s future.
Resident participation should be the Village Council and Manager’s first priority. It is a key ingredient to the success of the Village.
I implore the Village Council and Manager to focusing on the electorate and invigorating their participation in the process.
Anything less is unacceptable.
Invigorate the electorate!!!
Tom
