And a parent and an Islamorada resident and taxpayer.
The Comprehensive Plan of Islamorada is our roadmap, our bible.
The current update has been in the works since May of 2024.
That is almost two and a half years ago! To put this in perspective, consider the fact that it took the Founders of our Nation FIVE MONTHS to write and approve the US Constitution.
A purpose was to CLOSE the loopholes that have been abused by the growth supporters and their acolytes.
And the state requires Islamorada to have an updated Comp Plan……… The existing Comp Plan was approved well over 20 years ago following at least 18 room-packed public meetings to iron out every detail.
Planners and attorneys working for developers managed to find plenty of loopholes over the years bypassing the intent of comp plan limits approved over 25 years ago.
It appears we have been in no hurry to close any loopholes..
Council?
Now the only motivation to update our existing plan now seems to be the state requirement to do so.
Will we close the loopholes? Or will we just open more?
How strong is the process to UPDATE the comp plan? How involved is the public this time around? Will the state provide much oversight?
In the proposed plan by Able City East – far down in the document (page 236 of 253) we find these words:
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Public participation is at the heart of the Islamorada Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan update seeks to guide growth, resilience, and quality of life in Islamorada, and public input ensures that the Plan aligns with the needs and values of the Village.
We all agree that planning in public creates transparency, builds trust, and ensures that the strategies developed are representative of the community.
I bet if you asked 5 residents, 10 or even 100, what comp plan policies and strategies are being updated, added or changed in this new version of our plan for the future of the special community they love, you would get a blank stare from all of them.
The prior council approved Able City East’s contract on October 10, 2024. Their timeline – completion in 12 months. (We are way over) The contracted price - $112,000. (A real bargain)
We can’t blame Able City for delays. Their effort began immediately after the contract was signed.
A week of public opportunities followed in March with Charrette Week, March 24-28. Who remembers that?
Since that week there seems to have been limited public opportunity for input while the staff had months and months of review time.
A draft was finally presented to the public – April 29, 2026 – a full year after the public charrette week.
And now, the Village posted an invitation to attend the Presentation of the Final Draft of the new Comprehensive Plan this Wednesday, Sep 30 at 5:30 PM with the words:
According to the draft itself “The final phase involved formal review and approval. After community review and official hearings, the updated Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2026.”
Am I the only one who thinks we are far from having an acceptable Comprehensive Plan for review and approval. The public needs to be encouraged to participate. It is a very complex and critical “blueprint” for the future direction of our community.
My fear is that we have written a new plan, not amended the existing one, which contained loopholes.
We need to go through the “changes” paragraph by paragraph – page by page. We need a list of the old and the new policies so our residents understand what this plan means to the future of Islamorada.
We need to update the Land Development Regulations (LDRs) so they will be in cinque with the new comp plan. New data reports are needed instead of the old now meaningless reports from 2001, 2007 we see over and over again at public hearings.
While this process continues, planners, attorneys and developers speed up their pursuit of existing loopholes.
We should have suspended decisions on building applications until we have enacted the new plan and LDRs. But let’s do it now.
Gutsy move? Maybe, but a move residents would likely support.
Tom
