News
Article : Hawk's Cay Draws Interest of
Investigator
A
story published on Sunday April 25, 2004 in the Key
West Citizen written by staff writer Laurie Karnatz
provided a great deal of history on the approval of the
expansion of the Indies Inn which we now identify as the
Hawk's Cay Resort.
In
addition to reporting on the subpoena of official Monroe
County records dealing with the expansion of Hawk's Cay
Resort, the three page article provides a detailed and
thorough account of the development process from 1986 to
the present.
Quoted
are local residents Pat Reeder and June Helbling, Lilo
Hagbeck, villa investor William Paul , developer Pritam
Singh, Attorney Hendricks, and Mary Hansley and Alicia
Putney, former Planning Commissioners.
Some
quotes from the Key West Citizen article taken out
of order may be found below:
2004
Pat
Reeder - "A lot of people are disappointed," said
Reeder, whose property is located across a canal from
the resort's employee housing. She said this week that
many promises have been broken by both Singh and the
county.
"The
reaction I get is most people think the whole place is
awful," she said.
June
Helbling - But June Helbling, who at one point
publicly expressed exasperation over continuing
changes to the Hawk's Cay expansion, said this week
that she thinks it has benefited Duck Key residents.
"I
think Hawk's Cay has, as far as my personal real
estate holdings, done nothing but enhance the value,"
she said, referring to the high prices being paid for
the resort units.
Pritam
Singh - It cost Singh $1.5 million to buy the land and
the sewer plant, he said Saturday. "Don Johnson had no
obligation to give it to the county because the option
had expired," he said. "It was a fair deal, otherwise
the county would have had to pay the $1.5 million. It
was good business for everybody and it was all done
very, very publicly."
Hawk's
Cay is scrutinized far more than some other
developments because of its size, Singh said.
"Developments of Regional Impact are extraordinarily
controlled and the smallest change has to go before
all these public hearings, which then gives people a
chance to speak out," he said. "People think I'm less
controlled, but I'm more controlled than anyone would
ever dream of being."
He
added: "The development is the largest and most
successful resort in the Keys, by far."
1998
Mary
Hansley - "Well, you can call it a den if you like,
but when it's adjacent to a full bath, I call it an
additional bedroom and to me you're adding 50
additional bedrooms. You're not taking them away,"
Hansley said to applause. "So I don't see you
decreasing the amount of bedrooms. I see you
increasing them significantly."
2001
Lilo
Hagsbeck - "Liesolotte Hagbeck, a Duck Key resident
before Cohee's original expansion request, questioned
the equity of the project in a Dec. 7, 2001 letter to
the planning commission. "If county staff would
compare the initial and by-all-parties-agreed-upon
plan ... motel rooms were converted to townhouses and
owner-occupied homes, so-called vested rights were
claimed and given up in exchange for certain
privileges and then reclaimed, the density increased
from 6.7 units per acre to 10, deals were negotiated
and then negated," she wrote. "
"Many
modifications were made and it was agreed [there
would be] 269 units of the type that are presently
built," William Paul told the planning commission.
"Everything merged in that [1996] agreement.
There aren't [any] units left. ... You're
talking about something that doesn't exist. There
isn't a right to build more."
2002
Alicia
Putney - In her dissent, former planning commissioner
Alicia Putney said, "If you look at the application
from [Singh] in this matter that's before us
today, on attachment E, it says, quote: '... the 1996
changes reduce the total number of new units from 444
to 269 and reconfigures the units to provide for
multiple bedrooms and bathrooms.'"
Putney
also pointed out earlier documents prepared by the
resort and submitted to various state and county
agencies that indicate "building permits have now been
issued for all 269 units approved in the development
order," and "this addresses all the units through
build-out."
"I
could go on and on," Putney said at the time.
The
informative article is well researched and explains how
the resort expanded in size from 178 hotel rooms in 1986
to the complex it is today with the addition of 295
villas plus several more pools and ancillary buildings.
!986
Agreement
The
article doe not describe the 1986 Agreement between the
Duck Key Property Owners Association and Hawk's Cay
Investors. The agreement stipulated provisions on noise
and marina use which were directed at protecting the
residential community adjacent to the resort property.
Declaration
of Covenants, Conditions and
Restrictions
