TO: Mayor
Dixie Spehar
FROM: Timothy
J. McGany, AICB Director of
Growth
DATE: May
30, 2003
SUBJECT:
Duck Key and Tier System
Issue
Recently, the Board of
County Commissioners received a letter from Dennis
D'Angelo and an e-mail from Marcel Damiecki -Betsy Conrad
raising concerns about the Tier designation of non-water
front vacant, upland lots on Center Island, Duck Key.
Basically, these property owners are concerned that the
preliminary Tier IT designation of these Iots would have
a negative impact on the development of the lots.
'Tier Designation and
Revision Process
The staff wants to assure
the BOCC that Tier designations are not done haphazardly,
nor arc revisions made without careful scrutiny. The.
designations and any revisions to these designations are
done following specific criteria supplemented by field
investigations; however, due to the geographic scope and
number of individual. properties involved, errors and
omissions will occur. New information or the results of
the Livable CormnuniKeys Program may result in further
need for revisions.
With that being said, the
Tier System maps which the Board will be asked to approve
on June I8, 2003, are not without some minor flaws.
Although the designation of the County into three tiers
was done in accordance with specffc criteria, which will
be provided to the Board in next month's agenda package,
further amendments may be required over the next year
until these designations arc officially adopted as a
zoning overlay next year.
In recognition of this
need for flexibility, the draft Interim Development
Ordinance, which will be considered by the BOCC on June
I8 th that approves the Tier maps, provides a process for
revisions
text of page 2 of McGarry
Letter
to
be made to these maps during the term of the proposed
moratorium. A process has been already been established
by the County staff, which is memorialized as policy in
the proposed interim ordinance, that provides for
consideration of map revisions.
Specific Staff Response to Puck Key Concerns
In the case of the vacant non-waterfront lots owned by
Mr. D'Angelo and Mr. Damicki(Ms. Conrad, these lots had
been initially designated Tier II due to lack of
development and presence of wetlands on some of the
properties. Most of these lots had been deemed
unbuildable by the Year 2010 Comprehensive Plan until the
County adopted procedures and regulations that allowed
development of disturbed wetland lots.
Initially, all of Duck Kcy, which includes three
subdivisions, was considered for a Tier II designation,
as less than. 50.. percent of the. lots were developed
with the presence of isolated environmentally sensitive
wetlands in the middle of Center Island. However, as is
the case with other subdivisions in the County that have
clearly delineated developed and undeveloped areas, it
was decided by staff to separate Duck Key into two
different Tiers with the vacant non-waterfront and
wetland lots on Center Island as Tier LI and the
remainder of Duck Key as Tier Ill. The reasoning was that
it would not, make sense to designate the waterfront
.l&ta, as Tier II, since most of the lots were
developed and the vacant lots contained no significant
environmental features.
Ever since this initial designation, the staff has
debated the validity and purpose of designating the
middle of Center Island as Tier II while the surrounding
areas and the remainder of Duck Key were designated Tier
III. from a planning perpective, the proximity and
central 'location of the nonwaterfront lots to
surrounding developed lots . and available infrastructure
make these lots desirable for infill development.
Furthermore, the lack of significant environmental
features worth preserving, except for a few isolated "Red
Flag" wetland Jots that are unbuildable, serves little
public interest in retaining these lots for conservation
and open space purposes.
Based on these planning concerns, the staff. was.
directed to follow-up with a field investigation to
determine if the initial designation was-appropriate. The
investigation was recently completed and it was
determined that the Tier- III dtslgtiatiom is the more
appropriate designation for all of Center Island for the
reasons it" in -the above paragraph.
The
Tier Maps will be revised to reflect this revision to
Center Island, Duck Key. The maps to be presented to the
BOCC for approval on June 1 8 will reflect this
revision.
Should
you have any questions or need further clarification
please don't hesitate to call Ms. Marlene Conaway or
me.
cc: Board
of County Commissioners
Planning
Commissioners
James
L. Roberts, County Administrator
John
R. Collins, County Attorney
K.
Marlene Conaway, Director of Planning and Environmental
Resources
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