PUBLIC SERVICE PAGE
More than 100 people turned up at Old City Hall this week for a meeting of the Historic Architectural
Review Commission — surely a modern record, especially for a weekday afternoon in late September.
And most were probably disappointed when HARC, by a 3-2 vote, approved issuing a certificate of
appropriateness to the massive proposed development called Watermark, set to take the place of the
Jabour's Campground in the Key West Bight.
HARC's decision was not a surprise. The board had, in fact, already approved this project in an even more
massive configuration, which was sent back by the city's Planning Board. That board had many concerns
including the project's height and whether the proposed mansard roofs qualify as "pitched roofs," which is
the only way to add another five feet to the city's 35-foot height limits.
By the time of its second go-round with HARC, the opposition of a few neighbors had grown into a more
widespread concern that this project could wind up as another concrete blight to our historic harborfront,
something many residents thought had gone out along with leg warmers and New Wave music in the 1980s.
But Watermark is a special case, the beneficiary of long-fought court battles and rulings won by the Jabours
when they owned the property. More recently, the new property owners, the city of Key West and the state
Department of Community Affairs all signed a settlement agreement outlining what could be done with the
property.
It was a canny move on the developers' part to go to the city and DCA pre-emptively and get that agreement.
Still, the actual prospect of huge four-story buildings rising along the city-owned historic seaport have
appalled many and they have, reasonably enough, demanded that the project be required to fit in with its
surroundings in mass and scale. It should be noted that everyone in the city is an adjoining property owner
to this project, because residents, collectively, own the Key West Bight.
Neighbors who oppose this project say they understand something will be built on the site, and something
will. A prime property like this, in the heart of Old Town and in the increasingly popular historic seaport,
could hardly fail to sell for millions of dollars a unit.
The HARC meeting was not the last we will hear about Watermark. It still needs approval from the Planning
Board and City Commission. No doubt many of the same arguments will be heard again, with possible twists
of procedure and legal actions to come.
We would like to imagine a new and unprecedented outcome, something different from the same old
developers-versus-neighbors, stop-the-project-or-else dynamic. What if this project really became a
watermark — or better yet, a turning point in the island's unfortunate waterfront development history?
What is stopping the developers from working with the neighborhood and the many distinguished architects
in our community to come up with a design that genuinely fits in with the surroundings, adds to the
community and, most importantly, complies with the city's guidelines and land development regulations,
especially those regarding mass, scale and community character? Stranger things have happened around
here.
— The Citizen
IN LITIGATION. WE ARE EXPECTING AN
UPDATE FROM ONE OF THE LITIGANTS IN
THE NEAR FUTURE. STAY TUNED!
ROLLISON -- TRANSIENT
RENTAL
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The design's the problem.
Hey, maybe if they had made the design
closer to more traditional colonial
Caribbean type architecture than the
Anywhere, Florida stucco eyesore that's
been presented, then maybe fewer people
would have objected!
Many of us are beginning to feel that the
coming year will tell the tale of what kind
of a community we will have, and what
kind of a place not just Key West, but the
entire Florida Keys will be in twenty years.
We want safe, stable neighborhoods, and
the means to maintain a sustainable
community. We needs real and practical
solutions to our housing problems. We
need fair-minded and forward-thinking
local government.
You can help by supporting
Last Stand
and other organizations like it.
comment are invited to contact us
by e mail. Just click here to send
us an e mail!
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