From Sec 30-632 Findings Islamorada Land Development Regulations: “Ensuring workforce and their families live in the village is important for maintaining community character”  explaining there is a “general sense of community that occurs when persons and families who work in the community, live in the community, attend schools in the community, participate in civic organizations in the community, worship in the community, and vote in the community.”

Have the Village Councils, over the last 25 years, done enough to “Ensure the workforce and their families live in the village?”

Perhaps only big profit projects get attention.  

The Village has close to 130 employees - a significant percentage commute from Key Largo, Tavernier or the mainland.  

The County gets TDC funding to pay 100% of the purchase price for 12 newly finished 1-bedroom apartments for the workforce - and still needs to charge rents starting at $1797/month… and require minimum income of $71,880 to qualify.  

The Village uses some of the available affordable housing funds to buy potential sites for affordable housing then does nothing with the land.

• 12/2021, Island Silver and Spice, MM82: $2.75 Million

• 5/2021, Machado, MM88.5, $1.8 Million

• 8/2024, Church, MM83, $3.995 Million

Islamorada got 300 affordable BPAS allocations after Hurricane Irma in 2018 and the allocations just sit unused.