Anchors & Atolls: Ocean Adventures with Dr. Jack Grove Florida Bay Forever invites you to an unforgettable evening of ocean exploration, storytelling, and discovery with renowned marine biologist Dr. Jack Grove.

Dr. Grove will be sharing his incredible experiences from decades of work across the tropical Pacific. Grove has spent over 50 years exploring the world’s oceans, traveling to more than 100 countries and studying marine ecosystems from the Galápagos to Antarctica. A respected scientist, author, and educator, he is best known for his work on tropical marine life and his book “The Fishes of the Galápagos Islands.” Now based in the Upper Keys, Dr. Grove continues to inspire others through his work in conservation, education, and research. Event Details Date:Friday, April 10. at Safe Harbor Angler House, Islamorada, MM80.5 Time: 6 PM – Meet & Greet; 6:30 PM - Presentation Free & open to the public   RSVP (appreciated): Email: info@floridabayforever.org; Text/Call: 561-818-5341 Cash bar; free hot dogs, popcorn, and light snacks

The latest draft from Able City East was received on March 11 and is available on the Village website. Click here. If you care about the future of the Village, get involved.

A Public Workshop is scheduled for April 29, 5:30 PM. Be there.

You can submit recommendations to the Village in advance or at the workshop.

Thanks to Nancy Klingener for providing info from the Wright Langley Collection. March 30, 1926 – A delegation appointed by the Monroe County Commission traveled to the Matecumbe Keys to help find the best route for a new highway. Some Matecumbe residents feared land values would plummet if the planned road traversed their properties, and the delegates hoped to ease their minds. Below: Aerial View of Lower Matecumbe Key, ca. 1920, showing the route of the railroad available from the Library’s Florida Keys History Center.

Monroe County Mayor, Michelle Lincoln, has been traveling around the county providing a “State of the County” presentation.  She was at last week’s Islamorada Chamber of Commerce luncheon. We hope she will make the presentation at the April 7 Village Council meeting. Click here for the report.

Many, if not all, Islamorada residents are aware that the Village’s “Constitution” is our Comprehensive Plan.

We have been without one for several years.

Developers, speculators, land use attorneys and their minions are driving trailer trucks through the loopholes that need to be remedied. Is this intentional or incompetence?

Draw your own conclusions but here are the facts:

On April 9, 2024, the Village Council gave direction to the Village Manager to seek the services of a professional consultant to UPDATE our Comprehensive Plan. 

The Council approved the $112,000 contract with Able City East on Oct 10,2024.

They were contracted to Update the Village’s Comprehensive Plan, with a projected completion and implementation date in 12 months?

We are now up to 17 months for this 12-month project. 

Unfortunately, it appears we are still months or maybe even years away from completion/implementation? Again, I question why? Our Village Manager and planner owe us an explanation. It appears that the powers that exist think that nobody cares. 

Perhaps new development benefits from this slow walk.

Updated Comp Plan?Instead of receiving a draft with Updates to the Village Comp Plan, we have received an all-new proposed Comprehensive Plan from Able City.  The difference between amendments that improve our existing Plan and an all new plan are like the difference between night and day.

Updates that must be approved by the Florida Commerce Department must be in legislative format with new text inserted underlined, and words that are to be deleted stricken with hyphens.  (Florida Statute 163.3184 C3)

Even if the draft is considered a “brand-new” Comprehensive Plan, it is clearly intended to update the existing Plan. Just semantics.

Without the legislative format it is extremely time-consuming and confusing to figure out what has been changed, what new text has been added, and what has been deleted.  The legislative format is intended to make that job easier. Without the appropriate formatting the review is next to impossible. 

If the intent was to make the document easier to read and navigate I think the effort failed. Most residents would likely be overwhelmed by the task of figuring out how this new plan and the updates will change life in the Village.

Spell it out? Bottom line…Format the Plan correctly.

Other observations- The future land use map is too small in the draft and not legible. Every single property owner should be entitled to see how their property has been treated in a “new” Comp Plan.  Haven’t we learned that from experience? Will every property owner be specifically informed?

During the creation of the first Islamorada Comprehensive Plan over twenty years ago, 18 public meetings were held, with standing room only.  The public was able to thoroughly consider every Goal, Objective and Policy, every property on the maps.

Local land use attorneys still, after over 20 years with the current plan, find continuing obscure loopholes to help their clients beat the system. Here we go again, new plan, new loopholes!

To complicate things further: Senate Bill 180 that passed the legislature last year, bars local governments from adopting or enforcing any “more restrictive or burdensome” planning rules for three years after the 2024 hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton.

That takes us until Oct 1, 2027 even though none of those storms damaged Islamorada or the County. Unnecessary and misguided, but, we were told, there was a legislative fix. Where are our lobbyists and Legislators in Tallahassee on the status of this issue?

Please explain? The legislative session ended without a much-needed fix.

The Village should continue the update process, with public workshops in the coming months. Now we have significant time until the fall of 2027!

Let me quote from the Able City East plan, page 228: “Public participation is at the heart of the Islamorada Comprehensive Plan. The Village recognizes that in order to build a plan that truly reflects community priorities, residents, business owners, civic organizations, and elected officials must be directly engaged throughout the process.”

It has been about a year since there has been any public involvement in the update process. Finally a workshop - April 29, 2026!

Who is in charge of this update? Is it the Village Manager and our Planning staff? Be transparent and embrace your constituents. You can do better. Our fear is that land use attorneys and their accomplices are getting more input than we are.

The draft contains 11 main elements, including areas like Future Land Use, Transportation, Housing, Conservation, Sustainability, Recreation and Open Space, and more. Each element deserves a separate public workshop. 

When we finally adopt this new Comprehensive Plan, will it be in cinque with the prior Land Development regulations and other Village Code? Doesn’t that extend the process even more?

Village Council, management, State Legislatures and lobbyists: We await your responses. There are a ton of unanswered questions.

This important process has been neglected and poorly executed.

Step it up or tell us why you can’t.

Elections have consequences.

Tom Raffanello

for Coral Shores Baseball Field at Founders Park. And the Design Build contract, never approved by the Village.  And so, the battle continues.  Do you have an opinion?

Coral Shores is the only county high school that does not have a school owned baseball facility.  The Village is property owner (bought with Village tax funds) and provided to the school at no cost. The School Board is funding the proposed upgrades just as they do for the other high schools in the Keys that are on school property. (School Tax funds come from Upper Keys taxpayers.)

The Village, as property owner, wants some say as to improvements, use in the off season, and maintenance, including the quality of the artificial turf. The School Board wants control over expenditures of the $5 million plus in costs.  

The kids just want to play ball.

Click here for analysis from Jamie Engel (served on the Village Baseball Task Force)

Click here for analysis from Capt Ed Davidson (Fla Keys Citizens Coalition and former member of the School Board)

If the project is to proceed for completion for the 2027 season, deadline for a decision is apparently April 7 when the Village Council and School Board both meet, separately.

To email the School Board: SchoolBoard@KeysSchools.com

To email the Council: clerk@islamorada.fl.us

For 10 years FKEC has had their Annual Energy-Saving Tree Giveaway, offered in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. FKEC  accounts holders received nearly 3,000 trees across the Upper and Middle Keys — adding shade, beauty, and energy savings throughout the community.

If you reserved a tree this year, pick-up day is Wed, Mar 25 in Tavernier from 4:00-6:00 PM. Beyond helping lower cooling costs, trees provide important benefits for the entire community — improving air quality, reducing stormwater runoff, beautifying neighborhoods, lowering  heat effect, and supporting a healthier local environment. The Million Trees Project is the Arbor Day Foundation’s 2026 spring campaign, targeting the planting of 1 million new trees across the United States through individual, school, and community participation. A single tree can remove carbon at a rate of 10–40 pounds per year in its first decade and 48–100 pounds per year once mature. Enforcement of tree removals: With the tremendous value of trees to a community, it is no wonder Islamorada has strict regulations intended to protect our trees.  The local concern is enforcement.   How troubling it is to see property owners ignore the tree cutting regulations and sometimes even “clear cut” (remove all vegetation from a lot) without a permit, to facilitate ease of development.  If caught, the mitigation cost is likely inconsequential to a property owner building a multi-million-dollar home or business. The penalty, if caught, just considered another small cost of making a huge real estate profit.

Technology is catching up.LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology enables precise tree measurement at the individual tree level. Cities have conducted LiDAR-based canopy surveys that map every tree in a municipality: location, height, crown spread, and species.

With LiDAR, maybe Islamorada could save more trees through better enforcement and provide stiffer penalties for clearing without a permit.  There could be programs to replace downed trees after a storm… instead of property owners removing even more trees after a storm, thinking they won’t be caught.

The latest draft from Able City East was received on March 11 and is available on the Village website. Click here. If you care about the future of the Village, get involved. No word yet on public workshop.

A Public Workshop is now scheduled for April 29. Be there.

will be the guest speaker at this month’s lecture hosted by the Matecumbe Historical Trust on Tues, Mar 24 at the Islamorada Public Library at 6 pm. Ron’s subject will be “Politics in the Florida Keys over the last 60 years”.

The lecture is free and open to the public.