County focuses on development, property insurance

MARATHON - The Monroe County Commission took up development and property insurance, two of the Florida Keys' most important issues, at its monthly meeting last week.

On Wednesday, April 19, commissioners started their first public discussions with the state Department of Economic Opportunity on creating a new hurricane evacuation model, and Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi stressed the need for the community to be involved in the process. The evacuation model will determine how many, if any, future building allocations the state doles out to the Keys.

Hurricane evacuation and development have been hotly debated in the Keys for the past decade, with the community divided on how much development the chain of the islands can handle. In some cases, development and the number of state-issued building allocations given to Keys governments have been in challenged in court.

DEO oversees development in the Keys. DEO Secretary Meredith Ivey addressed the Monroe County Commission virtually during last week's meeting. Ivey applauded local Keys governments, calling them a "wonderful group to work with."

The DEO, which is still in the "fact-finding" portion of the modeling, is expected to have a report on the issue by the end of the year, Ivey said. DEO has begun meeting with local governments and stakeholders to receive input, Ivey said.

The model will take into consideration the number of tourists, site-built homes, vehicle usage and other factors that will impact hurricane evacuations, Ivey said.

There are some changes to the modeling, which would add U.S. Navy base housing and mobile homes into the formula for residents who need to be evacuated 24 hours ahead of a storm.

They had previously not been included in the formula. Mobile homes have been included in the 48-hour evacuation.

The new formula adds 4,776 mobile homes into the equation, according to Monroe County Property Appraiser's Office figures for mobile homes in the Keys. In addition, Naval Air Station Key West has 733 homes and personnel who live elsewhere on the base in barracks and at the marina, base spokeswoman Danette Baso Silvers said.

Development and building allocations given to the Keys from the state have been a controversial subject in the Keys.

Florida Keys insurance watchdog group Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe (FIRM) board chair Mel Montagne addressed the commission on property insurance rate hikes and the group's efforts to continue fighting rate increases.

FIRM is working on a number of issues to reduce insurance costs with the state Legislature session underway, most notably battling new flood insurance requirements for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policyholders enacted during the December 2022 special session.

Citizens handles an overwhelming number of windstorm policies in the Keys.

Due to the changes approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Citizens policyholders must now secure and maintain flood insurance regardless of whether they are in areas prone to inundation, have elevated homes or do not have a federally backed mortgage.

On April 1, new Citizens policyholders were required to have flood insurance, and on July 1, existing policyholders who live in flood zones will have to have flood coverage. On Jan. 1, 2024, Citizens will begin phasing in people who live outside of flood zones to have flood coverage, with every policyholder being required to carry it by 2027.

Montagne reminded the commission that the state Office of Insurance Regulation agreed to allow Citizens to increase its annual rate cap by 5-15% and to remove the rate cap for second homeowners, which is going to result in significant rate increases this year, he said.

Montagne urged the county to consider working with FIRM on filing a class-action lawsuit against Citizens about rates, and to push to have a person from the Keys placed on the Citizens Board of Governors. St. John's County has two people on the Board of Governors, yet the county has far fewer Citizens policyholders than Monroe, Montagne said.

Following the presentation, the commission agreed to give the nonprofit group $50,000 to continue its advocacy efforts on the behalf of Monroe County property owners. tohara@keysnews.com