Flood insurance and mayoral term limit grabbed headlines in 1998

Tennis at The Ocean Club

Island flood premiums to go down 15 percent

The next time you pay your flood insurance premium, you should notice that your rates have been reduced by 15 percent.

This is not due to the goodness or generosity of your insurance company, but rather to the hard and efficient work of a panel of local experts who put together the three-volume Key Biscayne Floodplain Management Plan, which is as thick as the Greater Miami telephone book.

Your reduction is particularly due to Peter Kory, a Key Biscayne resident who served as the project coordinator.

"Actually, it's almost incidental that we get credits leading to insurance premium reductions," Kory said a few days after presenting the floodplain management plan to the Village Council. "We need to focus on the activities that will help us reduce the severity of damage caused by flooding."

The Council unanimously approved the plan at its April meeting, qualifying island residents for the insurance reduction. Based on a 1996 flood insurance premium figure of $1.6 million, the savings island-wide should amount to more than $200,000. The impetus for the plan came from the federal government's national flood insurance program, a pool of funds that is drawn upon by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the event of disastrous flooding.

"After paying out emergency funds for damages from disasters, the government is starting to ask what we can do to limit damages," explained Village manager Sam Kissinger. "That's what this plan is going to do."

"The goal is to break the cycle of destruction, rebuilding, destruction, rebuilding, etc.," added Kory. "We can't do anything about reducing the severity of the storms, but we can do something about reducing the severity of the damages."

The federal flood insurance program created a community rating system to grade the status of flood-prone communities like Key Biscayne. Points are awarded for various factors which can mitigate damage from floods.

In the fall of 1996, the Village applied for the community rating system program. A representative from FEMA conducted an onsite inspection. Ratings range from Class I to Class 10 with Class 10 being the lowest and not eligible for any reduction and Class 1 being eligible for a 50 percent reduction. Key Biscayne accumulated 1,700 points to be rated as Class 7.

"One really big chunk came from open spaces, which the Village didn't really have," Kory said. "I convinced them that, from a floodplain management point of view, Crandon Park and Bill Baggs Park are part of Key Biscayne, which added a lot of dedicated open space."

Dinghy championship

Fireworks at the Ocean Club

Petition to increase mayor's term limit hits stumbling block with signatures

The petition to increase the number of terms a mayor may serve hit a signature verification snag at the Miami-Dade County Department of Elections and wound up falling three short of the number necessary to bring the issue to referendum.

Organizers of the Charter amendment petition drive will now have to file for a supplementary petition and submit the necessary signatures within 10 days.

"One of the problems is that some of the signatures on the voter registration are 20, 30 or even 40 years old, and signatures tend to change over the years," explained David Leahy, supervisor of elections of Miami-Dade County. "If the signatures are significantly different, we have to reject them."

Leahy said that 74 signatures were rejected because they didn't match and 44 others were ineligible because the people either weren't registered voters or weren't listed as Key Biscayne residents. Five people signed the petition twice.

"This was pretty average as far as petitions go," Leahy added.

Village clerk Conchita Alvarez said that she sent out a certified letter to petition organizer Conchita Suarez explaining that the petition was "legally insufficient."

Upon receipt of the certified letter, petition organizers have two business days to file for a supplementary petition and 10 days from receipt of the certified letter to furnish the necessary signatures.

New sand not expected to affect sea turtle nesting

Village officials say they believe this summer's nesting sea turtles will not be negatively impacted by the new sand on the Village beach.

James DeCocq, assistant to the Village manager and member of the Village beach renourishment task force, said the beach was recontoured on April after residents complained that the sand that had been placed there earlier this year as part of a new renourishment project was forming dangerous and unsightly gullies. The new contour meets state standards for beaches that are sea turtle nesting areas, DeCocq said. Sea turtle nesting season begins on May 1 and lasts through October.

"I think this sand is going to benefit the entire beach and the sea turtles in both the short term and the long term," explained DeCocq, who takes pictures of the newly placed sand for the record every few days.

Grand Bay Towers posts $20 million in condo pre-sales in only three months

Just three months after bringing its second and final high-rise on the market, Grand Bay Towers has posted more than $20 million in pre-sales.

The announcement was made by Shannon Selby, director of marketing.

"Response to the low-density, location and lifestyles of this community has been incredible," Selby said. "Judging by the current level of sales activity, we expect the second tower to close out even faster than our first tower."

According to Selby, with sales running well ahead of forecasts, the developers are pushing up the second tower groundbreaking, which is now scheduled for summer of this year. Only 14 of the 137 residences in Grand Bay's first tower are still available, and just one of the six penthouses remain on the market. At 8,000 square feet, it is listed for $2.4 million, but Selby doesn't expect it to be available for long.

"The purchaser looking to buy today and enjoy Grand Bay's lifestyle tomorrow will likely take the last penthouse because the first tower is up and ready for immediate occupancy," Selby said.

When complete, Grand Bay Towers will boast only 240 residences, with homeowners sharing the facilities and amenities of a lushly landscaped 44-acre oceanfront site. Priced from $625,000 to $2.5 million, Grand Bay Towers homeowners come from countries on continents around the world.

Progressive Dinner

For the last Islander Throwback, click here.