1) Addressing the housing crisis – Its obvious that Key West is experiencing an acute housing crises which is hurting families and workers. Our unemployment rate is ~2.5%, yet business owners are having an extremely difficult time recruiting employees as wage laborers and even skilled technical labor are being priced out of the market and forced to move further and further away from the city, eventually they leave for good. There are external factors which are contributing, such as the general housing market, interest rates, investment properties, etc, but there are factors we have under our control. Namely, the Keys are artificially limited by policy including ROGO (rate of growth ordinance), density restrictions, lack of multi-family and mixed use residential, and limits on accessory dwellings. By increasing density and encouraging mixed used developments and raising height restrictions for specific developments we can raise supply. Legalizing accessory dwellings will allow current mortgage owners to make use of their property to offer additional sources of income to landlords while boosting supply for the market.
2) The City is has increased the millage rate which impacts both mortgagees and renters. With the rising cost of inflation, operating the city will require more increases if there is no one on the board who takes fiscal responsibility seriously. Just last week the City passed a policy to purchase an all electric vehicle fleet, the average cost of an EV is $54,000. For fleets, this requires specialized technicians, expensive battery maintenance, and charging facilities. Not to mention the fact that during an emergency the question of the integrity of these charging facilities and powering them comes into question. Decisions like these pass with no debate, we can cut fat from government while prioritizing core services like infrastructure and EMS which are short staffed due to the labor issue.
3) I am the only candidate who has roots in the hospitality industry, for the past 2 years the hospitality industry has been kicked around from lock-downs to other restrictions which make doing business in Key West unpredictable. While the industry is responsible for one billion dollars in annual revenue in the county, we make up zero percent of the representation on the City. Being a business owner of more than 12 restaurants, 5 in the Keys, I have the experience to make intelligent and informed decisions that keep our industry healthy, which means more tax income for the city and less of a burden on residents who have to pick up the slack from increased taxes and millage rates. Its not a zero sum game, we can all benefit from our most precious resource.
like the site!
I have a few questions.
Do you plan on having any restrictions on accessory dwelling units or will this just be another free for all for owners to charge whatever they want for these? Will you require deed restrictions that require them to be rented at the city affordable rate structure?
Will owners be required to rent them or will owners be allowed to build them and then use them as a guest cottage, bypassing the ROGO system to add a fully functional living space while not providing any relief to the rental housing crisis?
You seem to be against the city buying EVs but have you actually looked into the long term cost of ownership? Have you factored in the practically zero maintenance costs compared to maintaining ICE city cars? Have you factored in the cost savings of fuel over the life of the car? Are you only looking at the initial investment and not the actual cost of ownership over the life of the car?
You say the EVs will require specialized technicians. Does the city currently maintain their own cars or are they sent to a local dealership for service and maintenance?
Can you please tell me what “expensive battery maintenance” is? Over the last 20 years, I have owned 6 electrified vehicles and I have never paid for ANY battery maintenance, and one of my current cars is 12 years old with 151,000 miles on it. What is this maintenance you are talking about?
You’re concerned about the integrity of the charging facilities during an emergency. What emergencies are you concerned about? Gas stations often have their awning collapse in a hurricane but EV stations are placed in the open, often attached to a building. Are you concerned about power to use the stations? Gas stations need power as well to pump gas. Don’t we have multiple city buildings with generators that could also supply power to a charging station? An EV can have a range of over 300 miles. Are you concerned that the power will be out so long that a city car on a small island could travel 300 miles before the power is restored? I know in my car, that would take a few weeks. Perhaps we need to focus more on hardening our infrastructure to ensure we don’t blackouts that last weeks? We could start increasing solar use on city buildings to ensure that these buildings have some power during these extended blackouts?
Which restaurants in the Keys do you own?
Hey Neil,
These are all really great questions! Thank you for dropping by and be willing to ask.
As far as pricing, I do not believe in setting rent ceilings, the reason why is because in cities where ceilings are placed this discourages building new units which leads to supply shocks and ironically in some cases higher prices in the overall market. By increasing supply we can meet demand which will lower rates, combined with mixed use commercial/residential and encouraging multi-family developments we can as a community add supply in aggregate which will have a downward effect on prices while covering all expense brackets.
Will owners be required to rent them out or use them as a guest cottage? That is a great question, I would assume that most homeowners making the investment would want to rent them out to recover the investment. We do not want to waste ROGO unnecessarily, so encouraging use as a rental unit would be paramount to the programs success. Although I would not want to penalize folks who stop renting for whatever personal reason.
I believe that EV’s are the future, I am actually hoping my next car will be an EV! As a matter of fact, one part of my plan to address the energy crises is to look into tax credit for solar and solar batteries, specifically because this will take pressure off the grid and allow for more EV options. I do believe we are still at least a decade away from EV’s becoming a major player in the market and the technology is simply just to expensive for most people, but just as the market did with flat screen TV’s, adoption and innovation will mean lower prices. As far as the City goes, switching over all vehicles to EV may not be a good idea. Things like pickup trucks are slowly incorporating fuel saving hybrid technology, but few are fully EV. These vehicles are used and abused, so it will be important that we have techs either on staff or in town able to work on them when they go wrong, as well as access to parts needed. You gave me a lot to think about as far as your experience with EV’s, and I am glad they are positive! We would just need to make sure that emergency vehicles are able to operate in a grid down scenario post hurricane and that we have what we need to maintain and operate them long term. I believe its the future, but it will require more research to implement for every city vehicle, but I am willing to sit down and see how it could work.
I have some concerns with allowing ADUs with no restrictions on their use. If we do that, we aren’t really helping those that need affordable rentals here. While we all know the economics of supply and demand, demand in Key West will always outpace supply. There will always be people willing to pay whatever they have to in order to live in Key West.
If we’re going to allow ADUs, there needs to be incentives to build them and restrictions on their use. The incentive is easy. ADUs will add zero to the assessed value of the property as long as it’s being rented. The ADU needs to be deed restricted as affordable to be sure that when rented, it’s rented at the affordable rates set by the city and county. These rates are still high enough to make building an ADU quite desirable to a property owner. Building affordable housing is easy. What makes it so difficult is the cost of land. Homeowners already own their land so that cost is already being absorbed. The cost of building an ADU compared to the rent it will bring in, even based on affordable guidelines is still a great return on investment.
Allowing ADUs to be built unrestricted is just a way to bypass ROGO and build more units that will be rented at market rates, which is not affordable by the average worker here in Key West.
Before you take a stance on EVs, you should look at the long term costs of operating an EV. EV’s do have a high initial cost, but over the life of the vehicle, the cost per mile is substantially lower than the ICE counterpart. Now, as with anything, you buy the best vehicle for the job. I’m not suggesting that we look for EV front end loaders or EV dump trucks, but when it comes to cars, even for the police department, EVs have a much lower cost of use over the long haul.
When it comes to refueling, this is where the EV could have the advantage. Even an ICE car requires electricity to pump the gas. We all know during a hurricane evacuation, gasoline is very tough to come by. It all needs to be trucked down here and the trucks can’t come fast enough to keep up. Before a hurricane, our electric grid is fully operational and will keep the city EVs up and running without having to depend on the next delivery of gasoline. After a storm, when the power is out, the gas stations aren’t open anyhow. What we need to do it get the solar system at the city hall fully operational and that power could be used to charge EVs when the power is out. We could have some EV charging stations installed right at the Stock Island generator plant so when the emergency generator is running, there will be charging capabilities. There is also an opportunity here to install more solar on municipal buildings and have dedicated charging at those locations during extended outages. We’re a very isolated community and if a single bridge is ever destroyed in a hurricane, we won’t bet getting gasoline shipments for some time. Solar could keep those vehicles going, while leaving all emergency shipments of fuel coming in via boat being used for other purposes, lowering the demand.
As for maintenance and repairs, who is taking care of the fleet now? Do we have city mechanics repairing these vehicles or are they being sent to Keys Auto Group? If repairs are already being outsourced, it wouldn’t matter if the car was an Explorer or a Mach-E. Both would be serviced at the same place. Do we do minor maintenance and send the bigger stuff out (like ECM issues, transmission rebuilds etc.?) If that’s the case, there again would be no difference. There is virtually no maintenance with an EV (meaning the car stays in service more over the years) and general wear items are the same for an ICE car or an EV. Pretty much, all that you need to do with an EV are tires, wiper blades and the cabin air filter. Every 2 years, you should change the brake fluid. These can all be done by Pit Stop, let alone any shop in the Keys and certainly by any current mechanics the city has on payroll.
Buying EVs is not a good short term option. If we were to buy EVs just to sell them again in a year, that wouldn’t make sense (though currently, there is such a huge demand, they hardly depreciate and certainly much less than an ICE car.) However, the city keeps vehicles long term and though the initial cost will be higher to purchase them, in the long run, they will save the city money and that’s the most important thing to consider. If a car was available that was $10,000 but we had to throw it away every year and buy a new one, it wouldn’t make sense, Sure, it looks great that you get a new car for $10,000 but over the long run, you’re spending more so it makes more sense to spend more up front, and at the end of 7 – 10 years have a much lower total cost of ownership.
Getting back to solar, yes, the city could greatly benefit if more homes would install solar. Every home on solar is one less home drawing power off the grid, especially during peak time. One thing the city could do is go back to full cost net metering. If I draw 10 KWH off at night and I give 10 KWH back during the day, especially when the demand is highest and I’m helping take some of the pressure off the grid, I shouldn’t get a fraction of my draw back. I should not owe anything if I gave back exactly what I used. Yes, there needs to be the monthly charged to be hooked into the grid, absolutely. There are costs associated with maintaining the lines and systems to keep the grid operational so I need to pay monthly for that, and, at the end of the month, if I gave back more than I took, I certainly should only be paid the actual cost that Keys Energy would have paid for that electricity because they need to resell it at the retail rate, I get that. But each day, under the current system, anything I draw, I pay the full retail rate for and anything I put back in, I only get credit for the actual cost that Keys Energy pays. That doesn’t work and with that plan, the only way solar makes sense is for me to get a battery and store my excess power. While taking my house off the grid will help a little bit with one less house to provide power for, it would be more helpful if I provide my excess power TO the grid during peak times, to help lower the demand on the grid. Imagine if 10% of the homes in Key West did that, we would lower our peak demand by 20%!! (That is an assumption based on the 10% already providing their own power and putting in an amount equal to another home.) We also need to get solar installed on more municipal buildings. Yes, there would be an investment to doing this and it would take years to recover that cost, but eventually, there is a payback and once that’s crossed, after that is free clean energy.
Neil, this is a really phenomenal analysis! Thank you for engaging, this has given me a lot to think about. Valid points on ADU’s and something I will speak with City officials about, ultimately we need the ADU’s to be used by workers for them to be useful and still considered affordable!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on EV’s, and if the overall cost of ownership makes sense long term I would much prefer the City keep EV’s in service as long as financially reasonable to get our moneys worth. As for service I do not know the answer on private versus public maintenance techs, as I’m not sure of local capacity to service EV’s currently. That will be something I will speak with Public Works about to get that information on. Regardless of current capacity for maintenance, that is something the City could hire and train techs on. I wholeheartedly agree with the need for municipal buildings to implement solar, as well as getting citizens on solar, which would make a huge impact on peak usage especially during the Summer. Right now we are running our diesel generators just to keep pace with demand! Installing charging stations at the plant also makes sense for emergency usage. I believe an overall investment package into solar to compliment a switch to EV’s would be a smart investment. Ultimately I am looking into electric including batteries for myself and potentially for my commercial businesses. I think its the future, and the current market for natural gas is making solar extremely attractive.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts and will ponder them further, if you ever have ideas and analysis please continue to reach out, its what our City needs.