Whether Monroe County should spend almost $2.5 million a year on building affordable housing or preserving environmentally sensitive land is a question being debated more these days.

Both are important, as both are required strides the county needs to make before the state agrees to stop designating the Florida Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, which brings with it development restrictions and state oversight.

While developers, property owners and some residents argue building affordable housing is more important, environmentalists want the county to protect endangered animal species habitat.

The pendulum has swung back and forth since the Land Authority's creation 20 years ago, with preserving land being the emphasis during the first 14 years, and building affordable housing the past six.

The most recent argument surfacing is over a third option: the Land Authority buying land from owners who cannot develop their property because of government regulations, so as to avoid property-rights lawsuits against the county, sometimes called "takings" cases.

The debate started last week after County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, who represents the Upper Keys, said the Land Authority should begin moving away from affordable housing projects. Her comment came after the commission approved giving Habitat for Humanity money for an affordable housing project on Stock Island.

"I would like to see it be the last in quite a while that Habitat comes, or anyone else comes, to the Land Authority for affordable housing," Murphy said. "I think in the near and probably far future, this money should be used for the purpose of sensitive land, particularly land that is going to get us into a takings case."

Her remarks sparked concern among several affordable housing advocates. Developer Ed Swift, who has built several large affordable-housing projects in Key West and Stock Island, this week sent commissioners a letter asking them to keep funding work-force housing projects.

"Our futures as a community hinges on your foresight and continued support for work-force housing," Swift wrote.

While the commission did not give the Land Authority any formal direction, the board controls the purse strings, as it must approve funding for affordable housing projects.

"More and more of these takings cases are popping up all up and down the Keys," Murphy told The Citizen. "We need to address it. I feel it needs to start putting the money toward property that will most likely get us into a takings case."

The county has faced a dozen takings cases. The most costly was a $5.9 million settlement over a 145-acre north Key Largo tract. The Shadek family said a 1980s building moratorium deprived them of the use of their land. Another potentially expensive case still in litigation is over the Schleu family's No Name Key property, which they wanted to develop into a 13-home project called Galleon Bay. A judge in 2003 ruled that the county denied the family's building rights and a jury awarded them $3 million. Judge David Audlin later threw out the ruling, and the parties are back to square one.

County Mayor George Neugent and Commissioners Kim Wigington, Heather Carruthers and Mario Di Gennaro said they understand Murphy's concern, but argued there still needs to be a balance. They stressed the continuing need for affordable rental property, as much of the work-force housing built in the past several years has been for purchase.

Either way, the down market makes it a good time to buy land, for housing or conservation, they said.

The Land Authority receives money from two sources: a 1-cent hotel bed-tax and a Keys state park entrance fee. The tax generates about $2 million annually, with $1 million from Key West and the other $1 million from the rest of the Keys, and the fee generates $400,000, Land Authority Director Mark Rosch said.

Swift argued that the bed tax -- called the "fourth cent" because it is the last of four 1-cent taxes for various uses -- was sold to voters who had to approve it in a referendum as being predominately for housing.

The county spent $25 million on preserving environmentally sensitive land and nothing on affordable housing projects, leaving it way behind, Swift said.

tohara@keysnews.com