Friday, October 17, 2008

The race to represent Key Largo and the Upper Keys on the Monroe County Commission has come down to two candidates with vastly different political philosophies and visions for the Florida Keys.

Incumbent Sylvia Murphy approaches land-use and development issues from a conservation and environmental perspective. She supports grass-roots, citizens-based organizations that have called for tighter controls on growth and development.

Challenger Sal Gutierrez is a staunch property-rights supporter who has aligned himself with people who want to reduce the restrictions on development. He has bought several properties and demanded the county buy them from him at market rate if it prohibits him from developing them.

The county is facing several costly property-rights lawsuits from people, including Gutierrez, who want to develop their property but can't because they own land in environmentally sensitive areas that are home to state and federally protected endangered species. In light of those suits, the county is trying to determine the best way to compensate people for their property and conserve wildlife habitat.

The Nov. 4 winner of the County Commission District 5 race could be the swing vote on several important land-use decisions that are upcoming. The county is:

• Tweaking its development rules to preserve marinas and commercial waterfront operations, as the state has said the county is not doing enough to protect them;

• Considering designating the Keys, or sections of the island chain, as a national park to make preservation easier; and

• Continuing to work on regulations that allow property owners, in essence, to buy the right to develop sensitive land. The owners buy mitigation points, with that money going into a land trust earmarked for acquisition of wildlife habitat.

The position is a four-year term that pays $44,283.

In this corner

Murphy has served on the commission for two years, having been seated in a mid-term election against Glenn Patton shortly after the death of the commissioner at the time, Murray Nelson.

She boasts much experience from her community involvement. Murphy was a Tavernier Fire and Ambulance Department volunteer from 1981 until 1986, when she became a paid ambulance worker for the county. She since has retired, but remains active in fire and ambulance issues.

She was the Monroe County Human Services Board chairwoman, a nine-year member of the Upper Keys Health Care Taxing District, and served on both county and board task forces in an attempt to unify the county's trauma service. Murphy served as the secretary of the Tavernier Community Association and was active in the four-year Livable CommuniKeys process in her community.

Controlling growth is her main focus. She opposed the widening of the 18-Mile Stretch and allowing developers to build a hotel at the Key West airport and on Shrimp Road in Stock Island without the required state building allocations. She has opposed the transfer of development rights from a Big Pine Key trailer park to the former Rowell's Marina in Key Largo, as it would have moved units from an affordable housing development and placed them in an upscale condo project. Most recently, she argued against the Florida Department of Transportation plan to pave the shoulder along U.S. 1 in Key Largo, which she and opponents call a "fifth lane."

"I am not a developer's dream," Murphy said. "I am fair, but I am not their dream."

Some accuse Murphy of being too much of an environmentalist and not paying enough attention to the rights of property owners.

"She is really the incarnation of Dagny Johnson," Upper Keys property rights attorney Jim Mattson said, referring to the late environmentalist who fought against overdeveloping the Keys. "She is more concerned with protecting rodents than people."

Murphy took Mattson's comment as a compliment, saying, "It's not fair to Dagny. I am not one-tenth of what Dagny was."

Ron Miller, a community activist and president of the Key Largo Federation of Homeowners, calls Murphy a "straight shooter" who doesn't cow to developers.

"She has no skeletons in her closet," Miller said. "I don't think she can be bought. The only thing that I ask for is the commission to be fair and honest. When I go before them, I want to know I am getting a fair hearing. I think with Sylvia Murphy, you get that."

And in this corner

Gutierrez is on the other side of the political and land-use spectrum.

A gadfly for years, he regularly skewers politicos -- and anyone else with whom he disagrees -- on his Web site, keylargokey.com. He pokes fun through cartoons and less-than-flattering photographs or cuts people with razor-sharp criticism. His attacks can be crude, mean-spirited and in some cases focused on people's sexual orientation.

Gutierrez has owned and operated several businesses, including an air conditioning venture in Tampa and his current real estate business.

"I believe we need people that are familiar with running enterprises that are profitable," he said. "Most people that have been elected in Monroe County are used to nursing from the government tit."

He has immersed himself in county land-use regulations, he said.

"I now have three takings lawsuits involving the county and work very closely with Andy Tobin and Jim Mattson, Upper Keys land-use attorneys," Gutierrez said. "I am very familiar with the Tier System [maps that designate allowable development] and was present at every County Commission meeting prior to its adoption."

Miller questioned Gutierrez's motives for running for office, accusing him of buying property he knows he can't develop with the intent of forcing the county or the state to buy it.

"If Sal was elected, any environmental progress in the Keys would be destroyed," he said. "Sal definitely has an agenda."

Murphy and Gutierrez agree the Keys should maintain the 30-year designation of Area of Critical State Concern, which requires the state Department of Community Affairs to approve proposed development and changes to the county's development rules. Their reasons, however, are completely different.

"I believe it's a moot issue, but I will explain," Gutierrez said. "So in essence, the county has done its duty as far as encumbering all the potentially buildable land area.

"The next battle the county will face is paying for all this private property they have just made unbuildable.

"So I guess we need to keep that status of 'Area of Critical State Concern' to see if the state or federal government can now bail us out."

Murphy believes the designation will help the Keys acquire state funding for much-needed sewer improvements while protecting the Keys from too much development.

Both also agree that the county should look at partnering with the federal government and setting aside areas of the Keys as national parks. But their arguments for doing it could not be further apart.

"If we don't try this, the lawsuits will break the county's back, and all the dirtbag environmentalists that caused this will have to leave town because they won't be able to pay their property taxes," Gutierrez said.

Murphy sees it as a potential way for the county to set aside wetlands and habitat.

The issue once again illustrates how different the two are -- even when they are on the same side of an issue.

Murphy does not think the plan will go anywhere.

"I don't think they (the federal government) can afford to do it," Murphy said. "They are strapped and are struggling to pay for the parks they currently operate."

tohara@keysnews.com