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CITY AND COUNTY NEGOTIATE TRADE
COUNTY TO GET HAWK MISSILE SITE; CITY WOULD GET BIKE PATH AND BALL FIELD
Mandy Miles
mandy@keysweekly.com
In the next two years, an elevated bike path will connect
Key West’s Flagler Avenue with South Roosevelt Boulevard, thanks to a potential new agreement between the city of Key West and Monroe County.
Each government entity would get something it needs out of a newly negotiated agreement that city officials approved on March 7 and that county officials will consider at their next meeting.
Under the agreement, the county will get the undeveloped, city-owned property known as the HAWK Missile site, which is next to the county-owned Key West Airport. The county needs the property to meet environmental mitigation requirements for work being done to the airport taxiway.
The HAWK Missile site is so named due to the 1962 installation of HAWK missiles there, following the United States’ discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from Key West. Due to its proximity to Cuba, Key West prepared for possible invasion. Large numbers of U.S. troops gathered in Key West to invade Cuba; defensive measures included HAWK missiles to shoot down Soviet planes, and barbed wire and machine gun emplacements along the beach to deter invasion by Cuban and Soviets troops to Key West, according to the Harry S. Truman LIttle White House Museum in Key West.
In return for the now-barren missile site, the county will provide the city with the new bike path between Flagler Avenue, near Government Road, and South Roosevelt Boulevard. (A connection for motorized vehicles is prohibited by countless laws given the sensitive nature of the wetlands the bike path will cross.)
In addition, the county has agreed to remove a navigational which needs a portion of the property for environmental mitigation. CONTRIBUTED beacon currently located at the county-owned Higgs Beach in Key West. In its place, the county will either build or fund a new, $2 million, open-recreational field at Higgs Beach.
“The main attention-grabber from my perspective is the new field, which we definitely need,” Commissioner Sam Kaufman said at the March 7 meeting. “Years ago, we didn’t have lacrosse, and now we do. Soccer alone uses all the fields in Key West, including space at Bernstein Park on Stock Island.”
City Manager Patti McLauchin is a fan of the bike path, which will provide unprecedented access for bikes and pedestrians between Flagler Avenue and the beach area at Smathers Beach along South Roosevelt Boulevard.
The agreement further outlines a method for the city to take control of the entire 16 acres of Higgs Beach Park through a 99-year lease of $10 per year, but not unless or until Key West voters approve an eventual referendum, as voter approval is required for the city to acquire any property.
Full control of Higgs Beach by the city requires further work and agreements, given some outstanding concerns about the Salute restaurant lease at Higgs Beach.
