In April 1997, John and Gail Echols moved to the Keys and bought a tiny, rundown cottage on an acre of land at the end of Sugarloaf Boulevard for just over $45,000. They planned to renovate the property and spend their retirement years there. Having come from Ohio, the Echols were hardly prepared for the maze they would encounter in trying to get the necessary permits to begin renovations.
The first clue that there might be a problem came just shortly after they signed the contract to purchase the property. Their realtor produced and asked the Echols to sign a biologist's report done by Monroe County the previous year. The report suggested that there might be a problem with building on the property.
The Echols couldn't imagine that the problem would be serious, however, because their property already had an existing structure on it.
The first real stumbling block arose when Gail Echols attempted to get the utilities connected. According to the previous owner, the property hadn't been occupied since the 1970s, and Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority computer records don't go back that far.
FKAA did agree that water service could be connected, though they wouldn't connect the service without charging front footage fees, which amounts to paying for installation of water pipe all the way down the street— even though the pipe is already there.
A check of City Electric System's records also failed to turn up any history of service on the property. County Tax Appraiser records, however, contained a photograph of the old cottage with the electric meter and service wires clearly visible. And inside wiring in the cottage was still intact. A CES employee also remembered reading the meter decades ago.
This cleared the way to have electric service at the property reconnected.
Local land-use planner, Don Craig, hired by the Echols to help them through a situation that was becoming increasingly complicated, argued to Tim McGarry, Monroe County Growth Management Director, that the Echols should be allowed to make improvements to the property because it was "an existing residential dwelling" clearly in existence when the Monroe County Comprehensive Plan went into effect in 1986.
In November 1999, however, McGarry denied the Echols' application, stating that the property was non-conforming to density requirements and that the Echols had failed to prove that the property was ever a "principal dwelling unit." McGarry did discuss the possibility of supporting the Echols in a "Beneficial Use Application," and referred them to Mark Rosch of the Monroe County Land Authority. Beneficial use, as described in the County's Land Development Regulations, is intended to prevent a complete "taking" of property without compensation.
Even if the Echols were never granted a building permit, they might have been compensated for their inability to build on their property. On February 16 of this year, the Echols officially wrote to Rosch to request that the Land Authority purchase their property.
Three months later, Rosch wrote back and officially turned them down.
The Monroe County Code Enforcement Department joined in the foray in March. The Echols received a Notice of Violation from Code Enforcement Director Tom Simmons, notifying them that because their "improved" property did not have an on-site sewage treatment system, they were in violation of Monroe County Code.
The Echols replied to the notice promptly in writing, explaining that they were making every effort to bring the property up to code, but that they couldn't do so without a building permit— which the County wouldn't give them.
Code Enforcement pursued the "violation" and sent the Echols a Notice of Administrative Hearing scheduled for the following month. The Echols now found themselves in the incredible position of wrangling with two departments of Monroe County government— one of which was insisting that their property was not "improved" and the other insisting that it was "improved."
As if the Echols' dream cottage hadn't already become enough of a nightmare, in stepped the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. Tragically, in the fall of 1999, the body of a murder victim was dumped into the cesspit on the Echols' property. At the close of the ensuing investigation, the Sheriff's Office bulldozed over the cesspit, completely filling it in.
The Echols, slightly annoyed that their property was bulldozed without their permission, asked that the Sheriff's Office return the cesspit to its original condition. The Sheriff's Office agreed that it was their responsibility to make the necessary repairs and promised to do so— as soon as they could get a building permit.
The Sheriff's Office, of course, couldn't get a permit any more than the Echols could, and so the repairs were never made. In lieu of repairs, the Sheriff's Office paid the Echols $1,450 for damage to the cesspit.
To date, Gail Echols estimates that she has spent somewhere in the realm of $55,000 with no hope of recouping any of the expense and her dreams of a retirement cottage in the Keys gone forever. Her advice to others considering buying a renovation project in the Keys?
"Back in Ohio, I worked for county government, and I never saw anything like this. If you are going to be dealing with Monroe County in any kind of permitting process, get an explanation of the process and a commitment that what you're planning to do will be allowed before you buy the property."