Special Commentary: Feed Christmas Tree Island To the Dogs of Development

by Barbatra Bowers

Change, as in “to make radically different,” is the antithesis to preservation, which according to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary means “to keep safe from injury, harm or destruction; to protect.”

Of course, in a museum town like Key West, where federal, state and local laws protect the largest contiguous historic district in the country, change happens. Regularly. So is it even reasonable to expect a 30-acre landfill in Key West Harbor—a.k.a. Christmas Tree/ Wisteria Island—to remain the same?

At the moment, it’s a privately owned island in Monroe County. But at its next meeting, the City of Key West is considering annexing it, a change that would alter the current building potential from the county’s two or three house regulation. If, say, Christmas Tree Island becomes zoned by Key West the same way Jabour’s Trailer Court was zoned, you can look forward to at least 660 new homes.