Marco Affordable Housing Options Remain Limited

Living above a small business can be an idyllic lifestyle for workers. But as Marco Island approved an ordinance to allow a process to provide affordable housing on upper levels of commercial properties, the question remains as to whether the business community will be able to take advantage of the workforce housing code amendment approved by City Council on March 4. 

Condee Cooling and Electric has been on the island for approximately 55 years and has found ways to provide some workforce housing over the years on and off the island, said business owner Erik Condee. However, they have also been met with several roadblocks in City regulations that prevented their ability to provide workforce housing.

“A handful of City Council members and others on the island don’t want to hear anything about affordable housing,” said Condee. “So, I used the word workforce housing,” he added. 

“There is a completely different tone when we get to Collier County. They’re extremely positive and upbeat, telling me how well it fits,” Condee said. 

There, the Condees provide workforce housing at a cost of about $300 per week with no deposits required. The company employs approximately 65 people, and their workforce units remain occupied by their employees. 

“When we started this in 2010, the view was for younger people making that transition out on their own as a stepping stone to being in their own home,” said Condee. 

However, the units have not rotated like they used to, he said.

Previously, Marco Island has lost several opportunities to make way for workforce housing, business owners have reported. 

The Oliverio family, owners of three businesses located near each other along Collier Boulevard, including Joey’s Pizza and Pasta House, Doreen’s Cup of Joe and La Mesa Taqueria, continues to seek ways to provide workforce housing.

Alongside the restaurants, there is a row of two-story units that could provide employee apartments upstairs with their business downstairs. 

Owner Joe Oliverio presented the option to Marco Island’s Planning Board with the hope these amendments to the Land Development Code could make way for the possibility of providing affordable workforce housing for his employees. However, the ordinance amendment comes with a 30-year deed restriction that would then require the apartments to remain affordable as defined by state statute regardless of a change in ownership or intended use. That deed restriction may prevent Oliverio from taking advantage of the ordinance amendments he had told the Planning Board.

The missed opportunities for workforce housing on Marco Island are many, said Condee. “There are a lot of incentives the city could do. They could do stuff from impact fees to changes in parking. There are other structures, other than second stories and upper levels, which could make sense,” he said.

One of the greatest hurdles is that anything commercial, even if it meets code 100%, has to be approved through the Planning Board and the City Council. 

“It’s making everything a political process,” Condee said. 

Further, the Live Local Act, which was legislation intended to increase and improve the creation of additional workforce housing throughout the state, actually “handcuffs the city,” said Condee. The findings of the Act in other areas of the state, such as Volusia County, echo this. 

Recently, Condee had hoped to convert the upper level to workforce housing, but city codes prevented it, so he invested in the property to make the spaces offices, he said. He may look into these ordinance changes further to see if those units could become workforce housing, but currently, they are occupied and reconstructed specifically for commercial versus residential usage, he said. 

Mary Holden, City of Marco Island Planning Manager, said that there are so many variables to a property that it can be difficult to estimate how many new affordable housing units could be added based on this code amendment. But it’s not likely to be a lot, officials and business owners agreed.

“[Affordable housing] is a big problem that one code amendment or one organization cannot solve on their own,” said Holden. “This won’t even be a drop in the bucket of resolving the issue,” she added. 

Marco Island is not alone in its affordable housing shortage, she said. 

Collier County, the whole southern Florida region, and to some extent the whole state and other places in the country are also experiencing varying degrees of affordable housing problems, Holden said. 

“We can’t solve this alone, but we can do our part,” she said. 

Marco Island’s housing prices are among the highest. The median rent in Marco Island is $8,000 per month, according to data updated in March by Zillow. This is $5,950 more than the national median and at least $2,000 more than the average in Naples, according to Zillow. 

Members of the workforce are trying to find solutions amongst themselves, said several Marco Island employees. 

“Everyone who works in the kitchen lives in the same apartment. They are all grown men. It’s kind of crazy,” said Deborah Ledesma, a 22-year-old server and bartender, speaking about a restaurant on Marco Island where she used to work previous to La Mesa. 

Ledesma grew up in Naples and bought a three-bedroom house off the island four years ago. She rents rooms to friends she’s known since high school. 

“They struggle to find another place to live because rents are a lot. It’s hard, especially in season,” Ledesma added.

Other key components of the Marco Island affordable housing ordinance change:

* Creates a process for the adaptive reuse or conversion of the upper floors of multistory commercial structures into workforce affordable housing.

* Affordable housing is defined by state statute to be housing that costs no more than 30 percent of the median household income including monthly cost of the rent or mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities. Median income for Collier County is $80,815, according to the US Census. Affordable housing may thus range from approximately $600 to $2400 per month, depending on income ranging from approximately $24,000 to $97,000 annually, according to data gathered and reported by the City of Marco Island.

* The ordinance does not require a change to the Comprehensive Plan to increase density.

* Parking and open space requirements are not affected.

* The process includes holding a neighborhood information meeting and submitting a conditional use permit.

* The unit must remain 50 percent commercial or more.

* Square footage must be at least 450 square feet for a one-bedroom; 650 for a two-bedroom, and 900 square feet for a three-bedroom.