To all Members /owners/ Tenants

During the August Marathon City Council meeting last week, the ordinance amendment allowing transient RV use on permanent lots was approved by a 5-0 vote. The ordinance amendment is now official. 

As you know this process has been long, drawn out and stressful but we have prevailed.

It is now our responsibility to follow the ordinance guidelines as we promised the City Council to ensure the ordinance stands.

The ordinance mandates the following (the following in blue italics is from the ordinance itself):

Mandatory hurricane evacuation.

1. All operable Recreational Vehicles (RVs) shall be “Road Ready”. Road Ready means that such units shall be fully licensed, shall have wheels on, be on an internal jacking system. And only be affixed to the site by quick disconnect-type utilities commonly utilized in campgrounds and trailer parks and shall not have any permanent attachments such as Florida rooms or porches.

2. In the event of a mandatory evacuation, all RVs shall be removed from their location and evacuated as required under a Monroe County and City of Marathon emergency declaration whether or not the RV is being used as a dwelling at the time of the emergency declaration. If the RV is not removed, the owner of the property or RV/Mobile Home site will be subject to a potential fine of $250.00 per day by the City of Marathon, from the day after the evacuation order is given through the day that RVs are allowed to return to the City.

3. This provision shall be enacted through the Land Development Regulations (LDRs) with a routine inspection program, agreed to by the City and carried out within respective Mobile Home / RV Parks. It shall be carried at a minimum prior to the beginning of each hurricane season (June 1- November 30th). The program shall be audited by the City at least once per year at a time prior to the beginning of hurricane season. 

In addition, RVs cannot remain on the property for more than 180 consecutive days. Although the city has stated this will be tough to enforce, it is another strike against us if they find out we are not complying.  

On that note, during the recent evacuation order for tropical storm Laura, it was noted that while several transient RV’s currently on permanent lots did follow the ordinance, several did not.  As we informed you in an email on Saturday, August 22, Doug Lewis, Growth Management Director with the City of Marathon came to Key by the Sea to inform us that if there were ANY RV’s not removed from the park per the evacuation order, he would approach city council and recommend they rescind the Ordinance recently codified.  So, we need to follow the rules of the ordinance because the city has the right to terminate the ordinance if they find we are not following the rules. 

We do have a list of those that had evacuated or were getting ready to pull out before the order was rescinded and are reminding those that were not intending to follow the ordinance of the consequences to both the property owner and to the other permanent lot owners that are complying. 

• If the evacuation order had not been rescinded, you, the property owner, would have incurred a $250 PER DAY FINE for each day from the time the order was in effect until the return of RV’s had been allowed.  This includes property owners with tenants on their property.  The fine is levied against the property owner, not the tenant.  We know the City was checking daily to see who was and was not complying.
• Non-compliance with the Ordinance by SOME could jeopardize the right of ALL permanent lot owners to continue to use their lots for transient use if the Ordinance were to be rescinded. 
• At this current time, the City is not allowing permanent RV lot owners to situate another permanent RV on those lots so if the City were to rescind the Ordinance, building may be the only option for those owners.  Not all permanent lot owners are prepared to build.

We want to thank the following members and residents that were following the Mandatory evacuation and not jeopardizing the ordinance. 

Lots 8E,24E,34E,52E,74E,76E,77E,79E, 84E,89E,96E,97E,98E,100E 101E,103E,105E,109E,115E,25W,43W,57W,75W,84W,92W,96W,103W,105W,108W. If You evacuated and we missed your lot please inform the office. We understand that the amount of work involved to prepare your property and move your RV is extensive.  However, compliance with the City Ordinance not only protects your right to continue to use your  lot, but also the rights of your fellow neighbors.

Thank you for your patience and for your cooperation.