Sustainable Development to Protect the Keys

Last Stand was one of the organizations instrumental in creating a system for sustainable development in the Keys.

Last Stand closely followed the development of the Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study, and some of our members participated in the Carrying Capacity Study Implementation Working Group. Completed in 2001 at a cost of $6 million, the study concluded that upland terrestrial habitat (hardwood hammocks, pinelands) in the Keys, habitat for many threatened and endangered species, cannot withstand further development pressures without ecosystem collapse.

Last Stand participated in two years of meetings, workshops and hearings at the county level to implement the findings of the Carrying Capacity Study and modify the county development regulations, with the intention of directing future development away from environmentally sensitive land.  The revised county plan for doing this came to be the Tier System, which exists in parallel with the Rate-of-Growth Ordinance system to protect the keys and encourage sustainable development practices.