Formerly Larry Shaffer.com

Please tell everyone our Internet address, which is listed as follows: http://RunesofAo.com/LarryShaffer.

v    Protect, preserve, promote, and improve existing homes, communities, and businesses.

Ø     Require RV, mobile home, and trailer park redevelopers to find suitable homes in Marathon for those displaced.

Ø     Protect Marathon’s mom-and-pop businesses by adopting an Islamorada style of formula retail definition, which keeps out large business chains.

§        Appoint a living wage task force to study possible living wage ordinance that finds ways to help mom-and-pop businesses pay a better wage to its workers.

Ø     Workforce housing must be one of the primary focuses of the next city council.

§        Work with public and private investors to build more low-income rentals.

§        Require developers and redevelopers to build and support workforce housing.

§        Explore ways to grandfather in existing, permanent Boot Key Harbor liveaboards.

§        Buy land to make it easier to build low-income housing for our workforce.

v    Keep jobs in Marathon for locals, preventing the loss of jobs and stopping jobs from moving out of Marathon.

v    Restrict and control development/redevelopment, ensuring all aspects of impact are paid by the developers/redevelopers.

Ø     Public facilities, transportation, water, sewer, storm water, workforce housing, use of local workers, local contractors, etc.

Ø     The advisory Planning Commission must have representatives from ordinary homeowners and regular tenants.

v    Vacation rentals: enforcement, moratorium to get situation under control, cap at 10% which would be about 670 units out of a total of approximately 6700, and require a minimum square footage to protect low-income, workforce housing.

Ø     One way to naturally reduce vacation rentals is to allow locally-owned hotels/motels to redevelop to compete in the tourist market.

v    Reach out to all minorities to include them in every facet of Marathon.

v    Spend citizen/voter dollars wisely and stop wasting tax revenues.

Ø     Keep rates at or close to rollback millage rates.

Ø     Favor locals in the bidding process.

Ø     Establish a fund from which grants are issued to worthy causes who apply and satisfy preset criteria and ultimately receive council approval.

v    Need to find ways to address the needs of Marathon’s senior residents.

Ø     Seniors contribute $2.5 billion more than they consume as stated in 8.15.03 Citizen.

Ø     Improve and expand assisted living facilities.

v    Need to find ways to address Marathon’s health care concerns.

v    Find ways for Marathon to help its local schools.

v    Promote the coexistence of environmental concerns, the needs/desires of the locals, and the tourism industry, as they are not necessarily opposed to each other.

v    Support homeless outreach programs, as 21% of county’s homeless live in Marathon.

v    Improve and beautify US 1 to help slow traffic, encouraging visitors to stop, shop, and spend.

v    Create a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) answerable to the council to improve the west end of Marathon, provided the CRA is carefully crafted to avoid negative impacts like takings.

v    Prevent and close loopholes, enforce existing regulations, prevent land-grab attitude (e.g. TREs and TDRs), and remove useless regulations.

v    Find solutions to keep Pigeon Key functioning while the old bridge is under major repairs.