Changes in Latitude

TURNING OVER THE KEYS:
Bruce Irwin is a lobster and stone crab fisherman whose family has lived and fished in the Keys for 125 years. But he and his wife, Letty, say skyrocketing costs are forcing them to leave monroe county. "There's the high cost of living and the rising cost of doing business, but the lobster prices are not keeping up," he says. "It's hard to find employees because all the trailer parks have been turned into condos -- there's no place for working people to live." The Irwins put their Marathon home on the market for $739,000 in January. When it sells, they may move near Gainesville, where two of their kids go to college. "We'll just keep the house on the market and keep going about our business until it sells," Irwin says. "It may be a few years, but when it does, we'll get the hell out of here. Hopefully, the big one won't hit before then."

Keys natives -- "conchs" -- are used to seeing people like the McMurtries come and then leave, expectations unmet. Historically, they know, a new wave of residents will wash ashore to replace them. But since 2000, the population of Monroe County, which encompasses the Keys' 822 islands -- 30 of them inhabited -- has dropped. Monroe is the only one of Florida's 67 counties where the population has fallen every year since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In that period, the number of residents declined by 4.1%, to 76,329.

Meanwhile, almost every other coastal county in the U.S. continues to grow, even with less land available for development and the threat of hurricanes. On Florida's east coast, Flagler County saw the most significant population increase in the nation during the same period, growing by 53%.

Monroe County Mayor Charles "Sonny" McCoy, a third-generation conch and former mayor of Key West for five consecutive terms, says some of the depopulation is by design. Since 1974, growth in the Keys has been tightly controlled. Under the state's "Area of Critical State Concern" designation, the governor and Cabinet must approve all land-use decisions. Building permits are strictly limited; only about 250 a year are granted in a county with some 15,000 vacant lots. Some say these controls have helped the Keys keep their lowrise charm and avoid the condo towers that loom over other coastal counties.

"The state very much wants us to cut down on the population of the Florida Keys because the ecosystem is so fragile," McCoy says. "That's what we want, too. We're not overly thrilled about having too many people here. We want the right people, who love this type of lifestyle, love the water and respect the environment we live in."

But McCoy, who has children and grandchildren in the Keys, admits, "I do hate to see the children move away."

Tags: Dining & Travel, Southeast