Voters approved three charter amendments that will limit the number of people disembarking from cruise ships to a total of 1,500 daily; block ships with a capacity of more than 1,300 people, including both passengers and crew, from docking; and require the port to give priority to cruise lines with the best environmental and health records. The amendments passed with in excess of 63%, 60% and 81% of the votes, respectively.
The proposals were put on the ballot by the Key West Committee for Safer Cleaner Ships, which came together in the first couple of months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cruises became floating epicenters of COVID-19 outbreaks and small port communities with limited health care facilities worried that a ship full of infected visitors could cause a local outbreak.
"Cruise ships have run amok in Key West for 30 years, and tonight our voters have spoken loud and clear that now is the time for a change. This is a historic victory for Key West and all who love this island city," Arlo Haskell, treasurer of the Committee for Safer Cleaner Ships, told Law360 on Tuesday night.
More than 90% of cruise ships that visited Key West last year would not have satisfied the criteria that will now be put in place on the island.
The proposals drew opposition from the Key West Bar Pilots Association, a group of harbor pilots that sued in July in an attempt to stop the referenda from getting on the ballot. In August, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King declined to boot the proposals from the ballot but said if the initiatives were to pass, the harbor pilots can come back to court and argue against them.
In the suit, the harbor pilots say the cruise ship industry accounts for an $85 million economic impact in Key West and is responsible for 1,250 jobs and 15% of the city's total tax revenue. But Key West Mayor Teri Johnston told Law360 last month that the fiscal impact of the amendments to the city would be minimal, as all of the disembarkation fees charged by the city must by law go back into improving the port and other facilities for the cruise ship industry.
Cruise Lines International Association, a cruise line trade association that includes all of the leading cruise lines, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday night.
--Additional reporting by Nathan Hale. Editing by Rebecca Flanagan and Jay Jackson Jr.
Update: This story has been updated to add comment from the Key West Committee for Safer Cleaner Ships.
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