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Long before the Florida Keys became a popular vacation destination and retirement haven, it was home to Key deer, the diminutive and endangered cousin of the Virginia whitetailed deer. Development has consumed all but six square miles of Key deer habitat, forcing many to cross US-1, a major highway that connects the Keys to the mainland. From 1970 to 1992, a total of 1,023 Key deer were killed on roads, with 526 occurring along US-1 on Big Pine Key.

Citizens of the Keys face growth-management issues, resource managers face endangered- species issues, and Florida DOT is in the middle, trying to provide adequate transportation facilities to the people of Florida, while reducing threats to the Key deer.

To address these issues, FDOT, Monroe County, the Florida Department of Community Affairs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are developing a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the Key deer which takes into account the impact of potential development over a 20-year period. The HCP will cover residential and commercial development, as well as transportation improvements to meet the community needs of Big Pine and No Name Keys. Concurrently, Monroe County is carrying out a “Livable CommuniKeys Program” (LCP) to determine the type, location, and amount of development that the community would prefer to see in the project area. The LCP and HCP will ultimately provide the basis of a Master Plan for future development and community facilities within the project area.*

* As of early 2003, the SDCP and Key deer HCP had not been finalized, and stakeholders had serious concerns about whether the final plans would have adequate habitat protections. Nevertheless, the processes are instructive for other state DOTs, because they included a regional conservation plan, extensive scientific studies and models, community involvement, and an important role for the state DOT.