Higgs Beach Is Getting a Master Plan. Here's What the Neighbors Asked For.

On Saturday morning, Oct. 3, people gathered in one of the band shells at Higgs Beach to tell the City of Key West what should happen to the park it had owned for five months. Commissioner Chris Massicotte hosted the 90-minute meeting. In her Key West Island News column, editor Linda Grist Cunningham wrote that the crowd included city staff, the mayor, several commissioners and some chickens, and that "you could also smell rotting sargassum."

The wish lists were long: court lights, dog parks, playgrounds, parking. The one request that came up over and over was about the order of the work, not any single feature. Fix the seawall, then bring back the sand, then decide the rest. The money the city has already approved follows that same order. The master plan that will settle everything after it doesn't have an architect yet.

Five Months of Ownership, and Where the Money Points

Monroe County had owned Higgs Beach since 1949. Cunningham describes it as a 16-acre site that grew "one at a time whenever someone had an idea for something that needed open space and flat ground." The handover took effect at midnight on May 1, 2026. Keys Weekly reported that the county sent about $3 million in insurance proceeds and tourist development grants along with the park, meant for seawall repair, playground improvements and upgrades at West Martello.

Some changes came quickly. City crews rehabbed the exercise deck near Edward B. Knight Pier, mowed, cleaned the amenities and started trimming trees, according to Keys Weekly. At its May 7 meeting, the City Commission approved $259,448 in tourist development capital funding for Reynolds Street Pier repairs and $375,000 for a new HVAC system at West Martello.

The bigger decisions came on Sept. 3, when commissioners took up three Higgs Beach items in one night. The Key West Citizen reported how each one went:

The cleaning contract covers seaweed, trash, litter and other debris. Beach Raker was the only bidder. The city's share of the restoration project, up to $500,000, would come from its Fort Taylor Fund. The project's stated purpose is to restore sand volume and the beach profile "following stabilization of the Higgs Beach seawall." So the sand waits on the wall. That rule was written into the funding before any resident stood up at the band shell.

Why Commissioners Held Off on Hiring an Architect

The master plan is the item that will decide what sits where across those 16 acres: courts, dog parks, playgrounds, paths. Commissioner Aaron Castillo moved to postpone it and Commissioner Mark Rossi seconded. Mayor Sam Kaufman, Vice Mayor Donie Lee, Castillo, Massicotte and Rossi voted to wait. Commissioners Monica Haskell and Lissette Carey voted no.

Lee named one specific concern from the early concept. "I am not sure about the artificial turf at the dog park, and there are a number of issues that need to be addressed," he said. "We need more public input." He suggested the city run the public workshop itself rather than pay a consultant to do it. Massicotte wanted "a very clear direction for Bender & Associates before we engage with them." Kaufman put it this way: "To give direction to our architect, we really should do our homework first."

The same discussion added a condition that any design will have to meet. During public comment, representatives of the Rose Diversity Group asked the commission to consider a sacred space or ancestral shrine for the Africans buried at the African Cemetery at Higgs Beach, along with signs explaining the site. Massicotte recalled that the dog park across Atlantic Boulevard had already been changed once after African graves were found there. Haskell said work on the site must follow federal and state historic preservation requirements. The existing memorial is a painted ground mural, which its original artists refreshed in 2023. Keys Weekly reported at the time that surveys had found shallow graves near the sidewalk, along with additional graves.

What the Band Shell Crowd Put First

The Oct. 3 meeting was the homework. In an Oct. 5 summary letter, reported by the Key West Citizen, Massicotte wrote that more than 120 residents attended. Cunningham's column estimated about a hundred. The letter lists tennis and pickleball players, dog park users, beach volleyball players, wildlife advocates and Garden Club members among those who came.

According to his letter, here is where the room landed:

1. Seawall, then sand. "Above all," residents want the city to repair the seawall first and renourish the beach second.
2. Keep it natural. Most attendees asked that Higgs stay as natural as possible. The dog parks don't have to stay where they are, but residents clearly don't want artificial turf.
3. Mark the graves. Respect and mark the graves on the site, and connect the African Cemetery to the other gravesites across the street.
4. Families and parking. Make the park more family-friendly, keep and improve Astro City, and keep parking free, at least for residents.
5. A boardwalk for the birds. The Wildlife Center proposed a raised boardwalk that would protect bird habitat and give people a path for exercise and bird watching.

The turf question ties those September doubts to this list. Lee raised it from the dais, and the room rejected it. Afterward, Kaufman said, "It seemed to me, just anecdotally, from that meeting, that there's not a lot of support for turfing the dog park." His main takeaway was broader: "The takeaways for me were the respect for wildlife needs to be a priority." He added flooding, rising water levels and keeping sand on the beach as things the city has to plan around.

Cunningham's column records the longer wish list too: more lights for the tennis courts, more pickleball courts, bigger dog areas for small and large dogs, special sand for volleyball, and rebuilding the full length of the Reynolds Street Pier. The suggestion she called the best of the morning came from a longtime resident, who asked that Higgs be a beach and park for locals, where families can get to the water easily, maybe have a cookout, and not pay for chairs and umbrellas.

Small Fixes Now, Big Ones After the Wall

Massicotte's letter split the requests into two speeds. "For example, we can add more dog bag dispensers fairly quickly," he wrote, noting that the city could handle minor improvements separately from major ones.

So the near-term changes at Higgs are the maintenance kind. The Beach Raker crew is under contract for daily cleaning, the pier repair and West Martello HVAC money is approved, and quick fixes like bag dispensers are possible. The larger changes depend on two things that haven't happened yet. The seawall has to be stabilized before the $1 million sand project can begin. And although Bender & Associates has already put together a preliminary concept, the city has to formally hire the firm before a final layout of courts, dog parks and paths gets drawn. The Bender task order is expected to come back to the commission on Nov. 5.

Kaufman said the likely next step is to formally hire the consultant, who could then hold its own community meetings. "I don't think this will be the last opportunity," he said. Vote details and meeting video are posted on the City of Key West website.

The park's regular schedule continues while the plan takes shape. The Key West Garden Club holds its Plant Sale and Artist Market at West Martello, 1100 Atlantic Blvd., on Friday, Nov. 20, starting at 10 a.m., and Saturday, Nov. 21, until 3 p.m. That's a good chance to walk the shoreline and see the seawall everyone is talking about.

Higgs Beach is one of the things that makes Casa Marina and Midtown West feel like home, and our team at Bascom Grooms Real Estate has followed its story since long before the city took over. If you live near Atlantic Boulevard and want to talk about what the master plan could mean for your block, we're glad to have that conversation. Contact Us anytime.