Through 2035, the City of Marathon's schedule gives out 12 or 15 new residential building allocations a year. Every new home in the city needs one, and they go to whoever scores highest on a city points sheet. So the land isn't the hard part when you buy a vacant lot in Marathon. The hard part is the right to build on it, which is scarce and ranked. Two lots that look the same on a map can sit years apart in that ranking.
That changes the purchase. You aren't only paying for square footage on a canal or a quiet side street. You're also betting on how that parcel will score and how long it might wait.
Twelve or Fifteen a Year, Through 2035
The City of Marathon's Building Permit Allocation System page says it plainly: "All new residential structures must obtain a BPAS allocation." Allocations are handed out twice a year, and the periods end on January 13 and July 13. To be considered, a completed application has to be in the system by 5 p.m. the day before a period starts.
Here is the city's posted schedule:
| Year type | Market-rate | Affordable | Total per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Even years: 2026, 2028, 2030, 2032, 2034 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
| Odd years: 2027, 2029, 2031, 2033, 2035 | 12 | 3 | 15 |
The market-rate allocations are also split between a general pool and an owner-occupied pool. In 2027, an odd year, each period carries six market-rate allocations: three general and three owner-occupied.
Add up ten years of that schedule and you get 135. That's the same number Keys Weekly reported in December 2025 as Marathon's share of the 900 new building rights created by Senate Bill 180. The governor signed that bill in June 2025. It raised the Keys' required hurricane evacuation clearance time for residents from 24 to 24.5 hours. The rights were split by how many vacant buildable lots each government has: 72 for Islamorada, 36 for Key West, 135 for Marathon and 657 for unincorporated Monroe County over the decade. The enrolled text of SB 180 limits the new permits to one per vacant buildable parcel. It also directs that owner-occupied, affordable and workforce housing get priority.
Now compare that supply with demand. Before SB 180 passed, Monroe County planning director Emily Schemper told The Keys Citizen that Marathon had roughly 550 potentially buildable lots. Set a decade of allocations against an inventory that size and most of those lots don't get to build this decade. The ones that do are chosen by score.
The Line Is Ranked by Points, Not by Arrival
Marathon's residential BPAS scoring sheet decides the order. It's a one-page form, and most of it scores the land itself.
The biggest single item is the condition of the site and the services at the street. Among lots that are scarified, disturbed, or disturbed with exotic plants, the sheet awards:
- Platted, with road and utilities: 13 points
- Unplatted, with road and utilities: 12 points
- Platted, without road and utilities: 9 points
- Unplatted, without road and utilities: 5 points
Habitat counts too. A scarified or disturbed site with no known, probable, potential or wide-ranging listed animal species earns 4 points. Moderate-quality hammock earns 1. High-quality hammock, palm hammock and undisturbed saltmarsh or buttonwood wetlands earn 0.
Time earns points as well. An application gets one point on each anniversary it stays in the allocation system. An owner-occupied applicant with at least two years of continuous residency or employment inside Marathon city limits gets one point for every two years.
Here's what that does to two lots, using only the land items above. A platted, scarified lot on a paved street with utilities and no listed species starts at 17. An unplatted lot without road or utilities in moderate-quality hammock starts at 6. That 11-point gap equals 11 years of waiting points. Both lots might show up as "vacant land" with similar asking prices. On the sheet, one starts more than a decade ahead of the other.
That's the gap a listing photo can't show. It's the same reason we tell buyers of finished homes to look past the dock and the view in our canal-front checklist. For a vacant lot, the details that set the value are on the scoring sheet.
Some Points Can Be Bought
The second half of the sheet scores what the applicant brings beyond the lot itself, and several of those items have a price in dollars.
- A cash donation for affordable housing of $26,000: 5 points
- A cash donation for land acquisition of $10,400, which the sheet sets as the appraised value of one acre of conservation-zoned land in the city: 2 points
- Donating a vacant, legally platted lot, or at least one acre of unplatted land, inside a conservation or CARL area: 2 points per lot, up to two lots
- Donating a platted, non-environmentally sensitive lot to the city or a 501(c)(3) for perpetually income deed-restricted affordable housing: 4 points
- Combining a contiguous vacant, legally platted, buildable lot zoned RM, RM-1, RM-2 or R-MH with the parcel being developed: 5 points
- Including affordable units in a market-rate project: 5 points for one to three units, up to 9 points for seven or more
Compare those prices with the waiting points. The $26,000 affordable-housing donation earns the same 5 points as five years in the system. The owner-occupied residency credit takes ten years of living or working in Marathon to reach 5 points. So the sheet puts a rough price on time. For a buyer with cash and a strong lot, a donation can close a gap that would otherwise take years.
That's why the price of a vacant lot only makes sense next to its likely score. We take the same view of homes in our guide to setting an asking price in Marathon: the comparable that counts is the one that actually matches. For land, matching means a similar score as well as a similar location.
Workforce Rights Are a Separate Pool
Marathon is also going after a second, restricted supply that is separate from the 135. On October 13, 2026, the Marathon City Council voted unanimously to pursue 100 early-evacuation workforce housing rights from Key Colony Beach and Layton, according to Keys Weekly. They're the last part of a 1,300-unit award made to the Keys after Hurricane Irma. They must be used in multifamily buildings, and occupants have to agree to leave the Keys as soon as a tourist evacuation is called.
City housing coordinator Josh Mothner told the council these units could encourage construction without affecting the city's remaining inventory of 135 building rights from the 2025 legislative carve-out, which are reserved for one right per vacant buildable lot. Council members, led by Kenny Matlock and Vice Mayor Debbie Struyf, said they want guardrails so the units serve Marathon's workforce. They don't favor large "cluster builds." The council voted to approve both potential transfers, and city staff was directed to draft restrictions for a council workshop.
At the same meeting, the council unanimously approved 12 rights for six affordable duplexes at the south end of 64th Street. That's the "Hope Project" from Keys Health & Housing, which will offer supportive housing and affordable rentals.
For someone shopping for a single-family lot, the takeaway is simple. The workforce pool doesn't add market-rate homes and doesn't shorten the market-rate line. It shapes how much multifamily and affordable housing gets built around you.
Why the City Watches Lots That Can't Build
Running out of rights costs the city something too. Mothner told the council the workforce rights could help guard against takings cases, where the owner of a buildable lot sues the city after being denied the chance to build a home.
The best-known recent example is the Shands Key case over a 7.9-acre island off Marathon's gulf shore. According to Keys Weekly's June 2026 report, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the city's appeal on June 8, 2026. Compensation was still to be worked out, either a possible seven-figure payment or permission to develop. The Third District Court of Appeal's February 2025 opinion held that transferable development rights alone don't defeat a categorical takings claim. That case was about an offshore island, not an ordinary platted lot. Keys Weekly also noted that the SB 180 carve-out delays the question of who pays when building rights run out across the roughly 3,000 vacant buildable lots in Monroe County.
Questions to Settle Before Making an Offer on Land
Most of the work on a Marathon lot happens before the contract. Ask the seller, and confirm with the City of Marathon Planning Department:
- Is the lot platted, and does it front a road with utilities?
- What habitat category would the city likely assign?
- Is there a BPAS application on file now, and how many years has it been in the system?
- Would you be applying in the general pool or the owner-occupied pool?
- Would any of the purchasable points, a donation or an adjoining lot, make sense for this parcel?
This post covers how the city's allocation system works. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, so confirm your parcel's eligibility and options with the city and the right professional before you rely on them.
FAQ
How many new homes can be permitted in Marathon each year? Under the city's posted schedule, 12 allocations in even years and 15 in odd years from 2026 through 2035, including three affordable allocations each year.
Does every new house need an allocation, even on a lot I already own? The city's BPAS page says all new residential structures must obtain a BPAS allocation.
Do the 100 workforce rights from Key Colony Beach and Layton help single-family lot owners? Not directly. Those units are limited to multifamily use and come with an early-evacuation requirement, and city staff said they don't affect the 135 rights from the 2025 carve-out. The transfers were approved as potential transfers in October 2026.
If you're looking at a vacant lot in Marathon, or weighing land against a finished home on our Marathon neighborhood page, we can go through how the lot would likely score with you before you make an offer. Barefoot in the Keys works out of Marathon and follows these allocation rounds closely. Schedule a free consultation and bring the parcel number.
