Who We Are

We are the Key Center Commons Working Group, a team of local residents who care deeply about the future of Key Center and believe local voices should guide decisions about our town’s most important public spaces.

Our members include:

  • Small business owners

  • Parents and long-time residents

  • People with experience in environmental planning, land use, facilitation, and community engagement

  • Neighbors who simply want to protect and strengthen the heart of the Key Peninsula

Why did the Working Group form?

We formed because:

  • Key Peninsula residents deserve a say in determining the future of Key Center.

  • The Key Center Corner Lot—also called the Calahan property—is the front porch of our community. It was purchased with taxpayer funds for community benefit, and its future should reflect community input.

  • The community was not meaningfully engaged before the gas station proposal advanced.

  • The proposed sale to a gas station developer would place a single auto-oriented industrial use on the most visible and influential parcel in town—one with major visual, social, and economic impact.

  • Research shows that when prominent sites are developed for gas stations or similar industrial uses, they often signal neglect, discourage local investment, and diminish a town’s sense of place.

  • We believe Key Center should be a vibrant, walkable, welcoming hub, not a symbol of disinvestment.

  • The Fire Department is in a difficult financial position, and we want to provide a constructive, community-focused alternative, not oppose them.