An alternative look at the club expansion
AL GREEN
Contributing Columnist
green@lbknews.com
If you read Jim Brown’s column in the Herald Tribune — Brown, a longtime backer of Michael Welly and the past management of the Longboat Key Club — you could come to the conclusion that the town might as well surrender to the inevitable and grant the Longboat Key Club their request because of the fear of a potential lawsuit.
Jim Brown suggests that it is a concession on the part of the club when they cut down their plans from $500 million to $400 million. If you believe that this, then you probably believe that when Macy’s advertises a sweater for 30 percent off, that wasn’t the price they intended to get in the first place.
Brown speaks of the legal danger the town would be in if they don’t allow the club to expand. This is nonsense. The town has only a legal obligation to ‘hear’ an application for a change in the Outline Development Plan. They are under no obligation to grant one. Especially since not only did Loeb Realty purchase the club knowing the details of the ODP that they were choosing to operate under, but the other participants involved, the condo associations and individual homeowners, will almost definitely be at the same grant hearings arguing their rights would be injured by amending the Outline Development Plan they bought into.
Think of an ODP as similar to the condo documents that govern a condominium. This is the basic framework that governs all future development inside the PUD. Any buyer, who is concerned for the future direction of the property surrounding his home or condo, must study this plan just as carefully as he would his individual condo docs.
When the Town Commission was being besieged by Corey Landing owners who were upset with the Arvida plans to build Grand Bay, the commissioners pointed out that from the first, the ODP called for a high-rise development in that area, and if it came to a surprise to the residents, that wasn’t a reason to not permit the development. As an ODP in that case protected Arvida, this Islandside ODP protects the residents of the gated community from a change in the character of their development without their approval. In short, if the club could convince their neighbors that what they were requesting would be of benefit to them, they would have a better chance of success.
I won’t belabor all the other suggested concessions about tee times and number of outside events that Brown suggests, except to note that they sound very similar to the ones listed in the infamous Memo of Understanding, the one Brown calls meaningless. It was only meaningless because as mayor, Jim Brown worked out a surrender on a lawsuit that many of us, including the attorney hired by the town to try the case, were convinced that inside information was going to uphold that memo.
Anyone naïve enough to think you could enforce these procedural things hasn’t been involved in trying to enforce condo rules. In order to make someone follow the rules, you have to sue them and start spending money on legal fees. You will probably have your suit given a belittling title like “tee time law suit” and be made to appear petty. “When will they ever learn?”
This issue is not going to be decided in a court of law, it will be decided in the court of public opinion. Up to now it doesn’t appear that the club is doing well in that area. This coming Town Commission election will be very interesting. Although it is early days as papers for candidates are not final until Dec. 31, there might be two or even three candidates running on a platform proclaiming their opposition to the plans.
As a matter of fact, one of the candidates for the seat in the 4th District, Gene Jaleski, on his Web site at www.lbksite.com, has already made his position very clear. He is against any expansion. If he or any one of the other potential candidates who run on a platform of opposing the expansion win, it is highly unlikely that there would be any major changes at the Longboat Key Club. I understand that the proceedings are considered quasi judicial, but any candidate who cannot convey his or her feelings on this matter so the public will understand where they are coming from needs a course in the use of the English language as a method of expression.
Jaleski’s potential opponent, P&Z Chairman Jim Brown (the Younger), has said he is constrained from commenting on the club plan because of his position. My suggestion to him is he resigns from the P&Z so he can speak clearly on his views. With an issue of this overriding importance, I don’t think a discussion on a decision of this magnitude should be shrouded in a technicality.
When talking about expansion, the club isn’t doing too well on the other side of the GMD either. As you recall, the club bought the Moorings Marina property from its developer Bill Vernon. As I wrote earlier, there was bad blood between the clubs as personified by its general manager, Michael Welly, and the overwhelming majority of the slip owners over whether Welly had reneged on promises on how the marina was to be managed. This promise had special significance, because the slip owners had the right of first refusal and Welly’s assurances were probably the determining factor in the owners renouncing their claim.
By far the most egregious condition that finalized the split was a requirement that all slip owners add a covenant to their deed that would make it a responsibility for all present and future owners of the slips to join the Longboat Key Club. This occasioned a revolt by the overwhelming majority that has now caused the pro-club board to be voted out and a new board to take over.
This new group has already made arrangements for the slip owners to have beach, dining and tennis privileges at the Colony Beach Club, special discounts at the Hilton, use of the pool and a jitney service to shuttle them back and forth. They also are reviewing the $475,000 contract that was awarded to the club to manage the marina. If you combine this with the loss of revenue that would have accrued to the club if the problems had been resolved in a mutually beneficial manner, you are talking of an annual loss of as much as $2 million a year.
This could cause Joseph Lesser, the chairman of the board of the Loeb Group, to become unhappy. The last time Mr. Lesser was made unhappy (the problems at the hotel), the then-local manager Shane Egan was history. It will be interesting to see how Joe Lesser likes what Michael Welly has accomplished with these latest negotiations.
