Longboat Key Letters – June 2010
Updated June 25, 2010.
Come to Star Island…
To: Jeanne Corcoran
We met at the retreat. I was with Allan Barberio and of course I heard your presentation. I wanted to emphasize that if your selling efforts bring you out to Longboat Key that you should feel free to call on me to be certain that the town lends its support. Continued good work.
Dave Brenner, commissioner
Longboat Key
To: Commissioner David Brenner
Thanks so much, David. I’m at your service, and if at any time you’d like me to come out and do a presentation to the town officers or organizations such as Rotary, Sertoma, Kiwanis, etc., it would be a privilege. I’m always open to update and share insight into what’s going on with developing this industry as a revenue stream for the entire county and nearby regions.
I have brought groups of location managers and producers at different times specifically to Longboat Key, including scouting as far north as Anna Maria Island and Manatee County areas of interest. I’m a big believer in the old cliché that “a rising tide lifts all boats” and what’s good for the economic prosperity of this overall region is good for all of our municipalities as a whole.
Jeanne D. Corcoran, director
Film Sarasota
Good compromise
To: Town Commission
You reached a decision that is a compromise that may not fully satisfy the Loeb Organization or the Islandside residents. However, it is in keeping with Monica Simpson and the planning staff’s recommendation that minimizes the likelihood of litigation and does not allow the tunnel effect that would be created if large building are constructed north of Club Road.
Please don’t waiver from your decision. It is a compromise that still gives the Loeb Organization many million dollars of free land but keeps the center of the Islandside Community, north of Club Road, free of mid or high-rise buildings.
I know that you recognize that massive buildings north of Club Road would be very visible as people enter Longboat Key along Gulf of Mexico Drive. I doubt if anyone on Longboat would like to see a downtown Miami feel on Longboat Key. Thank you for all of the time and effort that you have given to this matter.
Herman Frankel
Longboat Key
Acceptable change
To: Town Commission
Your approval of a more moderate upgrade and renovation to the Longboat Key Club is to be commended. I hope you will hold fast to your decision when the second reading occurs.
I have followed this project from its original proposal and truly hope for all concerned the end is in sight.
As a “behind the gates” resident homeowner since 1999, I never dreamed that I nor any of us would have to encounter such a massive and opportunistic proposal for Loeb Partners to maintain, upgrade and renovate their property. However, as my old dad use to say “change is the only constant in life” and with your current approval we are all getting acceptable change. They are getting a great deal and the homeowners/Longboat Key are getting a palatable solution that will allow the healing process of such a huge divide in our community to commence.
Arthur L. Harreld
Longboat Key
Protect Longboat
To: Town Commission
Thank you for your efforts, dedication and leadership that was demonstrated when you passed the compromise ordinance for the Longboat Key Club plan. Although we are still disappointed in the massive scale of the development, we recognize the need for a compromise.
We purchased our home in Longboat Key because we were entranced by the beauty of this island paradise. We do not want to see our island become a developer’s windfall, as they seek to change Longboat into another Boca or Ft. Lauderdale. Please continue to protect Longboat Key against overdevelopment
Judy and Arthur Coren
Longboat Key
You have killed the goose that laid the golden egg
To: Town Commission
Last Monday night will go down in history. You have all earned a name for yourselves. You have voted to make Longboat Key just another place in Florida not the world-class resort area it had been. You told the island’s largest draw trying to be a bigger draw, “Get out of town! We don’t want your investment.”
Please tell me what your plan B is to revitalize Longboat Key, to increase tax revenues, to increase business on the island, to make Longboat Key a more popular destination? What are you going to do?
Jack Brown
Longboat Key
Why have commissioners taken so long to decide?
To: Town Commission
Most towns would welcome any corporation spending this amount of money in their town and give them a tax incentive. Instead, we compete with them by building a tennis a facility and make them jump through hoops trying to please the commissioners. Are the commissioners aware of the tax implication of this project?
The probability is hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Maybe the town is only interested in a “We’ll leave the light on for you” facility.
Tom Finnegan
Longboat Key
Genie out of the bottle
To: Town Commission
I understand there will be a second vote regarding the Key Club’s expansion plan and it is my hope that you will vote against same as it is being presented now. I hope you will not fall for all the pro expansion rhetoric about Longboat Key going to hell in a hand basket.
My wife and I have been members of the Longboat Key Club for just short of 22 years. We also are the former owners of two large units at Inn on the Beach. We sold those units shortly after Arvida sold out, as it became apparent that things would be changing and not necessarily for the better.
Through the years, Longboat Key Club membership grew like crazy as more and more affluent homeowners discovered the beauty, serenity and “kicked back” style of the key. That it was located adjacent to a city rich in art and cultural venues, darned good restaurants, more beautiful beaches etc., was a fabulous plus. We have always considered Longboat Key the premier suburb of Sarasota. We patronize certain restaurants and businesses here because they are good, not because they are located on the Key. We bank and grocery shop mostly on the key due to convenience. The same is true for the local post office. That being said, SunTrust, Publix and the staff at the post office rarely disappoint. The Key Club enjoys a large portion of its membership for the sake of convenience, as well. I wish the same could be said for them in terms of not disappointing members. The facilities left behind by Arvida were well kept up. The staff, golf courses, tennis courts, restaurants and assorted amenities offered good value for the price of our membership. Longboat Key Club was a happening, fun place to belong.
There were many years after Arvida sold out that business was booming at the club. You had to get up mighty early in the morning to book a choice tee time three days ahead. The monthly mixed foursome events were sold out in high season. Ladies member/guest days required an early sign up so as to assure you a spot. You get the picture. The club’s recent financial challenges aside, no one will ever convince me that they weren’t making buckets of money back then. In all those glory days, too little was reinvested in this gorgeous property. Promises to really fix the water problems on the golf course were not kept. Of the bunkers on all our courses, almost none are filled with real sand. Cart paths and railroad ties defining landscaping have fallen into disrepair. I’m sure many members have left the club due to changing economic times, but many more have left because our dues are not inexpensive and we are not getting good value for our dollars.
So now we are being promised that if we allow them to change all these codes so that they can have enough condos to sell, they are going to build us a Five-Star resort. I have no doubt that they need some condos to fund their expansion. I just wonder why they didn’t keep this place shiny as a new penny when money was growing on the trees. I also wonder who is going to run a Five-Star resort given the fact that Loeb is having trouble running the resort and keeping people happy at its current star rating. Most of all, I have serious concerns regarding Loeb’s credibility in terms of keeping promises based on their track record.
I resent very much the scare tactics employed by those trying to get us to drink the Kool-aid. Longboat Key is not going to hell in a hand basket. We are suffering the trickle down from a very fragile economic climate out there. Take a look around the country to see the same scenario playing out in larger or hipper places than Longboat Key. Even in the glory days of excessive spending, Avenue of the Flowers shopping center had their problems. We have been coming here since 1978 and have observed that retail shops in seasonal areas have a tough time, especially with the high rents. In these not so wonderful times, the great restaurants and businesses are tightening their belts and hanging on. It’s the same story everywhere. The pro expansion crowd would have us believe that Longboat has lost its cache and our property values will plummet and more businesses will fail if we don’t get this hotel/convention center.
Longboat Key has been and will continue to be a gorgeous spot on this earth. The very thing that drew us all here will continue to lure future real estate customers. I beg you to bear this in mind as you (re)cast your vote for the amending of our codes re: this project. Once this genie is out of the bottle, it will be impossible to reel it back in. Please do consider seriously the long-term affects of this very important vote.
Merrill Zinder
Longboat Key
Support of alternative ordinance
To: Commissioner James Brown
We support the alternative ordinance passed by the Town last Monday. Thank you for working to protect the residents of Longboat Key.
We bought our homes based on the original promises of the Key Club, not on the dramatic and damaging changes they are requesting after we relied on those plans. Please do not let the huge business campaign mounted by the Key Club (the goal of which lies exclusively in maximizing their profit), overcome the need to protect the people who live here.
Shelley Winkler, Jean Winkler, Linda Winkler
Longboat Key
Please decide wisely
To: Town Commissioners
On June 17, Bob White distributed a letter in which he urged supporters to send e-mails to town commissioners. Since these e-mails will doubtless repeat positions and views expressed in his letter, I am writing to share a differing point of view for your consideration.
While Mr. White’s letter is supposedly in support of the development plan voted upon in the June 14 meeting, it is a strategic gamble whose true goal is as his has been all along—to see that no redevelopment take place. The club and its owners have been quite clear in sworn testimony, supported by economic experts, that without their already scaled back number of condominium the total project is not viable. While some commissioners appear not take this testimony as fully truthful, Mr. White apparently does, gambling that if the town’s ordinance is not amended that the entire development will go away. So, support for the Town Commission decision is a support for status quo. I remember the childhood tale of B’rer Rabbit and the briar patch. If you can recall this fable, you can follow the logic, with the commission’s Monday vote being the briar patch and Mr. White being the bunny.
Mr. White continues his specious arguments regarding the ratio of condominium units to hotel rooms. While this is his opinion, it was contradicted under oath by Mr. Tallman, who pointed out that Mr. White was comparing apples and oranges in his statistics.
Mr. White refers to the Monday plan as “crafted.” Hopefully, this does not give equal weight to what was an admittedly late-in-the-game series of well intentioned ideas, when compared with the years of expert development and planning which went into the club’s proposal.
Mr. White states that “extra rooms…will undoubtedly provide windfall profits. While I would not quarrel with the sincerity of his beliefs, such beliefs do not translate to “undoubtedly.” In a similar vein, the term “windfall profits” has so much latitude in it to render it no more than a loaded debating term. This appears to track with his argument regarding “no land cost,” which implies that when Key Club Associates purchased the property, somehow the land came along for free and no ongoing improvements have been made upon it in subsequent years, and no taxes paid on it. This stumbles along the same logic path that includes the thought that a legal right to develop, if granted, somehow constitutes a “gift.”
Mr. White, in asserting that “it’s all about money,” presents a straw man that “many of the club’s supporters have a financial interest in seeing as many condos built as possible,” and that real estate agents and brokers seem to be greedily laying in wait for their fat commissions. If “many” means more than one, he has a point. But most likely, this is exaggerated language. I am not a Realtor, developer or anything other than a resident of Longboat Key and a club member. I have a vested interest in seeing the town be as viable as possible as a premier community for residents, and the club amenities be improved. Most of the supporters I know are also not standing to gain financially from the club’s proposal. And, it is IPOC that in the past has pointed out L’Ambiance and Sanctuary residents’ massive (my word) investment in their properties. Perhaps it is all about money.
It is almost amusing that in a letter which urges—in capital letters—an e-mail campaign to commissioners and newspapers, Mr. White accuses the club of “putting on a campaign to pressure the commission to reverse their decision and threatening to abandon the project if they don’t.” The club has been very clear and very consistent about the financial realities of their plan. That is not pressuring or threatening. It is stating the facts.
It is my hope that as a commission, you can look behind this final round of emotional cries from IPOC. It is my hope that given a chance for a “do-over,” you can revisit the June 14 decision and amend it to track with the ordinance developed by the applicant.
We have all been given a reprieve from what seemed to have been, if not a death sentence, a huge setback for the future of our island. Please use it wisely.
Terry Gans
Longboat Key
Plan will only benefit a few
To: Commissioner Hal Lenobel
Your vote for a smaller version of the plan was correct. The development will only benefit a few, namely Longboat Key Club, and hurt residents with increased density and lost revenue from Inn on the Beach. Please do not overturn the vote made this past week.
Mark Pichowski
Longboat Key
Please finalize ordinance
To: Town Commission
We have lived for the past 25 years at the Beaches. We very much oppose the plans that had been put forward for development as being too massive, the number of years that it would take to build and the disruption of a way of life on Longboat Key. Although the plan that was passed by the commission allows more construction than we would like, in the interests of moving forward and avoiding years and expense of litigation, we are willing to accept the commissions approved ordinance. It is time for Longboat Key to move forward together as has always been the case. We commend the commission for arriving at a solution that everyone can live with. Please finalize this ordinance.
Sondra and Martin Epstein
Longboat Key
No bullying tactics
To: Mayor George Spoll
I wish to add my voice to the many you will hear from both sides, pro and con, regarding the commission’s recent vote. While I’m sure the Key Club supporters will try to portray the recent decision as a betrayal to the future of the island, we both know this is not even close to the truth. Longboat is as desirable as it is because over the years the town’s government has had the wisdom to control development and not cave into such foolish rhetoric from overzealous developers. The lengths you and your fellow commissioners have gone to give the Key Club a fair hearing has been more than generous, as is the decision you have rendered. If I were the Key Club, I’d grab what you’ve granted and run, because it’s still a great deal more than most of us would have preferred. You are under no pressure to accommodate any further bullying tactics, as you have been more than fair and generous.
John and Susan Franklin
Longboat Key
Excellent compromise
To: Town Commission
Congratulations on creating an excellent compromise to the Longboat Key Club’s redevelopment plan! Shame on the Key Club for adopting an attitude of “It’s our way or the highway.”
The Simpson-Persson plan is a compromise that preserves the north side green space and recreation facilities for members and residents yet gives the possibility of additional residential units on the south side of Key Club Road, at the location of the Spa, for the Loeb Partners. This plan meets the Longboat Key residents’ goal of lower density and less traffic on the south end of the Island.
The Key Club and Loeb Partners still have the option to “renovate,” which is how they originally sold this project…before turning it into a “redevelopment,” which profits only the Key Club and Loeb Partners and gives no benefits to the residents of Longboat Key.
I am proud of those commissioners working for the interests of the Longboat Key residents, who elected them, instead of caving in to powerful corporate developers who have no interest in compromising.
Anne Summers
Longboat Key
Commendations on the alternate ordinance
To: Town Commission
I wish to commend the commission on the passage of the alternate ordinance. I moved to Longboat Key in 1992 and purchased a residence in L’Ambiance. Before I chose Longboat, I checked most of southern Florida on both coasts. I chose Longboat Key because I was told it was 98 percent built out and was basically a residential community. I was told that what you see is what you will see in the future because of the zoning. Since then, there has been more building but not to a massive degree. When I purchased in L’Ambiance, I was aware of the hotel next door and expected some type of renovation and improvements but certainly not to the extent, which the Club is demanding. It’s like living next to Avenue of the Flowers and then being told it was going to be enlarged to the size of Sarasota Square.
I noticed at the meetings that many of the Club supporters were employees of the hotel, off-key business interests, or those who live a distance away from the proposed project. If the Club plan were approved, it would have adversely affected the quality of life and property values for those who live near the project. The Islandside community would have been transformed from semi-residential into a commercial area.
I believe in compromise and that is what you have submitted. You have stood up for the ordinary citizen and were not bullied into submission by a company with no proven construction record and a poor history of property management who sponsored free parties and used every underhanded tactic to gain support. I could go on forever with reasons why I think you did the right thing by forcing them to scale back but I’m sure you’ve heard all of them.
Larry Carroll
Longboat Key
Stand on compromise
To: Town Commission
It is we the people that make up this “Paradise” known as Longboat Key. It is we the people who volunteer to run for public office and for positions on various boards, and support the other worthwhile organizations. It is we the people who pay the majority of the taxes to maintain this beautiful key, and it is we the people who bought into what the Club lead us to believe was a first class operation with open recreational area, which was there when we joined. What you see is what you get! They took our money and promised us a well-run operation. Now to take away the open area, for their financial gain, is wrong on their part. To condone that would be wrong on our part.
A generous compromise was given to them by our commissioners and that should stand. I listened to some commissioners’ state that they represent the people on Longboat Key. It is now time for that to become the reality. The Club will survive plan B, plan C or whatever is allowed them. They will not leave this goldmine. Treat them fair but be firm to protect we the people, who will keep Longboat Key going, long after the Longboat Key Club is gone.
Bob Blumberg
Longboat Key
Not at the expense of uniqueness
To: Town Commission
My wife and I purchased our home at the Players Club in 1983. Since that time, we have fallen in love with Longboat Key. The ambience, skyline and beauty of the key are, in our opinion, unique. As members of the Key Club, we realize the shortcomings of the golf course and were excited about improvements suggested by the Club owners, but not at the expense of the uniqueness of Longboat Key. We believe the compromise proposal, the development ordinance, put together by the Planning and Zoning staff and the Commission, and accepted by IPOC, should be acceptable to the Club, as well. We hope that it will be. We commend the Commission and Planning and Zoning staff for their work on this and hope for passage and acceptance of the compromise plan by all involved.
Dr. and Mrs. Burton Silbert
Longboat Key
Support the compromise
To: Town Commission
I want the Commissioners to know that I support the compromise suggested by Bob White and the Commissioners. The other solution is a court battle that the Town of Longboat Key, if it goes along with the Club’s original plan, is almost certain to lose. I don’t think anyone wants to spend the time or attorney fees in court.
Accordingly, my wife and I, although reluctantly, support the compromise agreement. I still worry about the potential traffic problems that will be created. And how we are going to ever get to the mainland when there are events?
Now, the Longboat Key Club has threatened that if they don’t get their entire plan they will walk away from the project. I doubt that! They are getting land they don’t own for little cost. The Loeb Group is most likely to sell any benefit they get to a major hotel chain. They have never built anything before.
My bigger concern is that whatever they, the Longboat Key Club, agree to with the Town it must be backed by a performance bond.
Gerald F. and Vivian I. Ross
Longboat Key
Attracted to Longboat’s natural beauty
To: Mayor George Spoll
My wife and I are longtime Longboat Key residents and have also been members of the Longboat Key Club. We are very pleased that the original Club plan of expansion was not approved. We are hopeful that you and your fellow commissioners will continue to represent the interests of all the residents. We were attracted to Longboat Key for its quiet and natural beauty, and not because of commercial development.
The materials that have been distributed by the Longboat Key Club assume that all club members are supportive of the club’s expansion plans. I assure you that is not the case. My wife and I continue to be opposed to the original Club plans. If they were built, they would dramatically alter the quality of life and the character that attracted us to the island initially.
Dick Jaffee
Longboat Key
Resist commercial interests
To: Commissioner Bob Siekmann
Support the development plan you have approved and resist the cries of the commercial interests who want to change the plan to the more massive plan the Club wants.
Donna Kaminski
Longboat Key
Sensible compromise
To: Town Commission
Please support the alternative ordinance approved by the Town Commission last Monday. It is a sensible compromise.
Don and Jane Gralen
Longboat Key
Support reduced scale
To: Town Commission
I support the scaled back plan of the Longboat Key Club’s proposed expansion and urge you as members of the Town Commission to support the ordinance in the upcoming vote. The reduced scale of the project should allow the Club to update and improve their facilities without changing the character of Longboat Key. Officials in other Florida locations have not been wise in protecting from overdevelopment. Marco Island comes to mind as a specific example of a town that has been changed, and not for the better, by overdevelopment. Thanks for considering my voice and opinion. Please vote for the ordinance and scaled back plan.
Louis Rehak
Longboat Key
Plan speaks well of judgment
To: Town Commission
Thank you for the courage and good judgment reflected in your recent majority vote.
While we would have preferred a more modest plan, and a unanimous vote, we recognize that you cannot please everyone or convince everyone. We believe that the plan your majority approved speaks well of your process and your judgment.
My wife and I earnestly hope that the Commission will abide by the good judgment reflected in your last vote and protect our island.
Richard and Margaret Himelfarb
Longboat Key
Stay with compromise plan
To: Town Commission
We are owners at the Sanctuary and have been coming to the key for nearly 15 years. It is truly one of the most beautiful and relaxing places on earth! We are writing to pass on our congratulations and a “job well done” regarding the recent vote and compromise plan. We are not against the Key Club investing in our community and in fact favor some investment and redevelopment, but this has to be done in a way that maintains the current feel of Longboat Key that has to be priority #1. The recent report by Ms. Simpson where she recommended “denial of their application as potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense, too dense” was very concerning and we believe the approved compromise plan is the proper go forward approach.
We ask that you approve and stay with the compromise plan at the second vote as this plan is truly a compromise: it does not give IPOC all of what they wanted (removal of building from the driving range) and does not give Loeb/Key Club all of what they wanted (Condos on the north parcel). That’s why it’s called a compromise. By staying with the compromise plan it should hopefully stop all this waste of time, energy and money with the constant/never ending back and forth complaints. Thank you.
Joe and Kathleen Schena
Longboat Key
Massive plan would ruin key
To: Town Commission
Good afternoon, commissioners, my husband and I support the Key Club Development Plan that you have approved. Please ignore the voices of the commercial interests who want to change the plan to the more massive plan that would ruin our Longboat Key. We like your ideas!
Reina Berman
Longboat Key
Shocked at vote
To: David Brenner
Please explain to me what you were trying to do because I am not the only one who is clueless. I would welcome some understanding of what the heck happened. I will even apologize ahead of time. I am sorry if you do not deserve to be included in my being upset but can you imagine how all of us feel? We were shocked today. Please enlighten me.
Marnie Matarese
RE/MAX Excellence
To: Marnie Matarese
Marnie…Since when have you become so bashful. If you didn’t understand you could have said so right after the meeting. After the dust has settled, I, Jim and Hal voted against the ordinance because it gives the Club no “wiggle” room to negotiate. I expected it would have been defeated and then we could have discussed an ordinance along the lines Jim Brown proposed, but with appropriate conditions. Since the ordinance on the table passed, the rest became moot, unfortunately. I’d suggest in the future before you send a “tough” email you think about the repercussions, particularly on your “friends.”
Dave Brenner
Commissioner, Longboat Key
To: David Brenner
Thank you for the explanation of your vote. I am still in the majority of people who cannot understand how a commission that voted 7-0 to be in support of the project just last week, was able to be so divided and then just adjourn and leave all of us in a state of shock. If it is a strategy that you feel will be in the best interest of the community then I trust that you will do what you feel is the right thing as you have never disappointed me in the past. Even when you have voted against my position, I have always understood why. I do not intend to be hurtful when I put my passion to paper and apologize for hurting a friend.
Marnie Matarese
RE/MAX Excellence
Congratulations on orderly development of island
To: Town Commission
As a resident of Longboat Key I commend the commission on making a rational decision that allows for orderly development of our lovely community, yet a decision consistent with the values and lifestyle of our island. I wish our elected officials in Washington made such well thought decisions and compromises.
Do not allow developers to sway your sound decisions about our communities well being. When they are gone, and they will leave, we will still be here enjoying and supporting each other.
Ron & Pat Pantello
Longboat Key
Thanks to commissioners
To: Town Commission
I want to thank you and all the commissioners that voted against the Loeb expansion plan. I am sure the pressure was enormous from both sides. The future of this wonderful island is in the hands of the commissioners we elect, and as a long time resident, it is refreshing to see our elected officials care enough to make the right decision! A decision that shows leadership and courage. I understand something needs to be done to upgrade our facilities, but we should never believe that promises of spending big money is the answer! Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
Ray Stewart
Longboat Key
Hold firm with scaled down version
To: Town Commission
My wife, Judy, and I are residents of Longboat Key and we vote in Longboat Key. We want you to know that we think the recent 4-3 commission vote to approve a revised plan for the Longboat Key Club development is a very good compromise, and we support going forward with this amended plan. The Longboat Key Club’s original proposal would result in way too much building for such a small parcel of land and would destroy the aesthetics of the south end of Longboat Key. In addition, it would be extremely detrimental to all of the residents who live behind the gates of the Longboat Key Club, and who bought their units relying on the town’s comprehensive development plan, which probably would not have even allowed the Commission’s revised plan. We certainly hope that the Commission holds firm with this scaled down version of the development plan. Thank you.
Mike and Judy Wright
Longboat Key
Alternative plan ill conceived
To: Mayor George Spoll
We are greatly shocked, dismayed, and disappointed by the outcome of Monday’s Town Commission meeting. We believe that by approving the ill-conceived alternative plan, the Commission has jeopardized the future of our town and our island. It has also allowed the will of the majority of our citizens to be subverted by a small, vocal minority. It seems that some of our leaders have gotten the idea that the Club needs Longboat Key more than Longboat Key needs the Club. Nothing could be further from the truth. We urge the Commission to regroup quickly and try to resurrect the project they have killed. Allow the Club to pursue a project that is financially viable for them and good for the future of our community, and allow them to continue to be the good corporate citizen they have been these many years. Incidentally, we agree with the Club that a sidewalk along the Islandside golf course would be unsafe.
Matt and Margaret Callihan
Longboat Key
Sound thinking and courage
To: Town Commission
My wife and I have owned a condominium on Longboat Key for 27 years. We love our home and our island. We are happy that the Key has open land and its air space is not dominated by tall buildings, as are most previously beautiful places in Florida.
We were in favor of allowing the Longboat Key Club to build a second hotel and conference room with all of the accompanying facilities. We wanted to see the golf courses improved. However, the demands of the Club were contrary to what makes our Key so unique. We congratulate the Commission and the staff for their decision. It took sound thinking and courage.
Gerry and Walt Mattson
Longboat Key
Place some condos at Harbourside
To: Town Commission
If the number of condos is the deal breaker for the Club, why not put some or all of them over on their property at Harbourside and really open up the congested space at Islandside? Their vision of a world-class resort financed by condo sales really doesn’t require them to be squeezed in next door to the hotel do they?
Louis Bevilacqua
Longboat Key
Please protect Longboat Key
To: Town Commission
Please stay firm and continue along this path of compromise. The mass expansion of the Key Club will not be a plus in the long run. It will ruin the beauty of Longboat Key to have two walls of buildings, packed close together and totally massive.
The Club is getting $25 million of land. Sure they are going to threaten. But they have never done any of the improvements they have promised in the past. So how do we know they will ever build this hotel, put the proper grass on the golf course, etc.? Don’t let them get away with loose promises. It must be made clear that they are not calling the shots, the town is. We do not want a development of this size on such a small parcel of land. It is wrong.
Barbara Chase
Longboat Key
Challenging times require leadership
To: Town Commission
Thank you for passing the ordinance, which provides all parties with significant benefits. Loeb has the lion’s share of what they wanted and the Town has provided them with the flexibility to make it work. You have shown that Longboat Key can foster change, but will not abandon its fiduciary responsibility to residents who purchased and reside on the Key.
No doubt, you will receive adverse feedback about the demise of Longboat Key if the private Key Club does not get everything it wants, but that is not true. We have a great location with fine beaches and excellent public amenities. These are challenging times that require teamwork, leadership, empathy, and disciplined long-term thinking. Stay strong and encourage the Longboat Key Cub to take advantage of the generous opportunity that you gave them.
Robert Clark
Longboat Key
Supportive of decision
To: Town Commission
I commend you on your vote to reduce the massive scale of development presented by the Longboat Key Club. We are totally supportive of your decision.
Dr. & Mrs. J.B. Pinski
Longboat Key
Community never stands still
To: Commissioners Bob Siekmann, Lynn Larson, Phill Younger and Mayor George Spoll
There is a cliché, old but true, that a community never stands still. It either progresses or declines. As commissioners you hold a position of public trust. It is your duty to ensure the improvement and vitality of the community. In this time of economic downturn we realize this is a challenging task. Shops and restaurants on the key have closed. Others are having a difficult time surviving.
The Key Club’s plans for expansion and improvement are a gift to the community—a vital link to help us move forward. Your vote Monday, June 15, has left us dumbfounded. We could, and we’re sure legions of people have, use several adjectives to describe your inexplicable behavior. Suffice it to say you have violated the public trust. Shame!
Connie and Jim Hensal
Longboat Key
Hold support for second reading
To: Town Commission
I support the compromise reached and decided during the first reading June 14, and strongly urge the commission to vote to uphold this same compromise at the second reading June 28.
John Vorel, president
Sanctuary III, Longboat Key
Shocked and disappointed
To: Town Commission
As a fulltime resident I cannot tell you how shocked and disappointed I am regarding your vote and the decision to turn aside the Longboat Key Club development initiative -good luck with our eroding tax-base. Also, I don’t agree with the 4MM payment for land they already own and had paid taxes on for thirty years.
Dave & Ellen Levine
Longboat Key
Thank you for considering impact
To: Town Commission
Let me begin by thanking you for the countless hours you have spent in meetings deliberating over the Longboat Key Club’s plan for expansion. I also thank you for the 4-3 vote this week, passing the alternative ordinance offered by the Town. I believe you have acted in a manner to protect the integrity of Longboat Key. As a full time resident, I am grateful.
Specifically, I am pleased that your alternative plan does not allow for residential units on the north parcel of land and I feel 24 condominium units rather than the 70 originally proposed units, makes much more sense. I was also pleased to see the opportunity to leave the current driving range in place. Thank you for considering the impact of the Loeb plan on the surrounding neighborhoods.
Mary Ann O’Neil
Longboat Key
Still too large a footprint
To: Mayor George Spoll
I’m not sure how to react to Monday’s vote. I still think the project is too large a footprint for that small parcel of land. I guess the club could build what they can at a profit and can the rest. I’m sure those parties having a “commercial” interest are upset, but I believe the “residents” of Longboat Key are relieved. I do agree with you that a value be placed on the re-zoning of land.
Ray Rajewski
Longboat Key
Fair for all sides
To: Town Commission
Congratulations on your Solomon-like compromise. Your solution seems reasonably fair to all sides. The club gets almost all of what they wanted and IPOC can apparently live with the still large development.
Maybe this will negate any lawsuits as the club gets their hotel, meeting center, road location, parking garage, wellness center, new golf course as they requested at a cost of a few less condos. Hard to believe they can’t or won’t settle for this generous compromise.
Louis Bevilacqua
Longboat Key
Hooray for compromise
To: Town Commission
Congratulations on wisdom and judgment in decision making, for listening to your professional planner, for giving the Longboat Key Club the opportunity to expand and modernize without caving in to greed, excess and intimidation, for sparing all concerned years of litigation and neighbor-against-neighbor animosity, for preserving green space that will make the resort a more attractive destination. Having spent several years as an elected commissioner in another city, I know that compromise is the lubrication of good public policy. So thank you.
Bill Sandy
Longboat Key
Who the heck is PIC?
To: Editor
During the recent local political changes some inaccurate statements were made about PIC. Apologies made and accepted. Time to move on. Subsequently, Jim Brown, former mayor, in his recent column in The Sarasota Herald weighed in with PIC’s penchant for bias toward all commercial activity. It might be a good time to let newcomers know and to remind long-timers about PIC, The Public Interest Committee.
When the post World War II building boom reached our island, it appeared that Longboat Key would “build out” at about 70,000 residents and all with all kinds of commercial stuff, both good and bad. That did not seem to be in the public interest of those who were living here or were to come after. Therefore, PIC and others, fought long and hard to have codes put in place that should limit the “build out” to about 20,000 residents. The result, as you can see, is one of the world’s more wonderful places to be.
PIC is proud of its part in that result. But that does not require a blind eye, knee jerk, I’m-in-lock-the-gate reaction to every proposal that may contain the word “development” or “commercial.” Certainly it is in the “public interest” to have a supermarket, a pharmacy and a hardware store nearby. Perhaps it was in the public interest to have three gas stations instead of one. The point is that PIC is not for or against commerce or building projects that are within the codes, but is for the public’s interest.
PIC’s positions on these matters are not taken in some dark room. Membership is open to all and meetings of members are routinely held and member views are regularly sought and considered. In addition, PIC holds public forums to which everyone is invited to express their views and ask questions on matters of public interest. Candidates for public office are invited to address the group. It is from all those inputs that the PIC Board then announces a decision or a position.
It has been charged that an inordinate number of PIC members occupy elected and appointed town offices. Guilty as charged. But this is not because of some Machiavellian plot to secretly take over the town. Individuals who care about the public interest have joined the Public Interest Committee down through the years. Not surprisingly, those are also the same individuals who care enough about the public interest to run for public office and/or accept appointment to town boards. As a matter of policy, not of law, members of the Town Commission and Planning & Zoning Board generally resign their board positions with PIC.
For more information on PIC please visit our Web site, www.lbkpic.com
Ann Roth & Gaele Barthold, co-presidents
PIC Board of Directors
Let’s TALK
To: Dan Dowd
Dan, what planet are you from and when did you arrive? Why are you amazed that Commissioner Phillip Younger wants to discuss his ideas with Finance Director Tom Kelly and Town Manager Bruce St Denis? Haven’t you heard about the daily double team of Landau and Younger, who studied the budget with a fine-tooth comb and showed the way to trim expenses and lower the millage for 2010? Ask Tom Kelly how many times he and his staff met with Younger to share new ideas to help the Finance Department last year. You suggest the other six commissioners have better understanding of the numbers. Larson and Brenner, two of those other six, are also “new” commissioners who were seated one or two meetings before Younger. You insult Phillip Younger, his knowledge and his creative mind.
You insult Bayside residents by saying they are not concerned about the color of beach sand! They walk on that sand and, like everyone else, know the difference between light and dark sand and appreciate the cost of renourishment.
You misrepresent Brenner when you say he wants to cut services. He wants to determine if there is a more efficient way to deliver those services.
Now that I think of it, you don’t believe what you say—you’re trying to stir things up. It’s naughty to tell lies, which is the same as misrepresenting the facts. And who are you, Masked Man, a.k.a. Dan Dowd?
Beverly Pottern Shapiro
Longboat Key
Roundabout videos
To: Commissioner Jim Brown
Mr. Brown, the traffic backup onto Ringling Bridge may come up at the June 28 Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting. So here is the email we sent to Stan Cann at FDOT (and to our local politicos). A perspective of the Ringling Bridge traffic backup and a suggestion or two (including constructing NOW the “right turn slip lane” component of the future roundabout at Fruitville/U.S. 41…which we think would quickly improve travel time for Longboat Key drivers (once you get past St. Armands).
First in the videos stack at www.sarasotaconnectivity.com.
Rod Warner, connectivity chairman
City of Sarasota
Welcome sign corrections
To: Town Commission
Below is an email from the contractor detailing the corrections they plan to make with the “Welcome” signs.
Bruce St. Denis, town manager
Longboat Key
To: Mike Latulippe
After this morning’s meeting this is what we are going to do with the Welcome signs.
Confirm with the engineer in writing that the current position/spacing of the rails as they relate to the sign dimensions is suitable and still meets the proper wind load calculations. This would factor in of course the 2×10-inch vs. 2×8-inch size difference. He would also direct as to the number of additional bolts needed for the top and bottom rails to secure the sign. The sign itself will be vertically centered onto the two rails in there current location/spacing. This will create the same rail reveal both top and bottom. The polystyrene stucco frame will be per plans and painted white. It will border all edges of the sign and will be attached to the face of the sign. The bolts, nuts on the back of the sign will be primed. The entire back of the sign that is currently blue will receive two coats of white automotive grade paint. The rails will receive one additional coat. The columns will be fitted with additional thin stone as a build out in the most noticeable and obvious depressions on the inside (rail attachment) surface and the 180 degree opposite outside surface while still maintaining a visually rectangular plumb shape. I have spoken with the sign company on their part in this as well as including them in this e-mail. Our goal is to have this done end of day Thursday.
Dan Adams
Foundation Services
To: Town Manager Bruce St. Denis
Bruce…I have read the attached letter and I don’t understand what some of the discussion is about. If there is a problem with the wind load resistance, it is an issue of which I was unaware. My conversation with you last week was regarding the aesthetics of the signs and how they had not been built according to the approved drawings. My concern is that the columns appear too slender and out of proportion to the overall sign. The columns are too small. They are throwing off the proportions of the whole sign. The drawings call for them to be two foot square and they are not. The caps are to overhang two inches not four inches. The stone on the columns was supposed to match the stone on Town Hall. It does not. If the columns had been built two foot square the caps would probably be correct. The height of the signs is greater than shown on the drawings as well.
Thirty percent of the $500,000 grant went to FDOT to manage this project. They have not done their job and should be held accountable. If I can assist with the correction of the signs I will be happy to do so. I have some ideas as to how to make the corrections. We should not let the contractor rush this for their benefit. This is the first thing visitor see when they enter the island. It has to be right!
Jim Brown, commissioner
Longboat Key
Sign questions
To: Town Commission
As you are all well aware, I have a request concerning the new way finder signage on Gulf of Mexico Drive. I moved through the proper channels to Juan Florensa and he informed me that this subject would be discussed at the above workshop. I wanted to share this suggestion with you prior to the workshop so that you will have ample time to consider the suggestion. I will also present my case in front of you that day at the appropriate time.
For this suggestion, I am only focusing on the sign at the end of Bay Isles Road, but my suggestion should be able to be implemented for any of the way finder signs anywhere on the island. This location is especially important to me because that is where our office, RE/MAX Excellence is located.
In fairness to all businesses and to try to have each business entity showcased on the way finder signs, my solution is to name the general business categories on that block, either in order of location or alphabetically. As always, I thank you for your consideration and your opinions. I will see you Thursday.
Andrew Vac, RE/MAX Excellence
Longboat Key
Take buildings out of south side
To: Town Commission
Please commissioners…look carefully at the massive build out on the south side. They came back only correcting the north side. They need to work on the massive jammed south side. I want the hotel but please…listen to Monica and also take some buildings out of the south side.
Shan Dinapoli
Longboat Key
Sidewalk by the golf course
To: Town Commission
The fact that the Longboat Key town planner came up with this idea is scary. What was she thinking when this came into her head?
Forget about the aesthetics and the removal of the beautiful oleanders and other landscape that has made the entrance to Longboat Key from the south so impressive.
Forget the fact that there are no residences on the west side of Gulf of Mexico Drive for almost two miles. The one or two people who would find themselves on this sidewalk would probably be lost.
How about Safety? I live on Gulf of Mexico Drive across from the golf course and golf balls come flying across every day. My house has been hit, windows broken, car dented, garage doors dented and some near misses on my person.
My suggestion: If the town approves this proposal, up the Longboat Key town liability insurance for the inevitable negligence lawsuit. I also recommend the town place signs along the sidewalk like “Walk at your own risk. Errant golf balls may cause serious bodily injury or death.” If this sidewalk proposal represents the thought process that came up with the ordinance and was approved yesterday the town commissioners you should be ashamed. Only one commissioner brought up the safety issue and it was like he was talking to a tree.
Bill Salmon
Longboat Key
Letter from town on turtles
To: John Sandford
The letter following was received today by my office. The notification that it refers to was never even sent, and I was just contacted earlier this week by the Code Enforcement office regarding this issue. We have already been in touch with Joe, who is out of town on a family matter, and we will correct (if there even is anything to correct) upon his return. We have gotten this same treatment at several of our other associations and are making an appointment with Mr. Shields who is in charge of the COE to resolve this matter.
I will keep you informed.
Shaun Fitzer
Longboat Key
To: Shaun Fitzer, Town Manager Bruce St. Denis
I have had meetings after dark on the beach with Randy Fowler and people from Mote Marine in 2008 and they could not have been happier with the work we have done on lighting. Frequently we get on the hook for conservancy or Bay side lighting or individual unit lighting. The turtle people can’t determine who is responsible for the violations so all the complaints come to our mailbox. The only solution is to schedule another meeting after dark with Joe our maintenance man and Steve Shields and Mote people. The town and Mote know we have no control over individual owners but are too lazy to walk up and knock on the door of violators to correct the problem. No one wants to admit that this problem is a continuous improvement issue i.e. what was okay last year is no good this year, and that is okay if done intelligently by soliciting cooperation. This new way of doing business of writing citations will not fix any problem but will sure stop cooperation.
John Sandford
Longboat Key
Approve cell phone towers
To: Mayor George Spoll
I strongly encourage you to approve cell phone towers on Longboat Key and/or Sister Key. Longboat is not my primary residence so I rely on my cell phone when I am in town. I find it increasingly frustrating that I have to walk out to Sarasota Bay in order to pick up a signal from the mainland.
I am financing and paying taxes on my Longboat home from vacation renters. My renters have commented about issues with the cell phone coverage and that they would only return if I provided unlimited long distance on the house phone. This will cost me $50 per month.
Considering the fact that I can only have one renter a month (per town ordinances), that means my one week rental has to cover a mortgage, taxes, water, electric, phone and television. Please look at your home expenses and see if your monthly expenses are less than $1,200. Believe it or not that extra $50 does make a difference.
In this economy monthly vacation rentals are down and your constituents cannot make ends meet on one weekly rental plus all these additional fees. Please help us out by approving the cell phone towers. And if you are so moved, it would be terrific to remove the rental limitations.
Blythe Jeffers
Longboat Key
Bet you don’t print this
To: Mr. Dowd:
Your comments on June 11 surely left out many facts. The “woman “ who you did not name, that was appointed to the P&Z, happened to be at that meeting because she is at many of the Town Commission meetings and even their workshops. She is an interested citizen, who cares about our community, and gives of herself in many ways that you have no idea about. She volunteers, she contributes, and she has also served on other town boards. She does so quietly, and works hard for the interest of the community.
Your comments intimated that she was informed before of her appointment, and that there was a preconceived decision to choose her for this board. This is unfair, and an incorrect presumption on your part.
Laurin Goldner, my wife, has interest in the community, works for her community, and is honest to a fault. If more people with her values and morals were involved in government we would all be better off.
And, by the way, who are you? Using a pen name Dan Dowd is a coward’s way of not being honest. Bet you don’t print this.
Nelson Goldner
Longboat Key
Knock it off
To: Mr. Al Green
You might enjoy being pushed around by your government cuz it’s “fun to watch” but most of us “pro-business” residents don’t! We enjoy eating out on island, going to the hardware store, getting our hair cut, going to the dentist, getting out boat serviced, stopping at the convenience store, getting our laundry done and yes even entertaining visitors at our diminishing hotels. We enjoy the attendant property values as well…or we did.
Knock off the socialist rhetoric and “cool aid.” Thank God the Club project is dead so we don’t have to hear your ongoing opining about the evils of our new Five-Star resort. Give us a break!
Bob Gault
Longboat Key
The original ‘Massive Plan’
To: Town Commission
I am attaching a picture from 1982 (see above) that shows the open space on the southern end of the Key well before L’Ambiance was built along a pristine shoreline—blocking the beach views from many of the club’s existing hotel rooms. Those were the days indeed! Mr. Blumberg, a resident of L’Ambiance, probably unintentionally forgot to mention that several of the aging buildings on the club’s property will be replaced by more modern and architecturally beautiful buildings in the redevelopment plan.
I trust you, and the other commissioners will agree that it was L’Ambiance that was “too massive for our little peaceful, and beautiful key.” This picture tells the whole story—people who live in glass houses should not throw stones!
Jim Greer
Longboat Key
Present Key Club package
To: Town Commission
Having previously expressed a number of reasons for rejecting the proposed expansion of the Longboat Key Club, we will not repeat each and every argument at this time. Thus, our only purpose in writing at this time is to urge the Commission to present the entire package of proposed changes, amendments and /or interpretations to the residents of taxpayers of Longboat Key, since the issue is of such far reaching importance that it cries out for as broad an expression of sentiment as possible.
Sandra and Benjamin Krause
Longboat Key
Make Key a resort area
To: Town Commission
You have the opportunity to carry on the long tradition of Longboat Key being a quality, top of the line place to live or visit. With all that is happening with the horrible oil spill on the beaches of the panhandle, Longboat Key has an opportunity to attract a whole new type of visitor; the summer tourist. What would it do for increased tax revenue? What would it do for the business community to have customer during June, July and August? What if we really had the vision to be a year round resort area?
Just think about the possibilities. You are our leaders. You are supposed to be the visionaries. Support the Longboat Key Resort expansion project. Please make sure Longboat Key is the place it was 20 years ago, 20 years from now. Think about your grandchildren. What do you want the island to be like when they come to visit?
Jack Brown
New Albany, Miss.; Longboat Key
Support new properties
To: Town Commission
I am writing from Williamstown, MA, where I spend summers. In my experience, I find that many contented Longboat Key property owners were introduced to the pleasures of the key by invitations to briefly visit friends or relatives here. They fell in love with the place. This led to a few years of short-term renting on the key, mostly while still gainfully employed “up North.”
Upon retirement up North, they found multi-month rentals on the key and became “snow birds,” enjoying the winter golf and water sports, and embracing to a small extent the cultural life of Sarasota County, until it became intolerable to change landlords frequently. So they bought a property on the key and then spent longer periods of time here, ultimately selling up North and being true full time residents. Like us, when ready for a senior community, they left the key and moved downtown. Somewhat younger retirees bought their property on the key…and the cycle continued. I estimate that 60 percent of the 231 owners of apartments at Sarasota Bay Club were very contented owners of homes and apartments on Longboat Key for many years.
I seriously wonder if this cycle can continue if there are not plenty of short-term and multi-month rental properties and exciting “new” vacationing opportunities on the key.
It seems to me that the club’s expansion plans will make possible this happy cycle of living on and loving Longboat Key. Please support the club’s proposals.
Donald F. Markstein
Sarasota
More compliant plan needed
To: Town Commission
We urge you to reject the current overdeveloped plan and require that a scaled down, more realistic plan be submitted by the Key Club. One that is more appropriate and more compliant with the code and character of the key. Thank you for your consideration concerning this urgent matter.
J.B. and Dee Pinski
Longboat Key
Renovation supporters
To: Town Commission
Please vote in favor of the Longboat Key Club renovation.
Bobbi and Richard Goldwater
Longboat Key
Visitors will enjoy the club
To: Town Commission
We are writing in support of the Longboat Key Club plans for expansion. We have owned a condo on the key for five years, and Karen’s parents have owned a condo on the key for 30 years. Longboat Key is losing businesses and restaurants at an alarming rate. We believe that the expansion and upgrades planned by the club will allow them to survive. Longboat Key will not lose its ambiance with the club’s expansion. It will allow visitors and residents to enjoy life without leaving the island. We hope you will support the plans of the Longboat Key Club.
Bill and Karen Cardman
Longboat Key
Longboat needs resort
To: Town Commission
In order to attract luxury tourists and small, influential business travelers, Longboat Key needs a strong, vibrant and modern 5 star resort. Think of Longboat Key’s future and please support the Longboat Key Club’s redevelopment plan.
Susan C. Levine
Longboat Key
A vote for the future
To: Hal Lenobel
We need to continue to upgrade Longboat Key…I may never live to see it completed, but without this, Longboat Key won’t be a class destination. Down the road, you will be pleased that you were part of the future of the Key by voting in favor of the Longboat Key Club.
Leah Barker
Longboat Key
Satisfied with Key Club plan
To: Town Commission
I support the club’s plan as it was presented on Monday. I believe that their initiative provides an opportunity for each of you to assure the development of amenities that will enhance this island as an important destination for visitors who may become future taxpayers.
I hope you will be generous in providing discretion for the club to set the pace and sequence for the building that is to follow the completion of the golf course and spa.
Hopefully, you were as reassured as I was by the expert testimony governing plans for minimally intrusive construction techniques and adequacy of traffic control and parking. It was well demonstrated, I believe, that the financial rewards from the project will derive from a well-satisfied base of repetitive business. There were also clear signs of a willingness to address the concerns of their adversaries, particularly as regards security of access to residential areas. We have plenty of evidence that all of the recent projects undertaken by the club have delivered the highest standards.
Shortly, you may be asked to respond to the threat of oil on our beaches. Your practical choice may be as limited to where to place foot-cleaning stations at public beach access locations. An affirmative vote on the club’s plan is a more positive way to assure our future. Please vote “Yes!”
Vince DeLisi
Longboat Key
Good future for the key
To: Town Commission
My wife and I are residents of Longboat Key and for the good of our key’s future, the club’s expansion is essential. Commercial needs it; our tax base needs it.
Jerry Bowles
Longboat Key
Please don’t let us down
To: Mayor George Spoll
Because we own a business, it is difficult for me to attend the meetings you have been holding. I hoped to speak Monday, but had to leave at noon. Since I cannot attend tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) meeting, I hope you’ll read my thoughts here.
When my husband and I moved to Florida over 16 years ago, our real estate agent took us to Siesta Key, as “empty nesters” who could live anywhere without concern over schools. We are not golfers, tennis players or boaters, but we do love nature. Siesta Key was too commercialized for our taste, and it wasn’t long before we bought our condominium on Longboat Key. Some new Florida friends commented that the people of Longboat were considered too fussy and controlling – our kind of people!
As condominium owners, we understand the importance of rules. When you buy a condo, you agree to abide by the rules put in place by the association. Penthouse owners do not get preferential treatment, nor do those with the longest term of ownership. If you don’t like the rules, you move on. Our condominium was turned down by the Planning and Zoning Board when we wanted to add an apartment to our common area, and we had to work within the system put in place for the good of all.
The owners of Longboat Key Club have long been aware of the codes in place on their property. Property rights only go as far as the laws put in place allow. While upgrades and improvements to their property are welcome by all of us behind the gate, the proposed massive increase to the number of residents and guests who will require parking and road space is truly untenable. It takes little imagination to imagine the impact on traffic flow along Gulf of Mexico Drive, no matter where the gate is placed. We have endured unacceptable levels of noise well into the night when the club has hosted events in the past; but to consider a regular current of pounding base notes late into the night goes against all acceptable noise abatement policy up and down the island. We did not sign up to live in a Key West or Fort Lauderdale type of community, and contrary to the belief of Loeb and their interested friends in real estate, might does not make right. We hope you agree.
This massive plan that goes against code has been sold as the silver bullet for our Longboat Key business community; but “the emperor has no clothes.” If our suffering businesses were truly the focus, Loeb would be placing their money on the bay side where visitors would be forced to pass the Bay Isles shops. Guests of the island side property have little reason to travel north, and are more inclined to travel south to St. Armand’s and to the main land. One could argue that many of Sarasota’s loyal Euphemia Haye, PattiGeorges and Colony customers will think twice about braving the trip, when Longboat Key Club’s massive increase in traffic causes inevitable gridlock on Gulf of Mexico Drive.
Please restore our faith in government and stand up to the special interest group here. We would like to affirm our five-year-old granddaughter’s wish, as she recently asked, “Grandma, when you and Poppa die, can we still come here?” Please don’t let us, her or the long-time tax-paying residents of Longboat Key down.
Lavonne Shedivy
Longboat Key
Stand your ground
To: Town Commission
Please, just say “yes.” The referendum has already happened and the voters elected you overwhelmingly to be their voices. Please do not let the selfish and incredibly shortsighted individuals behind the gates, throwing around threats of lawsuits, deter you from doing the right thing. This community has changed – the citizens who used to take for granted that they were being represented by town government have woken up to the reality that until now, due to the make-up of prior commissions, they were ill served.
A very vocal minority put us in the position we are in today and now you have a very vocal majority who will back your positive decision. The saddest thing about the opposition is that there is no possible way to satisfy them. They simply want what they want and are intractable about change of any kind. Please, stand your ground, stand up for your community and let this be the first step in a long road of serving the majority of the people.
Marnie Mataresse
Longboat Key
Why did you do that, Lynn?
To: Commissioner Lynn Larson
I voted for you. I put your sign on my lawn (twice). I encouraged others to vote for you. I am now worried that I made a mistake. I’m so disappointed in you for allowing Savietz to be appointed to the Planning or Code board or whatever is it you put him on. As president on my unit here in Country Club Shores (when you were the same for yours) he was instrumental in our failure to reinstate our covenants when you were passing yours. How anyone could not see the danger this guy presents is beyond me. He has obviously done the same thing now. It seems, now, that he has gotten to at least one other member of that Board you put him on, as she has gone from a seeming proponent for “the club’s plan” to an outspoken critic. What have you done here? And, what can you do about it now? Throwing them both out at the final hour is probably out of the question. You have good insight and ideas, that’s why I gave my support. So none of that seems to have made any difference. It’s time! Step up and be heard. This island cannot lose the club. I urge you to do whatever you can, even now at the end of this endless process, to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Rich Paladino
Longboat Key
Make Key prosperous
To: Town Commission
Please vote in favor of the Longboat Key Club project. We love living on Longboat Key and want to see it prosper. Thank you for your consideration.
Joan and Larry Castellani
Longboat Key
Give Key Club the OK
To: Commissioner David Brenner
It is time to end this ongoing, unproductive debate and give the Longboat Key Club the okay to go ahead before the situation becomes a lose, lose for everyone who really cares about the island and its future.
Barbara Horowitz
Longboat Key
Future in your hands
To: Town Commission
Sorry that won’t be able to attend the upcoming Commission meeting but we urge you to vote in favor of the club’s redevelopment plan. The vast majority of Longboat residents are in favor of the plan and we feel the future of Longboat Key is in your hands.
Bob and Laurie Wolfe
Longboat Key
Please modify agreement
To: Town Commission
I want to urge you to modify the two agreements between the Longboat Key Club and the town regarding tee times and open space which allows guests of the new hotel to play the club’s golf courses and for the construction of the meeting center. This is critical to the financial success of the new hotel.
Larry Greenspon
Longboat Key
Island needs to grow
To: Town Commission
We are members of Longboat Key Club and support the Longboat Key Club position and have attended some of the meetings. Unfortunately, we cannot make this meeting. However, we feel the island desperately needs to continue to grow and develop in order to attract vacationers and jobs to the island! Many of those fighting this proposal wouldn’t be around if the club was allowed by the town to develop their property in the first place. We feel the opposition has a short sighted and selfish view and is not taking the whole island community into account. We feel this is key to continue to rent out our property and to our enjoyment while we are in town.
Charlie and MaryBeth Protzman
Longboat Key
Your comments are inappropriate
To: Bob and Shannon Gault
I was disappointed with the tone in your e-mail to the Town Commission dated June 3, 2010. In the past I thought you had done an excellent job in articulating your support for the Longboat Key Club project. However, in your most recent e-mail I find that your comments regarding Ms. Simpson to be totally inappropriate.
1. Ms. Simpson is an excellent professional planner with a significant understanding of the history of development on Longboat Key. She has a clear understanding of departures and how they have been used and granted on Longboat Key in the past. In her staff report she stated her professional opinion regarding the Longboat Key Club application as evaluated against both the Town Code and the Comprehensive Plan. Those documents have been developed over time by the citizens of this town to “drive the design” of any and all Longboat Key development. In the staff report Ms. Simpson made it clear that she found the number and magnitude of the requested departures to be significant and, in fact, unprecedented for a Longboat Key development.
2. An honest and fair evaluation by the town planner is required by the Town Code and as part of a Quasi-Judicial proceeding. Ms. Simpson’s evaluation is incorporated into the staff report. The Town Commission can accept her recommendations or take other actions based on competent and substantial evidence presented at the hearings.
3. Ms. Simpson provides good rationale for her decision and then points out alternatives for both the club and the Town Commission.
4. As long as I am town manager, staff reports will be evaluated based on the merits of the proposal, the Town Code and/or the Comprehensive Plan. While the Town Commission has great discretion in any actions they might take after reviewing the material presented at the public hearings, staff will not tailor a report to favor a perceived goal of the Town Commission or a group of citizens on the island.
5. Finally, the concerns about the club’s plans articulated in the staff report were brought to the attention of the Longboat Key Club project team for at least two years.
I will be happy to discuss this with you in person. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns.
Bruce St. Denis, town manager
Longboat Key
Maintain zoning codes
To: Town Commission
I continue to correspond with you to protect and safeguard the beauty, serenity, and density of our “paradise island” Longboat Key. I feel very strongly that the elected Mayor and Commissioners have the responsibility to maintain the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Codes of the town. The residents of Longboat Key established residency and purchased property based upon a residential community with limited density and traffic. If we had wanted to live in a high-density high-rise commercial neighborhood we would have purchased property on the East Coast of Florida at a much lesser cost per square foot of living area. We expect you as mayor and the town commissioners to protect the mandate of the residents of Longboat Key.
Martin Rich
Longboat Key
Scale it down
To: Town Commission
As a member of the Longboat Key Club and property owner at the adjacent Sands Point, I’ve read persuasive memos from both sides of the Key Club project. My husband and I favor some development of the south end of the key and believe that some new hotel and meeting facilities would be useful. Having been involved in economic development up north, we are not among those who think that Longboat Key needs to stay exactly the same–residential and amiably shabby around the edges.
But we are concerned all over again about the scale of this proposed project. The model makes it vividly clear that the number and size of the buildings on that slim section of Longboat Club Drive at Islandside are unsustainable from both ecological and traffic standpoints. The density and height of the buildings will tax the ecosystem on which they all depend–not even to mention that of their neighbors. The proportion of open space to building, maintained elsewhere on the key by code, is severely compromised by this overblown plan.
Lane and I want to see development, just as we want the Avenue of the Flowers shopping area upgraded. But this plan is bloated and destructive. Please send this plan back to its progenitors with a message: scale it down, consider the capacity of the Islandside property, and come back with something we can welcome. And we would.
Linda Ware
Wausau, Wis.; Longboat Key
Please vote for approval
To: Town Commission
Think about the financial strength of downtown Detroit, Longboat Key and Athens, Greece today. Detroit and Athens are in a real mess; however, Longboat Key is not, but could be.
There are a number of predictable trends that exist in today’s world that are somewhat new to many of us. First: everything is becoming more complex. Second: things are changing faster than ever and the rate of change is also increasing and third: because of the speed and complexity of change most things cost more.
Ask many families in Detroit or the Greek government if, had they had the chance to easily improve their financial strength with minor inconveniences a few years ago; would they have done so? I think they would have done so but they did not because they did not anticipate the rate, complexity and cost of change.
Now, what about Longboat Key? We now have a wonderful opportunity (perhaps one in a lifetime) to approve the Longboat Key Club’s application for its redevelopment. This project will, in so many ways, improve the financial strength of our community. We need financial strength during uncertain times and at this very moment we have a budget shortfall, an ongoing need for good white beach sand, the potential of very high costs for beach clean up if the oil hits shore and there is always the risk of a hurricane hit.
I know that money does not always buy happiness but financial strength sure helps in today’s world. Please vote for approval of our club’s redevelopment.
Phil Segerstrom
Longboat Key
Gross expansion; not revitalization
To: Mayor George Spoll
Although I support an upgrade to the Longboat Key Club, the plan that the club has submitted to the town has too much mass in too small a place. This plan represents a gross expansion not a revitalization of the club.
The implementation of the plan, as presently before the Commission, would destroy the sense of openness and serenity that one feels upon entering the Islandside PUD. When looking at the model last week, I could see that expanses of green would be replaced by very large buildings on either side of the road. And the model gave no indication of the increased traffic on Longboat Club Road due to: the additional residential and tourist units, activities at the conference center, and vehicles going to and from the delivery docks at said conference center.
Not an improvement for the residents of the PUD. Nor to other residents of Longboat Key, who would face increased traffic in season. Already without an expansion of the club we have experienced traffic coming to a standstill both around St. Armands Circle and along John Ringling Causeway. Our region clearly does not have the infrastructure to support such a major expansion of the Longboat Key Club. And traffic that doesn’t move will make the area less attractive to tourists and potential buyers. I urge you and the other commissioners to reject the club’s plan as presently conceived and to require the club to develop a plan whose scale is more appropriate.
Marsha Roth
Longboat Key
Protect our way of life
To: Town Commission
We are hopeful that you will follow the leadership and recommendations of Monica and reject the Longboat Key Club application and insist that they scale the project back–To do otherwise would be a tremendous disservice to our residents. We rely on you and the rest of the commission to protect our way of life and all the wonderful things we now have–and have earned over the years.
Anybody thinking about traffic should take a hard look at the congestion during the month of May–we just appeal to the commission to not give in to special interests and to follow Monica’s leadership in demanding a scaled down version.
Please to not give in to Loeb–we don’t want another Florida East Coast like congested island or city environment here!
Les and Carol Bruald
Longboat Key
Plan will turn town into tourist trap
To: Mayor George Spoll
I had to laugh at the tags the club was giving out yesterday, “Support the club, save our town” I suggest to you that the opposite is true. Permitting this massive development (not re-development) will turn our town into another tourist town instead of the “Last civilized town on the west coast!” What will this development do for us? Increase traffic congestion? Over building on open space?
You heard their own consultants say that the goal is to create an environment so that visitors will have no need to leave the resort…so how does that support the commercial interest on the island?
Imagine if you will, the next time you come over the New Pass Bridge the view of a massive hotel next to the Chart House. The residents of this island will not let their properties deteriorate. Homeowner Associations and Condominium Associations have strict guidelines in maintaining residential properties. If the Key Club decides not to re-invest and maintain their property in the future, they will have to answer to their investors. “Just say no!”
Ray Rajewski
Longboat Key
Slowly dying
To: Commissioner Hal Lenobel
We have lived here for twenty years, the key is slowly dying, please support the club’s redevelopment plan.
Faye and Marty Rosen
Longboat Key
Road should be moved to north end
To: Mayor George Spoll
I welcomed your suggestions concerning moving the Key Club road to the north end of the north parcel, so as to minimize the impact, of what I feel is an oversized commercial expansion, on the lives of the many residents, who already own property and pay taxes at Islandside.
The Key Club currently pays less than $40,000 in ad valorem taxes to the town. A single tower at L ‘Ambiance pays more than $120,000 in ad valorem taxes, or three times as much as the Key Club. Ad valorem taxes comprise 55 percent of our yearly revenue. All sales taxes and room taxes from all hotels, motels, restaurants and retail stores account for another 12 percent of revenues.
It is clear that the Key Club does relatively little to pave our streets with gold. Whereas the residential taxpayers at Islandside pay perhaps thirty times more into the town’s coffers. If the town were a business, the Key Club would be a minor player.
That is why I think your road suggestion is a good one. Of course this community wants to treat major stakeholders with deference. I believe few of the Islandside residents want to drive through Ft. Lauderdale, fighting pedestrian crossings and commercial traffic, every time they want to go somewhere.
Moving the road north would expand the northbound turn lane capacity, buffer the golf course from the backside of the convention center with its exhaust fans and kitchen smells and retain some of the current driver-thru ambiance.
Gene Jaleski
Longboat Key
Enable the development
To: Mayor George Spoll
We’ve been residents of Longboat Key since 2002 and today we had the opportunity to sit in the commission’s hearing on the proposed Longboat Key Club redevelopment. We want to share an observation and a concern. The observation: Happily, the board of commissioners was trying to balance the interests of the club and the “residents” of the key. This is a difficult task, certainly not as simple as determining whether the proposed plan meets Planning and Zoning codes.
Our concern: The discussions seemed to equate “resident interests” with those voiced by a handful of people who happen to live behind the gates. We, too, are “residents” on Longboat Key but we live in Windward Bay, across from the Hilton. As such, we are looking to you to help protect our interests, too. As you consider the proposed redevelopment plan, please take a broader view of “resident interests” by including the interests of the entire island’s population. We are sure you know that the broadest interests are best served by a growing, vital island economy. From today’s hearing, we know you take this responsibility seriously and will act in the best interests of the entire island. We believe that a revitalized Longboat Key Club is critical to the economy of the island, and for this reason, we would ask that you try to find a way to enable the development.
Rex Agler and Linda Piccolo
Longboat Key
Strongly opposed to expansion plan
To: Town Commission
We are new owners at the Waterclub, applying for homestead and making Florida our primary residence. We love Longboat and Sarasota especially because they are unique in Florida. We are strongly opposed to the proposed expansion and would seriously consider moving if it is approved.
Jeannine and Dan Mullan
Longboat Key
Create an agency to broker a solution
To: Town Commission
I urge you to support the Planning Director’s report that the proposed development is too massive and intensive and not consistent with the town’s Comprehensive Plan and should not be approved in its present form. The objective of this action is to attempt to achieve a negotiated settlement on the scope of the development acceptable to all parties and thus avoid expensive litigation associated with an impasse. To date there has been no agency to broker a compromise. I believe the Commission should undertake to become the agent or cause the creation of an agency to broker a solution.
Charles Ewing
Longboat Key
Seeing potential
To: Town Commission
As a property owner and resident, [Grand Bay Condominium], I would like to reiterate my strong support for the Longboat Key Club project. I keep my boat in my slip at the Moorings, and since they took that over, the improvements are unbelievable. I had lunch at Court 21, at the new tennis center Sunday, and without the Longboat Key Club, we would not have such a facility.
My first stay ever on Longboat Key was at the Longboat Key Club, and I have since purchased two slips, two condos and a lot in Sable cove. I spend a fair amount of time, and a lot of money on our island, and how anyone can be against this is hard to understand. The Longboat Key Club runs a first class operation, and should they ever leave, Lord knows what would happen.
I see zero downside to this, except maybe to annoy a few old people, who would be against any change of any kind. I am glad I do not live in fear of things that will not hurt me, or too small minded to see the potential here. Thank you, and please pass this—for me, my family and all the residents of our fine island.
Kerry Helinger
Longboat Key
Get detailed specifics
To: Mayor George Spoll
What strikes me about this whole process is the apparent control the Key Club has over this town’s Commission. I am not aware of any serious question or objection the current Commission has stated to any part of their request no matter how small.
Surely there are some aspects you could question, perhaps change, and are at least bit curious about.
The certain increase in traffic at the critical south end of the key and potential gridlock during events? The first view of Longboat Key seen by folks crossing the bridge is a massive parking garage and hotel? The commercial viability of a Longboat Key hotel not on the beach, shuttle rides to tennis courts, and with limited access to a supposedly private golf course? The commercial viability of more unsold condo units with over 500 unsold already on Longboat Key? Specific details of the financial benefits to Longboat Key jobs (really)? Taxes? Usage of non-hotel restaurants and businesses? The lack of any firm, enforceable promise and commitment by the club to actually do any of what they request.
What’s really in it for Longboat Key except more traffic, congestion and a lower quality of life for residents? Isn’t it your job to get answers to this question with specifics rather than vague arm waving generalities?
Louis Bevilacqua
Longboat Key
Help Longboat Key survive
To: Town Commission
Please help Longboat Key survive and improve by allowing redevelopment of the Longboat Key Club. Our piece of paradise has become a tired, second-class resort area. No longer a great destination for vacationers or those of us who choose to spend our winters (or our money) on the island. Thank you for you consideration of this most important issue, A few inconveniences will be well worth the rewards for the future of our area.
Marlene B. Isaacs
Longboat Key
See through the empty threats
To: Mayor George Spoll
1. Renew and Revitalize Responsibly.
We are all concerned about the quality of our neighborhood. It is the scale and intensity of the Key Club’s plans with which we disagree – not the need or right to update. We are solidly behind the words of Longboat’s Vision Plan, which stresses that residents across the key want an island with vibrant, ‘historic levels of tourism’. We seek a balanced renewal at the club, a renewal where the effect, that is surely to be felt across the length of the island, is fair to everyone.
Anyone who has looked at the scale model of the Key Club’s plans quickly realizes that the massive increase in density is not right for this island. I ask you to deny this application and work toward another solution.
2. Respect a Completed Development.
Perhaps like your neighborhood, ours was completed and fully built out years ago. We relied on the zoning, and the legal agreements signed by the town, that there were no more approved development sites to be built upon at Islandside – just like you might have done when you purchased your home. Now, the Key Club wants to take a magic eraser to those contracts, codes, structures and uses, that everyone, including the Key Club, agreed to at the outset and have lived by for decades. We are open to a dialogue of growth and renewal, but it must be one that respects the legal rights of the neighbors.
3. There is a better plan still out there.
While economic times are tough, this island is not in a free-fall of decline. It is the place where real estate always recovers first and will quickly thrive again – because the reason we all came here still exists today. Longboat Key is known for its open space, zoning restrictions and natural beauty. It is the same reason thousands of new residents will follow anew in the years to come, including our children and grandchildren, if we stay true to the vision.
Many of us here voted for this new slate of Commissioners, in the hope that you would use your deep business experience and mediation skills to force new analyses to be done, to press for hidden information to be revealed and to seek fresh avenues of compromise to develop a better plan that is reasonable for all.
We believe that you, our commissioners are up to the challenge—that you will refuse to be intimidated by false projections or swayed by threats that this is the only new investment the island can attract. We are confident you will see through the empty threats that the Key Club will refuse to maintain a profitable property if they don’t get everything they want. We believe you will negotiate from strength, fully cognizant of your duty not to enrich one landowner at the expense of many.
Marc Fors
Longboat Key
Why give the club everything
To: Commissioner Hal Lenobel
I really am mystified why the commissioners are so determined to give the club everything they want. Not only is it not justified, but it sets an impossible precedent for the future. Contrary to the fear mongering of the pro-club advocates, our key is not in danger of becoming a run-down, out-of-date place. It’s a relatively quiet paradise for those of us who chose it…that is to say, everyone who bought here. Get a grip, guys.
Eleanor Glickman
Longboat Key
Say ‘yes’ to Key Club
To: Town Commission
I wholeheartedly disagree with Monica Simpson’s evaluation of this project. Hopefully, I sincerely hope you do as well. I certainly hope a final decision will be made by the end of the month. This has gone on much too long and we are all getting weary. For Pete’s Sake and for Longboat Key’s sake, say yes!
Beverley Albertson
Longboat Key
Follow staff recommendation
To: Town Commission
I have just viewed the model of the massive resort plan in the Longboat Key News Internet file. No wonder Monica Simpson declared the application to be too massive, too intense, too dense. Gone are the tennis courts, the driving range, and all of the associated landscaping. Instead, you have massive building after massive building. Board members please read and reread the staff’s assessment! This is an independent critique and logically concludes that the application should be denied. On behalf of the residents at Sands Point I urge you to follow the staff recommendation and deny the application.
Julian R. Hansen, president
Sands Point Condominium
Plan too massive
To: Mayor George Spoll
I am a resident of the Islandside community. I hope the commissioners have had the opportunity to inspect the scale model of the club’s proposal available at the old Longboat Key tennis center. My impression on inspection of the model was a clear appreciation of the massive scale of the expansion.
I note that the current plans do not respect the recommendation of Ms. Simpson and her staff to move the guard house westerly to alleviate the backup of automobile traffic coming from the Gulf of Mexico Drive.
I assume commissioners have seen Mr. Welly’s editorial in the recent Key Club Reflections issue. This was an unnecessary vicious ad hominem attack of Bob White, president of IPOC, with a variety of false accusations.
I attended a meeting of the Longboat Key Road Association several weeks ago. Mr. Welly and his attorney, Mr. Syprett, attended. At one point Mr. Welly stood and asked Mr. Goodman, the president, if the association had Errors and Omissions insurance. I considered this to be a not too veiled threat of a lawsuit if the Association did not accommodate him.
Rudy Meiselman
Longboat Key
Trolley important part of community
To: Mayor George Spoll
I am writing to you about an article on Manatee County’s up coming budget and proposed cuts/reductions that Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker is recommending for commission consideration to balance the budget as reported in The Lakewood Ranch Herald on Friday, May 28, 2010, on pages 1 and 11A. On page 11A second column fourth paragraph down: Other proposed reductions call for…discontinuing the Longboat Key Trolley…
The trolley is an important part of our community and during season I would see many riders, less so now.
In view of the community’s contribution to both counties I hope you will see fit to oppose this reduction.
Thank you.
Jeremy Whatmough
Longboat Key
Sand management
To: Town Commission
Consider the following creative solution to the replenishment of sand. First, look at the numbers, which range upward from $40 million. Let’s assume that this latest project will last for five years and that we have 8,000 residents of Longboat Key. That comes to a total of $5,000 for each resident or $1,000 a year.
Many residents are not here all year and many do not use the beaches at all. Let’s be generous and assume that each resident uses the beach once a month throughout the year. This comes to $83 per visit per resident. Yes, we understand that there is more value to Longboat Key by having nice beaches than just actually using the beach. So, let the town spend half of the money and that reduces the cost to about $40 per visit per resident.
Now, let’s just charge each user $40 per visit. Or here is a better idea. Let’s privatize the entire project and get some outside company to invest in our beaches. After all, if it’s such a good idea, many will want to participate. Then, they can charge users a $40 or $50 fee. The users will not complain and the rest of us get off the hook that the big spenders want us to bite on.
Stuart R. Scheyer
Longboat Key
Longboat Key’s oil spill plan
To: Town Manager Bruce St. Denis
Please clarify:
1. What is the function of your debris management contractor? Will this contractor have the necessary resources to effectively handle this approaching disaster? Who is this company?
2. Are you relying on the St. Petersburg plan? It is deficient in scope. Please review its details. Ask in depth questions to your professionals.
3. How will you respond to various scenarios? The voters and I would like to know Longboat Key’s action plan in respect to “what we will be facing.” If you have not done so, please practice the various exercises for various type of spills predicted by your “professionals.”
4. The threat is defined. If the spill reaches this area, it is predicted by independent researchers on Day 73, plus or minus, with 73 million gallons of oil below the surface.
5. Stop relying on the federal government, etc. They are using their best spin for media control. Will you have a public press conference this week to reassure the public and answer questions? It is not premature.
6. What is wrong for asking and training volunteers now ahead of the oil? Confusion cannot be any worse then what is happening with the Federal government and the state of Louisiana.
7. Do you have enough resources for the cleanup on hand now? A shortage is predicted within two weeks.
I hope I am wrong on all counts but I doubt it, this extreme disaster has the potential to overwhelm everyone if it continues until a second well is completed in September.
Mike Fox
Longboat Key
To: Mike Fox
My name is Bruce St. Denis and I am the Town Manager of Longboat Key. I am writing on behalf of the Town Commission.
The town continues to monitor the possible impacts of the Deepwater Horizon incident. We are also monitoring the responses to the incident by BP and the Federal, State and other local governments.
We have already engaged our Debris management contractor in the case that we are eventually impacted.
We will be ready to respond but have taken no definitive action at this time because we do not know exactly what we will be facing.
We share your concerns and as the threat becomes more defined we will take appropriate action.
Bruce St. Denis, town manager
Longboat Key
Whiter beach sand wanted
To: Town Manager Bruce St. Denis
In regard to the sand choice for the island wide beach project, we would prefer to see finer, whiter sand used. We were dismayed with the heavier gray sand that was place in front of the Bay Isle beach club a few years ago. Not only is it dark looking, but also it is hot to walk on and it is so sticky it clings to your skin. It has definitely reduced the quality of our greatest amenity, out beaches.
Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Mackman
Longboat Key
To: Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Mackman
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will forward your e-mail to the Town Commission for their consideration. They will be discussing sand selection at the June 7 Regular Meeting if you are in town.
Bruce St. Denis, town manager
Longboat Key
Longboat Key Club plan ‘too intense, too dense’
To: Mayor George Spoll
Hello George, thanks for taking the time to read this short note. I would appreciate it if you would share it with the other commissioners.
As Monica Simpson has now pointed out for the public record, the latest Longboat Key Club application is “potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense, too dense.”
The reason why this is so is really quite simple. It must be a big as it is in order to meet the number one Loeb requirement; and that is it must pay for itself! That’s why so much stuff is crammed into such a small space, and that’s also why Loeb Partners wants to trade a first class driving range for a ugly 40 foot practice net that will probably will be visible from the road. Disneyland?
The other problem the Commission must resolve is that Loeb is making absolutely no enforceable guarantee about anything. How are you going to protect the voters if this turns out to be a really bad deal for the town?
John Vorel, president
Sanctuary III, Longboat Key
In support of Monica Simpson
To: Mayor George Spoll
This is to heartily support Monica Simpson’s opinion on the inadvisability of adopting the Loeb plan for development.
Louis and Loretta Lobes
Longboat Key
Please listen to Monica Simpson
To: Mayor George Spoll
As a winter resident of Longboat Key for several years I feel compelled to write to you to voice my feelings and opinion regarding the Loeb/Key Club expansion and the recent issuance by Monica Simpson, the Town Planning and Zoning Director of her recommendations.
You have, I feel confident, heard many opinions, both pro and con about this major potential change to Longboat Key, and my feelings are as follows: If you or the authorities that be on the Longboat Key Council had the foresight, understanding and agreement to hire a professional planning and zoning director who has adeptly guided the growth of Longboat Key to everyone’s satisfaction, then please, please let her do the job she was hired for and listen to her recommendations. She is a professional and her knowledge and experience should not be discounted for the sole benefit of a private enterprise that will not necessarily be of a positive nature for the environment, the residents and/or the businesses currently on Longboat Key.
If you and your colleagues had enough confidence to hire Monica Simpson, then please listen to her conclusions and advice. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Bruce Male
Longboat Key
Over-development
To: Town Commission
I am writing to beg all the commissioners to realize that there is room for development and change on Longboat Key. But this is not the right plan in the right place.
This is a massive development that will be building after building, all in a row, all on top of each other. There is not room enough for a development of this size on this piece of property. Please listen to Monica Simpson and realize that this is a major overdevelopment. The hotel is at least six to seven years away, if it happens at all. The condos are not on the water. Will the Longboat Key Club want to cut down those big trees so the condo owners will have better views? I bet that is in their plans.
Please vote no to the massive, over developed plan. Do we really want a three-story parking garage as the first thing people pass by on our island?
Barbara Chase
Longboat Key
Follow Monica Simpson’s direction
To: Town Commission
I am hopeful that you will follow the recommendations of Monica and reject the Longboat Key Club application and insist that they scale the project back—To do otherwise would be a tremendous disservice to our residents. We rely on you and the rest of the commission to protect our way of life and all the wonderful things we now have—and have earned over the years.
Anybody thinking about traffic should take a hard look at the congestion during the month of May—I just appeal to you and the rest of the commission to not give in to special interests and to follow Monica’s leadership in demanding a scaled down version. Please to not give in to Loeb—we don’t want another Florida East Coast like congested island or city environment here! Please!
Les and Carol Brualdi
Longboat Key
Don’t allow developer to set zoning standards
To: Mayor George Spoll
I agree with your planning departments assessment of the Loeb plan. I am embarrassed that you and your fellow commissioners would allow a developer to set zoning standards. Just think of the implications.
Paul Holland
Longboat Key
Work with Ms. Simpson
To: Mayor George Spoll
We are owners at the Sanctuary and have been coming to the Key for nearly 15 years. It is truly one of the most beautiful and relaxing places on earth! We are writing to pass on our concern after reading the Town Planning and Zoning Director’s staff report on the Key Club expansion where she recommended denial of their application as “potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense, too dense.” We are not against the Key Club investing in our community and in fact favor some investment and re-development…but this has to be done in a way that maintains the current feel of Longboat Key…that has to be priority #1.
Based on Ms. Simpson’s report and the strength of the language used we are not supportive of the current Key Club plans and ask that they be voted down and asked to present a more appropriate plan that fits the character of Longboat Key. I would also propose that they work with Ms. Simpson from the beginning to develop a plan that would be acceptable to all and stop all this waste of time, energy and money with the constant/never ending back and forth complaints.
One last point I want to make, we were at the Key Club this weekend for a late afternoon lunch and were surprised at the atmosphere. It somewhat reminded me of college spring break. Very loud with a lot of drinking and other activities which tend to follow drinking (i.e. foul language, etc…)…we then went to Crab and Finn for dinner and a walk around St. Armand’s. Again, the activities, language and overall lack of civility were alarming. I only bring this up because if the Key Club expands they have to fill those rooms and I am not sure the area can “handle” the atmosphere this may bring.
Finally, I ask that you share this email with all of the commissioners prior to any vote. Thank you.
Joe and Kathleen Schena
Longboat Key
Expansion project should be denied
To: Mayor George Spoll
My husband and I agree with the Planning and Zoning Director Ms. Simpson. The Key Club expansion project application should be denied! The plan should not be approved in the scale proposed. Keep Longboat as it is…quiet and beautiful. The Loeb organization has no intentions of helping the whole island. They are only interested in their own greedy project. If you took a poll of the residents here on the island you would realize that as a whole we are not interested in approving this project.
Mr. Spoll and the other Commissioners, please “speak” for us now! Listen to us!
This project will not make our businesses better…it will only help Loeb. We voted for you in the hopes you would work for us, not against us.
Reina Berman And Bob Krosney
Longboat Key
Vote ‘no’ on Key Club application
To: Town Commission
We support the decision of the Director of Zoning and Planning, Monica Simpson, and strongly urge you and the Commissioners to vote no on the application presented by Loeb Developers. Please share this email with the other Commissioners.
Sheila and Jack Marks
Longboat Key
Opposition to the Key Club plan
To: Mayor George Spoll
I live on Lighthouse Point, and would like to register my fervent opposition to the massive Key Club Plan. Having read the opinion written by Ms. Simpson of Planning and Zoning and find it to be consistent with how the town generally handles deviations from the code.
I know, in my dealings with the Town, I had to abide by the existing rules, and code, as have many others. I find it unusual that such a huge deviation is even being considered seriously. Is the town that hungry for tax revenue?
Those who moved here because of the implicit “contract” (the code) as residents did not choose Longboat only to be let down by our town government choosing commercialization, crowding, and noise, over the residents’ views, and peaceful enjoyment of their homes.
Maybe Mr. Welly would like to purchase my home and live here during the massive construction he proposes, and sit in traffic like Siesta Key during season to get here.
Please work to oppose this obnoxious plan, and please pass it on to the commissioners.
Bob Martin
Longboat Key
Heed Monica Simpson
To: Town Commission
Hello, I am a condominium owner on Longboat Key. I am writing to express my support for the findings of Monica Simpson, contained in her recent staff report. I think she was right on the mark in recommending denial of the Longboat Key Club application as “potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense, too dense.” Moreover, I agree with her concerns about consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, the size of the conference facility and hotel, the amount of parking provided and the division of the hotel and meeting facilities by a road. I hope that you will share my views with the rest of the Commissioners. If Longboat Key does not heed to sage advice of Ms. Simpson, who is an expert on these matters, then it will forever lose the beauty and tranquility, which make it such a special place. If this beauty and tranquility is lost, Longboat Key will lose money in the long run, because it will not be as desirable a place to visit and live. Thank you for taking the time to consider my views and sharing them with the other Commissioners.
Abigail Roth
Longboat Key
Get ready for the ‘boomers’
To: Town Commission
We appreciate everything that you are doing to prepare our little island to be ready for the next generation. It has been a great run for many over the past 20 years Now is time to get things ready for the “Boomers,” the next generation; to the next stop in their lives. Please do what is best for the island.
J.M. Pete & Mary Salpietra
Longboat Key
Agree with P& Z Director
To: Town Commission
We agree with the Planning Director’s opinion that the club plan should not be approved as proposed by the Loeb Corporation.
Robert and Barbara Schwartz
Longboat Key
Accept the staff report
To: Mayor George Spoll
Please accept Planning and Zoning Director Monica Simpson’s staff report and deny The Key Club’s expansion plan, as it is “potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense and too dense.”
I’m sure you are also taking into consideration her concern regarding the lack of consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, the size of the conference facility and hotel, the amount of parking provided and the division of the hotel and meeting facilities by a road, which she indicates is not recommended land use planning.
As owners on Longboat Key since 1982 and full time residents we appeal to you to protect our interest. The consequences of approval of Loeb’s application, as currently presented, would be devastating to those of us living here.
Thank you for your continued service and consideration. Please share this with all the Commissioners.
Mort and Ricky Tarter
Longboat Key
Do not change the ambiance of Longboat Key
To: Town Commission
Longboat Key and Longboat Key Club are very unique when compared with any other developments in North America. Up to now the Town through its wisdom has maintained the very “classy” feel to the area. Please do not affect this ambiance by being pushed from Loeb to increase the business value of their company. Based on their past record, they will use any approval just to increase the valuation for a future business transaction. They will not develop the project and will not live with its consequences. You and us will have to, and I personally feel very strongly, through improper development you will change the character of Longboat Key and this would be most regrettable. We have something unique—please keep it!
Peter Friedmann
Longboat Key
Press Key Club for plan that works for everyone
To: Mayor George Spoll
Please take to heart your Planning Director’s recommendation that the club’s current development plan is “too massive, too intense, too dense” for our community.”
Where does it say that the club’s position that the only alternative at this scale is justified (All of nothing)? Why wouldn’t a smaller version work just a well, i.e. be in keeping with our zoning codes while also bringing new life to the key?
Please press the club to come up with a plan that works for everyone—the town, the Realtors and their PUD neighbors—not just their investors.
Larry and Barbara Shoenberg
Longboat Key
Nominate Bob White
To: Mayor George Spoll
I think I have attended at least six Zoning Board and Commissioners hearings. The latest note by Monica Simpson was amazing! It was accurate and said all the things that the IPOC has been saying for months!
I would suggest that you nominate Bob White for the Commission to fill the seat of Jaleski who is resigning? After all the work Jaleski put in to get on the Board why is he resigning? Hopefully, with Bob White as one of the Commissioners, we can avoid the lawsuit you know will be following.
Gerry Ross
Longboat Key
Simpson is correct
To: Mayor George Spoll
Please support Planning Director Simpson’s denial of the Key Club expansion. She is correct, and you know it! It will be overbuilt and too dense. Moreover she expressed concerns about consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, the size of the conference facility and hotel, the amount of parking provided and the division of the hotel and meeting facilities by a road, which she indicates is not recommended land use planning.
We property owners must be vigilant and active in retaining the integrity of this special place. Increased commercial construction, resulting in increased tourism, will most certainly contribute to more traffic, more motorcycles, more garbage clean up, more loud boom box music and more unfavorable sorts. Mayor, do you enjoy 15 Harley’s breaking the sound barrier while cruising Gulf of Mexico Drive? You are a professional, & you know this will be the case. Please represent all of us property owners on Longboat and find the support to deny this expansion.
Valerie Hatcher
Longboat Key
Support the professional recommendation
To: Mayor George Spoll
Now that Ms. Simpson has recommended denial of the Loeb/Key Club application, based on a number of sound planning reasons, we are writing to urge you and the Commission to support this professional recommendation. Hopefully, this will be the needed opportunity for the Town to reconsider the best direction for Longboat Key, in accordance with the recommendations of the Town’s Planning and Zoning experts.
Shelley Winkler, Jean Winkler, Linda Winkler
Longboat Key
Please consider all the facts
To: Town Commission
Now that your own Planning and Zoning Director has recommended against the plan, it is inconceivable to me that you and the other commissioners might approve the Longboat Key development plan as it has been submitted. I understand (although I disagree) why some of you are pro-development; however, it is quite something else to disregard the input of a non-biased professional employed by the town. Please consider all the facts before voting “yes” to a plan that “too drastically departs from the intent and criteria of the applicable sections of the code.” Please circulate this email to your fellow commissioners.
Charles and Heloisa Jennings
Longboat Key
Horrified at expansion prospects
To: Mayor George Spoll
We are new residents of Longboat Key, recently purchasing a $3 million condo at the Water Club. We came to Longboat because we were told the zoning restrictions and the values they implied were intact. My husband and I are horrified at the prospects of the above expansion and will certainly look elsewhere if it goes through as planned. The traffic is already a problem. Longboat is lovely and unique in Florida. Why would you want to make it the same as all the other overcrowded, overdeveloped noisy places?
Jeannine and Dan Mullan
Longboat Key
Put an end to this
To: Mayor George Spoll
Finally, someone with some common sense; please listen to Monica Simpson and start representing the citizens of your town. The very idea that this over development is somehow good for Longboat Key is beyond absurd; it may be good for a few ice cream shops on St. Armands it’s certainly good for Loeb and a over built nightmare for the rest of us.
Why you and the others are supporting this is a mystery to many of us; these over-leveraged investors will flip this at the first opportunity and we that make this our home will be left with the mess. I’m personally willing to spend considerable money to see that this development never happens—do your job for the people and put an end to this.
Jim Sullivan
Longboat Key
Thumbs down
To: Mayor George Spoll
George, I was delighted to learn that Monica gave the Longboat Key Club’s proposal a “thumbs down.” I am in hopes that you will encourage your fellow Commissioners to not allow the club’s plan go forward as presented. I would hope that you will encourage a substantially scaled down plan that will preserve the Longboat Key that we all love and enjoy.
Bud Kahn
Longboat Key
IPOC statement
To: Longboat Key residents
Confirming many of our longstanding positions on the Loeb/Key Club expansion, the Town Planning and Zoning Director, Monica Simpson, in a staff report issued yesterday, recommended denial of their application as “potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense, too dense.” Moreover she expressed concerns about consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, the size of the conference facility and hotel, the amount of parking provided and the division of the hotel and meeting facilities by a road, which she indicates is not recommended land use planning.
While this is certainly good news for the Islandside Community and a setback for the club’s plan, it does not assure that the Town Commission, which seems pro-development to the extreme, will follow her recommendation. This is particularly true following the resignation of Commissioner Jaleski, who was one of the three commissioners who opposed changing the Zoning Code to accommodate the club’s request. A new commissioner will now be appointed who is likely to be another pro-development advocate.
The commission has the option of requiring a scaled back development, outright denial or approval of the currently proposed plan. Outright denial is unlikely in my opinion.
The club’s strategy at this point will probably include a raft of emails from the business community urging the commission to approve the plan despite the staff recommendation. They will bring out the tired and facetious arguments that the expanded club will stimulate the town economy and be a boon for business, this despite the fact that the proposed hotel, by their own schedule, is six-and-a-half years away. So where is the boon? Will this help Longboat Businesses—or St. Armands? Will it help mid-key or the north end? No Way!
What the proposed plan will do is:
1. Be a windfall for the Loeb investors, by rezoning recreational land
2. Increase traffic on already crowded roads
3. Present a high rise/massive “Florida Folly” at the entrance to Longboat
4. Disrupt a tranquil neighborhood with conventions and big events
5. Fill the Club’s restaurants with tourists and convention attendees—not the local eateries
6. Change the character of LBK from unique to ubiquitous—just another Florida overbuilt beach town
The staff report is a major setback for the Loeb organization and we need to reinforce the Planning Director’s opinion by letting the Commission know that we agree with her views and that the Club’s plan should not be approved in the scale proposed.
Send an e-mail to Mayor George Spoll and ask that it be shared with all of the Commissioners (gspoll@longboatkey.org).
The next hearing on the club’s application is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 7 at Temple Beth Israel. If you are still here you are urged to attend. Public testimony will be heard following the testimony of the town staff, club and IPOC.
Bob White, president
Islandside Property Owners Coalition (IPOC)
Application is self-serving
To: Mayor George Spoll
It is disgraceful that the commissioners are prepared to change our town codes to suit the Key Club application. The codes have protected Longboat Key for many years, from exactly what the Key Club are trying to do. The application is simply a self-serving project, which has nothing to do with “revitalizing” the key and everything to do with making a lot of money. The key does not need revitalizing; it is just perfect as it is.
M. Barry
Longboat Key
Plan misguided
To: Mayor George Spoll
Thank you and your fellow commissioners for engaging Planning and Zoning Director Monica Simpson to review and comment on the Longboat Key Club’s expansion plans.
Ms. Simpson, in her staff report, which was recently issued, recommended denial of the application of the Key Club as being potentially overbuilt, too massive, too intense and too dense.
My wife and I are longtime residents of The Sanctuary. We completely agree with Ms. Simpson’s conclusions and her recommendation that the permit be denied.
The Key Club development would have very serious negative implications on the quality of life on Longboat Key. It should be remembered by all of our elected representatives that the basic attraction for all of us on Longboat was not commercial development. The main attraction we have to our beautiful island is its quiet, natural and beautiful residential setting. Any plan with the justification being that it will encourage commercial development is, in our judgment, very misguided.
Please share these thoughts with your fellow commissioners. Thank you for your continued good and thoughtful efforts in protecting the character and livability of beautiful Longboat Key.
Dick Jaffee
Longboat Key
Arguments have become personal and selfish
To: Mayor George Spoll
Please make the right decisions that will prepare Longboat Key for the next generation.
We respect what Bob White and Mike Seery have been trying to accomplish; but this has become personal and selfish. As homeowners and members of The Longboat Key Club, we feel that the upgrades our needed.
J.M. Pete & Mary Salpietra
Longboat Key
Plan has holes in it
To: Town Commission
I was pleased to hear that Monica Simpson, Planning and Zoning director, recommended denial of the Loeb/Key Club Expansion. It is not just a personal feeling that I have: the expansion will change the area that will affect the lifestyle that we bought.
From previous observations, in my opinion, Loeb people are “hard nosed” business people that only “give an inch” when something thwarts their plans.
Their story on how their plan will revitalize Longboat Key has many “holes” in it and is not consistent with facts if anyone will explore that.
They want to make our area into their golf resort such as places that exist on the east coast of Florida—which is exactly why we are on the west coast.
That will never be successful with the Islandside course as it is—both condition and course layout. I am told during the season of reciprocity with other courses that generally people who play Islandside once do not come back.
It is wonderful that they hired one of the world’s best golf course architects (Reese Jones) to redesign the course—yet they won’t do anything to the course until they get capital and income from the condominium sales and maybe from the hotel. This will not get them to a class golf resort. They should immediately install the redesign. That will bring in money from people that want to play a course designed by a renowned golf course architect.
The dues of the club are very high for members based on the facility that is offered and it is my understanding that the club has lost numerous golfing members. What I see in their publications that new members are basically social members. The club does offer convenience.
I personally am concerned that Michael Welly continues to attack Bob White for interference with their progress. Bob is active in protecting the residents of the area—residents who will be negatively affected. I am not aware that Bob White has ever in his memos directly referred to Michael Welly. Welly’s actions are basically what happens in elections when candidates get desperate. Accusations are not good business.
Loeb’s objective is to make money for Loeb, which is certainly understandable. However their plan to make money interferes with the comfort and lifestyle of current owners at the location—owners that might not have been Longboat Key residents under these conditions.
The Longboat Key Club Plan will negatively affect owners who have invested collectively millions of dollars in their residences—for comfortable living for them.
The Longboat Key Club Plan essentially:
1. Changes Longboat Key’s character to an overbuilt location;
2. Creates tourists and conventioneers, which is not the objective of a residential property;
3. Creates additional high rises;
4. Increases traffic—in season traffic is sometimes “impossible;” and
5. Creates conventions, which will severely change the neighborhood.
I urge you to please respond favorably to the coalition’s concerns and to Monica Simpson’s latest report. Please share this email with all of the commissioners.
Alan Stone
Longboat Key
Remains of a damaged island
To: Mayor George Spoll
I have been a resident on Longboat for 30 years, and enjoyed “some growth” and watched a lot of development along the way.
I have read and watched all of the controversy for the past year regarding the proposed project Loeb has presented with Inn on the Beach, and all of the glorious benefits that “our” island is going to receive as a result of the project.
Let’s be completely honest! This is all about money, Loeb wants to build this, sell the project, get the money, and leave us with the remains of many years of “a damaged island.”
Remains of many years of “A damaged island.” I am not apposed to have some modification to “reduce the buildings in height and also the hotel needs to reduce the half the size proposed.” And the condos reduced to half size.” At a minimum reduction.
You and the other commissioners have lived on this Island a long time the same as I. We all have and are experiencing the heavy traffic now.
What in the world is it going to be like after they get “their wish” for development?
Mayor Spoll, I respectfully request that you share this letter with all of the commissioners and Planning and Zoning Director Mrs. Monica Simpson.
S. Campisi
Longboat Key
Look beyond revenue dollars
To: Mayor George Spoll
I strongly urge you and all Commissioners to vote against the proposed or any expansionary proposal for the Longboat Key Club.
As you know, traffic on Gulf of Mexico Drive is very busy and time consuming, particularly at the Longboat Key Club traffic light and over the bridge into St. Armands. Approving additional condominiums, a hotel, etc. will make the traffic problems even more impossible.
Also, allowing changes to the bi-laws to permit this project, which will clearly change the visual beauty and ambiance of our Key, would be irresponsible.
As a resident and taxpayer I strongly oppose this proposal in any form.
Please pass this on to every Commissioner. I believe we must look beyond a few revenue dollars to the impact on the residents and visitors.
Robert A. Major
Longboat Key
Please listen to Simpson
To: Town Commission
I just returned from a week away and one of the first things I did was to read the Observer and Longboat Key News to see what was happening. With one of your key people, Monica Simpson, recommending ‘no’ on the Club’s expansion plans, as it stands, I certainly hope you will listen. I am against it too, as I have stated in the past, as it is presented. No one denies the Club may want to expand and improve but not on the scale of its plan before you now.
Camille Dougan
Longboat Key
Take evaluation to heart
To: Town Commission
I have read through Monica Simpson’s remarks about the Longboat Key Club proposal. While I have a bias against the proposal, to begin with, I find it difficult to imagine anyone—or particularly any commissioner—reading it and coming to the conclusion that the proposal should be accepted in its entirety. I hope you and the other commissioners will take her excellent evaluation to heart. Clearly she would not want to do anything against Longboat Key’s best interests.
Margery Blacklow
Longboat Key
Positive vote for Key Club plan
To: Town Commission
Please consider a positive vote for the plan. If there is any hope of Longboat Key surviving this serious change in character of our community over the years this plan has to be approved.
It has become very depressing to return from progressive, vibrant communities nationwide and worldwide to a community that has become stagnant. Just look at the commercial vacancies. It is no more than an old bedroom community.
In voting this down you will do an injustice to the residents of what was a very special community.
Marion and Bernard Levine
Longboat Key
The picture tells the story
To: Mayor George Spoll
I went to view the scale model this morning, and the representative was extremely kind and explained what you see attached. The picture tells the story. If you remove the projected additions, and compare what was the open space, I trust you, and the others commissioners will agree that the project is too massive for our little peaceful, and beautiful key. It has been said many times before “A picture tells a thousand words.”
Bob Blumberg
Longboat Key
Tail wagging the dog
To: Town Commission
Last week our town installed two very attractive signs at the entrances to our island that say, “Welcome to the Town of Longboat Key.”
Really? The signs were approved by our Building, Planning and Zoning Department headed by Director Monica Simpson who last week recommended denial of the Longboat Key Club application to improve their property. “Welcome?” Really? This after years of discussions between this department and club planners, management and IPOC to resolve issues and revising their plans in good faith. This also after days and days of Planning and Zoning Board discussions and approvals.
Rather than facilitate, (they work for us), the director and “staff” played the role, very subjectively, of project designer/manager to meet their own design opinion and philosophy. Also, consistently giving “muddy” input to the commission over countless meetings. “You can do this or that.” This did not serve the commission well.
The director is a bright, articulate land use authority. However, she should not drive the design of a major Longboat Key property owner’s multimillion-dollar improvement investment. Good intentions but questionable judgment to the detriment of a worthy, stimulative project and the majority of Longboat residents and businesses struggling in this terrible economy.
The director’s overall concern that the project density is not in keeping with all of those IPOC high-rise condos jammed together on the beach is ridiculous and stunningly myopic! Many of her other findings exhibit a good deal of subjectivity and some out of her scope of authority. Nothing is black and white, especially with codes and zoning, where departures and variance requests are common, sometimes necessary and require good judgment and common sense.
The director’s detailed comments in “staff’s” recent recommendation to deny the club’s application should have been proactively discussed and resolved a long, long time ago, not at this eleventh hour. This department should support and service property owners within the law, not just be adversaries. The reputation of this important department over the years has been “they just say no.”
This passive-aggressive obstruction M.O. rather than a spirit of facilitation again with this substantive project, is a recipe for disaster. It unquestionably sends up a huge red flag to other potential residential and business investors. Goodbye to meaningful future investment on Longboat, just when we need it most.
There is no excuse for this finding after all this time, effort and good faith plan revisions. Just evidence of poor leadership and management of the process.
We also question whether this is just a dramatic eleventh hour power play attempt by the Director to communicate to the commission the need for code and Comprehensive Plan reform. If so, there are many other ways to constructively communicate this need. In any event, this finding recklessly risks a catastrophic economic loss of a major investment in our community at a critical time in our history! This, not to mention handing the minority opposition fodder for a groundless nuisance lawsuit.
These high level bureaucratic mistakes could be very costly on all fronts.
For those who bluster that we’ll lose Longboat as Longboat, nonsense! We have plenty of local government regulations to control development, great authority in our elected commission and even some common sense. No one who is invested in Longboat wants to destroy or compromise Longboat’s ambience. This is just a “straw man” for weak arguments sake. Let us get over it and let’s look to the future.
What we have been experiencing for months and months, before our very eyes, is a perfect example of local bureaucratic government soft tyranny at it’s worst. Simply put, the “Tail is wagging the dog.” We, the vast majority of voters, are “the dog.” Enough!
We trust that you dedicated commissioners have the authority, the principled leadership and the will to do the right thing in demonstrating that we really do mean “Welcome” when we say it.
Bob and Shannon Gault
Longboat Key
Preference for white sand
To: Town Commission
I would like to express my preference for the fine white sand 0.18mm grain size and a Munsell color of 8. The beach with its water and sand is the reason for Longboat Key’s very existence. It is truly penny wise and pound foolish to save an incremental amount when considering the great benefits. Most importantly, the fine white sand adds to the pleasure of experiencing our beaches. In addition, it is a definite plus to real estate values and rental revenues.
The last renourishment was indeed an aesthetic insult to our environment. Additionally it resulted in an escarpment at the beachfront where the courser dark sand was used. Many people had difficulty climbing from the direct waterfront to the broader beach. The sand under the water was laced with “potholes.”
Please give us back the white sand beach of which Longboat Key boasts in so many publications.
Mellanie London
Longboat Key
Our key needs redevelopment
To: Town Commission
Please approve the redevelopment plans of the Longboat Key Club. Our island needs this to prosper and survive!
John and Joanne Forch
Longboat Key
Support of Key Club
To: Town Commission
We fully support the Longboat Key Club proposal. It will keep Longboat Key a vital and up-to-date community. Non-approval will have a detrimental effect on the community.
Bill and Mary Rammes
Longboat Key
Key Club supporter
To: Town Commission
As both a Social Member of the Longboat Key Club Resort and an 11-year resident of Longboat Key, my wife and I fully support the Longboat Key Club Expansion plans. Stop being an old Fuddy—Dud, lighten up, embrace change and progress, life will pass you by quicker than you wish! Thanks for your understanding,
Rich Ackley
Longboat Key
