Certain town politicians are now espousing the rationale that we must retain the Planning, Zoning and Building Department director because she is too professional to lose. They are employing this rationale as their justification to excuse the director’s behavior that had been allowed to go on under the former town manager. I am sorry that this story is not pretty
Town group finding success in fashioning overall vision statement for Longboat Key.
In the very near future, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of the University of Florida Law School renaming a building to honor Longboat Key. With the economy in Florida in the doldrums, lawsuits involving Longboat Key are a godsend to dozens if not hundreds of families who work for law firms
Excuse me if I profess to being a little confused about what it is that the commission and the Key Club are doing these days. For the past 18 months the commissioners have told us repeatedly that they are hard at work developing tourism and retail business on Longboat Key
With the Colony more or less in limbo until Federal District Appeal Court Judge Steven Merryday offers a final ruling and remedy, which is due any day, the Longboat Key Club Islandside redevelopment challenges continue unabated with several new twists and turns
They say you have the experience of feeling sure that you have already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined. I think I witnessed déjà vu all over again, as Yogi used to say, in Town Hall on a rainy summer day
It is easy to be critical, sometimes innate to be cynical. Especially in a world where 280 million people a day play Xbox 360 killing zombies and recreating historical moments with perversions of Castro, Kennedy and McNamara. This is the world my 10-year-old son inhabits. Surprisingly, even more surreal are his 42-year-old father’s Town Commission meetings where topics are discussed like chewing on a collective trough of tapeworms
The town’s attorney fees may become a thorny problem. Not only are Longboat town government legal costs 30 percent higher since the Key Club filed for permission to expand its facilities and increase density, there now appears to be a question as to what the taxpayers are paying for, and what is being charged to the Key Club. Let me explain
I admit I am apprehensive about the flurry of activity taking place in our town government during our summer doldrums. There are more Town Commission-appointed committees than I can keep tabs on. Each one seems to be tasked with rewriting major parts of our Comprehensive Plan, a plan that has created one of the most successful communities in America
Mayor Jim Brown is requesting assistance from state officials in keeping Longboat’s ability to increase its density. Brown sent e-mails this week to Rep. Ray Pilon, Rep. Jim Boyd, Sen. Mike Bennett and Sen. Nancy Detert to ask for their assistance in obtaining an amendment to HB7202, which was signed into law by the governor and will prohibit the town from holding any referendum on the town’s Comprehensive Plan amendment. This means town could not hold a referendum to increase the allowable density on the island
