Commissioner Jack Duncan said it best the other week: “I have discovered Longboat Key is full of type-A personalities and everyone of them has an opinion on what needs to be done.”

“We have not had a significant community conversation in twenty years. We need to better look at where the whole island wants to go.”

Jan. 19, 2012 Commission Workshop (Community Center and code rewrite discussed)

The town of Longboat Key has officially ‘appealed the appeal’ of the Islandside development order in an effort to get the project back on track after it was derailed last December in circuit court.

We are willing to ignore, twist, bend and break our rules for certain VIP applicants, while the bottom feeders get treated as if they have no standing or significance — they are the Rosa Parks of our business community.

What is occurring on Longboat Key involving the Key Club litigation could be a very costly zero-sum game. Since the commissioners have once again unanimously decided to adhere to their stance on the Key Club expansion proposal, they have created a situation where a developer stands to gain tens of millions of dollars from government-sponsored added value to what is currently golf course acreage. By doing so, the town government has inadvertently placed a huge financial burden on some residents, as they are now in the position of having to protect the value of their property.

Snowbirds returning to our island paradise undoubtedly know that things remain unsettled in the Middle East and that in Iraq the Shias and Sunnis are still killing each other because of a disagreement over the proper way to worship Allah.

The IPOC/Loeb Realty Partners decision gives the town the opportunity to retake control of their own destiny. The proposal by Loeb for a $400 million extravaganza of condos, hotels and a conference center was too much for a group of untrained community volunteers to assimilate so they just said ‘yes’ without considering the full extent of their folly.

The Longboat Key Club redevelopment approval has been overturned in a Sarasota courtroom, and both Town Attorney Dave Persson and Key Club attorney John Patterson are confident an appeal would be met with success for a number of reasons.

The judge in the case of the IPOC against the major expansion of the Longboat Key Club has been rendered and probably to no one’s surprise, the judge came down on the side of the residents. There are many facets to this decision but a basic one is the issue I have been pounding at from the beginning; how can the Town Commission allow an individual developer to come in and walk all over the great majority of the adjacent landowners when the codes say otherwise?