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.

Why would investors ever choose to put their money into
commercial speculations on this island.

The public will have a chance to vet the new Publix renovation plan next week when the Town Commission considers the completed site plan and application for a redeveloped Publix and Avenue of the Flowers Shopping Center at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 9 in Town Hall.

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?

This is the order by Judge Charles E. Roberts qaushing the Longboat Key Club development order with instructions on what the Town must do as a remedy.

Another top management position saw a major change as Planning, Building and Zoning Director Monica Simpson was placed on administrative leave and subsequently let go. According to Police Chief Al Hogle who was serving as the interim town manager at the time, the Simpson issue came to a light when a Planning, Zoning and Building [...]

The town manager has suggested that the town purchase the balance of the land that abuts the new Publix project. This would finally bring together the original thinking of Arvida and the town to make the entire area a town center with walkways, band boxes and more of the landscaping that has been done so effectively on the other side of the road in front of Town Hall — a true town center.

To keep Longboat Key a quality community requires the residents’ involvement. The town has been blessed with volunteers who have been hugely successful in their business life and who have offered their services gratis to help make the town what it is today.

Longboat Key at long last has a date with Publix. The town’s Planning and Zoning Board will consider the completed site plan and application for a redeveloped Publix and Avenue of the Flowers Shopping Center. The town is recommending approval of the plan after months of negotiating and working with the applicant to increase buffering and configure parking and other issues optimally.

Everyone remembers the old chestnut about a camel being designed by a committee, well from press reports it appears this was the method chosen by the new manager, Dave Bullock, to arrive at his decision on how to handle Monica Simpson, the now former head of the Planning and Zoning Department.