Letters to the editor

+ Support the Key Club project
Dear Editor:
Please support the Longboat Key Club and Resort reinvestment plan to the benefit of all property values and businesses, which will result in increased tax revenues to our town.
Noel Buterbaugh
Longboat Key

+ Club’s plan will not improve quality of life
Dear Editor:
 My husband and I, residents of The Sanctuary, are strongly opposed to the Longboat Key Club development plan. We do not think a plan of this size and comprehensive scope will improve the quality of life of local residents. We do not believe it will enhance life on Longboat Key or contribute to the local economy.
Randi Kreiss
Longboat Key

+ Key Club’s project would be a big positive
Dear Editor:
As full-time residents of the Key, I urge our commissioners to vote in favor of the Longboat Key Club proposed expansions. It benefits not only Key Club members but the town of Longboat Key as a whole.
Progress in this regard is a big positive for the future of this beautiful island.
Myrna and Milt Herman
Longboat Key

+ The Longboat Key Club needs a change
Dear Editor:
It’s hard to understand why anyone is satisfied with the status quo.

The American platform is change. The Longboat Key Club needs change — it is a dinosaur.

We cannot be a world-class club without meeting facilities, an upgraded gym, etc. A lot of the members are getting old and will not have much to pass along — certainly nothing elegant. We are being out-classed by all the new clubs — let’s attract some of the business. The location is great — let’s use it.
Eunice Mouckley
Longbot Key

+ We won’t notice any increase in traffic
Dear Editor:
As soon as the Colony closed its 237 condo/hotel units, the traffic this tourist season will have dramatically decreased. That is, if you believe the logic of the folks arguing against the improvements at the Longboat Key Club. Those of us who live here full-time are unlikely to notice any less traffic ... just as we won’t notice any more traffic when the Longboat Key Club adds units. 

As a community, we need to shelve all the specious arguments and put the same amount of creativity and energy into finding workable solutions to bring this ever-more-needed investment to our island. 
Dr. Tom Freiwald
Longboat Key

BOX
Other issues ...

+ Commission should approve Moore’s
Dear Editor:
I hope that the Town Commission will overrule the Planning & Zoning Board by approving (Alan) Moore's petition to zone the (restaurant) site residential.

To deny the request is to sustain the notion that Alan can be forced to operate a deteriorating structure even though he can't get a loan under terms the business can support.

In my judgment, if Moore gets residential zoning and then decides to shutdown the restaurant, that is clearly his right, too.

If the town wants a restaurant, it should buy the site and invite in a Marina Jack.

While they’re at it, perhaps they should consider setting up a filling station and maybe a dentist's office as well.

The sites are already available.
V.M. DeLisi
Longboat Key

+ P&Z board did
injustice to Moore’s
Dear Editor:
The Planning and Zoning Board did a great injustice to Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant & Marina in denying its request for rezoning of its property from commercial to residential. With the exception of Whitney Plaza, Moore's and Mar Vista are surrounded by residences, making that area indeed a residential one. If Moore's is struggling to survive under current zoning, nothing that the P&Z can do can make it stay in business as a restaurant.

Their ruling denies the restaurant owners' freedom of choice in determining the best and highest use of their properties. If a simple rezoning can reduce Moore's financing costs appreciably and keep it running as a viable restaurant, then why not do it? If it cannot survive as a restaurant then what will become of it? A dentist's office? A gas station? A bank? Or another vacant, decaying building added to all the others already there?

Indeed, Whitney Plaza has and is struggling to survive as a commercial property. It won't be long before its owners petition the P&Z for a zoning change and justifiably so should that be their business decision.
Through the efforts of many past and current business owners, the north end of Longboat Key has tried again and again to remain viable and prosperous. But things change and the times change. The P&Z and town commissioners must remain flexible to these realities. Otherwise, not even homeowners will want to live in a community of vacant, crumbling, boarded-up commercial properties. What will that do to their property values? Decay breeds further decay.

The Town Commission has an opportunity to overrule the recommendation of the P&Z. Let's see them take the challenge and step up to the plate for the good of the north end and for all of Longboat Key.
Milan V. Adrian
Longboat Key

+ Viable businesses remain on the island
Dear Editor:
As much as I enjoy “Our View” each week, it highlights the businesses that have left the island.
 How about pulling a list together of the businesses that are still here? Some of us (Alicia’s Grooming) really love it here and would like to stay and serve Longboat Key. I know Terry, of Terry’s Framing, would agree with me. Perhaps we need to educate Longboat Observer readers as to what businesses are here for them.
Alicia Aeziman
Key business owner