SKA marks 65 years

The Siesta Key Association (SKA) took a moment to look back at its 65-year history at a Nov. 7 meeting. It highlighted how the key issues and concerns that led to the association’s 1948 founding still drive today’s agenda.

Sarasota County historian Jeff LaHurd gave a presentation on the history of Siesta Key to the SKA board and the audience of about 40 residents.

“By 1954, there were only 500 permanent residents on the island,” LaHurd said. “It was still a wild, tropical island in those days.”

The Siesta Key Association was founded as a nonprofit community group committed to guiding development on the Key, protecting its natural resources and preserving the island as an attractive residential area.

Many of the issues the group was originally founded to address are still at the forefront of its agenda today, SKA President Catherine Luckner said.

“From the beginning, our intent was to protect what we have on Siesta Key,” she said.

Luckner said the group’s elemental issues of land use, zoning and environmental protection still top its contemporary agenda.

The group’s next big debate? A Dec. 5 meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review a plan to mine Big Pass for Lido Beach sand.

“We think Siesta Key is worth taking care of,” Luckner said.

Major accomplishments
1948: SKA is founded.

1954: Development of first countywide zoning code, which was later adopted in 1960.

1992: “Save Our Sand” campaign prevented the use of the barrier sandbar along Big Pass to renourish Venice beaches.

1999: Siesta Key Overlay District (SKOD) is created.

2009: SKA backs the approval of the Siesta Beach Improvements Project.

2013: Beach Road Drainage Improvements break ground.

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected]