OUR VIEW | The May referendum

The essence of property ownership is preservation, stewardship and improvement, the latter the most important.  Leaving it better for the next generation than when you took possession.

This is the overarching macro view of what everyone has an obligation to fulfill. It is in your selfish and economic interests to improve your property. It is in the selfish, best interests of your family, your neighbors and the community at large.

Indeed, that is what Longboat Key’s May 12 referendum is all about — stewardship and improvement. The question on the mail ballot (see box at right) is whether to allow the construction of up to 300 units with tourism and accessory uses on the Resort at Longboat Key Club’s Islandside property on the south end of the Key.

As reported on pages 1A through 3A of this week’s Longboat Observer, the Key Club has not developed yet specific site plans to submit to the town. So voters should know: The May 12 vote is not a referendum approving a specific Key Club expansion plan. It’s a vote codifying that the Key Club’s owner, currently Ocean Properties Ltd. of Delray Beach, has a right to develop up to 300 new tourism units with tourism and accessory uses on its property.

This referendum is clarifying for all Longboat Key residents, businesses and taxpayers what was not clear in the town codes five years ago when the previous owners of the Key Club proposed their $400 million expansion and redevelopment plan. 

This is the issue on which the Islandside Property Owners Coalition, opponents to the Key Club plans, sued the town. They claimed, in effect, the town’s codes were insufficiently clear; that they did not allow what was believed to be property zoned for residential use to be converted to tourism use; and therefore the club’s owners did not have the right to proceed with their development plans. A 12th Circuit Court judge agreed, requiring in his ruling the town conduct a referendum to allow any use other than residential on the Islandside property. Let the people decide.

ADDRESSING TRAFFIC

To be clear, this referendum, if approved, will not guarantee Ocean Properties Ltd. will develop the waterfront property along the southernmost portion of Longboat Club Road. But the likelihood is virtually certain the company will begin working immediately after the referendum to prepare conceptual and development plans to submit to the town for approval (see page 3A). 

Mark Walsh, vice president of Ocean Properties, told the Longboat Observer’s Kurt Schultheis it will take at least two-and-a-half years before a shovel turns a speck of dirt, assuming all of the required approvals are obtained.

That’s a long time. And that should allow sufficient time for the town to address some of the concerns Longboaters have expressed recently about the club’s expansion. Namely: traffic.

The Town Commission has already begun. Town Manager David Bullock is working with the Florida Department of Transportation on the idea of a roundabout at the new site of the Key Club’s southern entrance and a left-hand turn lane on Gulf of Mexico Drive where it fronts entrances to Country Club Shores.

These will be essential to the greater picture, particularly as Longboaters look to the future — and not just think about how long it will take them to drive to Publix next year.

GENERATIONAL CHANGE

Longboat Key is undergoing a generational transformation; a new generation is moving in. And this new generation of travelers and property buyers has higher expectations than the previous ones. This is why Longboat Key needs an expanded and updated Key Club — to stay competitive, to remain a premier resort-residential community.

However goes the Key Club and its resort, so goes Longboat Key. If the Key Club deteriorates with age and the status quo, so will Longboat Key.

Indeed, when Loeb Partners, former owners of the club and resort, embarked in 2010 on efforts to redevelop and expand, numerous hospitality and economic experts testified to the Town Commission how the resort was losing its competitive allure and luster because of the aging of the property and inadequacy of its amenities.

Ocean Properties’ Walsh reiterated that again last week when he told the Longboat Observer: “Updating resorts is critical, because customers have a lot of choices and opportunities. If you don’t keep your properties up, you’re losing out. We need to stay fresh and current.”

For 20 years, less so in the past five, many Longboat Key residents and property owners opposed growth on Longboat Key. In fact, the Town Commission, with help from the defunct Longboat Key Public Interest Committee, did a great job of making Longboat Key one of the most unpleasant places to develop or do business. And it worked, to the point the town began deteriorating. Businesses shut down, eventually leading to the redevelopment of former Avenue of the Flowers, where Publix is today.

Now, however, many of those Longboaters who opposed growth saw the town going in the wrong direction and have recognized the tide must turn. Even IPOC’s leaders are embracing Ocean Properties’ approach, plans and willingness to work with IPOC.

As the late Longboat Key activist Ranier Josenhanss used to say: “There are no stupid people on Longboat Key.” That was his way of saying, in the end, Longboat Key residents get it. They understand, in this instance, the essence of property ownership and legacy. Leave what you own better than when you had it. That’s what the May 12 referendum is about — stewardship and improvement. Longboat Key’s future prosperity is at stake. 

Vote: Yes.