Self-storage on Longboat? Probably not, commissioners say

A Longboat Key parcel owned by the Mote Scientific Foundation remains bedeviled by town zoning limitations.

In a March referendum, the foundation sought to convert the commercially zoned 1.8-acre lot at 5630 Gulf of Mexico Drive, between Tarawitt Drive and Jungle Queen Way, to residential use, allowing for 10 homes to be developed. The referendum was rejected by 58% of the vote.

At a workshop meeting on June 19, attorney Charles Bailey presented the Town Commission with a new vision for the property: a self-storage facility, to be developed by Oden Hardy Construction, Bailey’s client.

Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray said the property is zoned for C-1 commercial use, which does not allow for self-storage facilities. Therefore, Ray said development of the project would require a zoning code amendment to allow for the facility by special exception

At the meeting, Bailey sought input from commissioners before going through the process of submitting a formal application for the proposal.

It was not favorable.

“I really can’t see this kind of facility on Longboat,” said Commissioner Jim Brown. “It just doesn’t seem like the right use for that property.”

In March, the question shared the ballot with one regarding the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort property, which was highly publicized and hotly debated on the Key. The Colony referendum was defeated by 87% of the vote.

Members of the commission theorized that, if the Mote property had been included in a separate referendum, it might have passed.

“I believe that was just poor planning and poor timing,” Brown said.

In January, Mote and Brista Homes, the proposed developer, asked to withdraw their referendum request, citing concerns about the controversy over the Colony referendum. However, Town Attorney Maggie Mooney-Portale advised the commission that it was too late to change the ballot, which had been set by commissioners in October.

Vice Mayor Ed Zunz spoke in favor of a future referendum to allow homes to be built on the land.

“It should be zoned residential,” Zunz said. “I’d love to see it get one more chance to make that happen.”

While Bailey noted the Mote property’s referendum was not rejected by as large of a margin as the Colony’s, he stated “it did lose by a landslide.”

“I don’t know that, if I were representing the foundation, I could tell them with a straight face to go back and do a referendum again,” Bailey said.

The parcel has been owned by the Mote Scientific Foundation since the 1980s. In 2016, foundation trustee Kumar Mahadevan asked the town to consider purchasing the parcel for use as a park or open space. In July of the same year, the Town Commission declined.

Though Mayor Terry Gans empathized with the foundation’s attempts to sell the property, he was not swayed to support a self-storage facility.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate or would be viewed as appropriate for Longboat,” Gans said.