Longboat moves forward with resident-permit parking proposal for neighborhood

The town of Longboat Key is moving forward with a resident-permit parking proposal for Longbeach Village.

Town commissioners on Monday asked the town Planning, Zoning and Building Department to draft an ordinance that will provide an RPP program in the Village. The proposal will have exceptions.

“We request staff to prepare for our review, and this would be I think at the first September meeting, an ordinance that establishes a resident-permit parking program for the public streets in the Village and that it excludes only ... the side of Broadway and of Lois [Avenue] that abuts the restaurant properties,” Mayor Ken Schneier said of the eastern end of the neighborhood near MarVista Dockside and The Shore. 

Schneier said commissioners will have “ample time” to discuss what specifically the RPP program entails during the fall.

“I’m still undecided,” Vice Mayor Mike Haycock said. “The option that you suggested, which is residents-only parking everywhere and then a potential addendum to look at Broadway, and I just want to go out. I want to talk to a few more people. I want to go out and look at it myself again.”

People who live in the Village neighborhood have pushed for years to establish a residential-only parking program. Several of them spoke on Monday.

Resident Kimberly Ross — who has lived in the Village since 1987 — mentioned how Manatee County has provided its residents with hundreds of parking spaces at its public beaches.

“While Manatee County has invested in the beach and boat parking improvements, the town of Longboat [Key] has not,” Ross said. “So why are the residents being sacrificed to provide beach and boat parking? We are a historical residential neighborhood, not a public-use area.”

There is also the question of how much public street parking to provide near the Village’s restaurants on Broadway: Whitney’s, Mar Vista and Shore.

“I think that if the residents are entitled to be able to use the parking in front of their place, I think the restaurants should have the same right to park immediately adjacent to the property that they own,” Commissioner Ed Zunz said.

Chiles Group CEO Chuck Wolfe, whose company owns Mar Vista, was also among the speakers.

“It is incredibly offensive to say that the Mar Vista does not add to the character of the Village,” Wolfe said. “The land and the facilities on that Mar Vista land had been a commercial spot for over 100 years.

“To say that the restaurant has no value, no addition to the character of the Village is a great disservice by an elected official and we do take offense at that. We have tried to be great neighbors. We continue to be good neighbors, involved in the community in doing the best we can under the circumstances that frankly change every other year.”

On Monday, Planning and Zoning staff presented commissioners with four Village parking options other than the RPP proposal. It includes time-limited parking, paid public parking, a hybrid approach and special district/gated access.

Planning and Zoning staff recommended the hybrid approach, which would allow for the town to implement other measures in the future such as time-limited or paid parking.

Commissioner George Spoll said he would be in favor of installing a gate system on Broadway “one block in” from Gulf of Mexico Drive. Spoll said he supported for Village residents to create some sort of “governing body” or “special district.”

“The real issue that comes down, in the end, is the fact that no matter what we put in place, there must be enforcement,” Spoll said.

The commission could consider a first reading for the RPP proposal during its Sept. 14 meeting.