A reader responds to the St. Regis parking garage

Compromise for everyone

Mr. Whittall has exhibited vision, foresight and business acumen, which most residents of Bay Isles must recognize as what they possessed in order to earn the success of living in one of Longboat Key’s most elite neighborhoods. Give Mr. Whittall every chance at making this stellar property the best it can be with no constraints. He is ensuring the resort is able to accommodate parking for every patron (that’s us, dear locals). Your property values will reflect his success. 

Critics cringe at the thought of a wall of concrete with years to wait for trees to conceal it. Have you not heard of fast-growing evergreen vines? Within one year they will miraculously shroud the garage providing a sound and sight buffer for us at the utility corner of this property. You will thank Mr. Whittall for sparing you what Matt Walsh so eloquently described as “the constant clanging and rumble of big truck rigs delivering food and hauling away garbage.” As Mr. Walsh pointed out in the May 18 edition of the Longboat Observer, the total height of the proposed parking structure was to be 27 feet, 4.5 inches. Since the allowable height of a single-family residence on LBK is 30 feet, I’m sure a compromise could be achieved if an extra 2.5 feet were added to the rooftop so that headlights will be imperceptible to humans and turtle hatchlings. 

Contemplate this if you are still adamantly opposed to the parking structure: Mr. Whittall has increased your property values while you have diminished ours. Perhaps there should be a height limit proposal for trees on the island. As we on the west side of Gulf of Mexico Drive look eastward, your Bay Isles trees are blocking the bay views we once enjoyed and paid dearly for. As they grow, your trees will further restrict the bay views of the St. Regis as well. I fully endorse Mr. Whittall and Unicorp to build this legacy property with no restrictions. Let the compromise begin.

— Karen Thomson, Longboat Key