Town receives approval for latest revision of comprehensive plan

After two and a half years of work, the town of Longboat Key received the official stamp of approval on a complete revision of its comprehensive plan. 

The notification from the Florida Department of Commerce came on July 18 via email to town staff that the new comprehensive plan was in compliance. In Florida, the Department of Commerce requires a local government to update its comprehensive plan at least every seven years. 

Chair of the Planning & Zoning Board David Lapovsky recently started his second term and is in his fifth year on the board. He also recently took over as chair in May after former chair David Green decided to relocate from Longboat Key. Lapovsky gave credit to his predecessor. 

“Let me first say, David Green, whom I replaced, did a masterful job of shepherding this through board review, and the staff did an unbelievable job of keeping a very complicated process on track,” Lapovsky said. 

A comprehensive plan sets the guidelines for a local municipality for things like future land use, mobility, infrastructure and recreation. Housing is also a major aspect, but one that was straightforward since Longboat Key is mostly built out already, Lapovsky said. 

The Planning & Zoning Board focused on one or two areas at a time through a series of workshops, according to Lapovsky. For each of the areas, the board worked through a process that identified goals, objectives, priorities and strategies that served as a framework for the revisions. 

The Planning & Zoning Board — along with staff from the Planning, Zoning and Building Department — then would take the revisions in a series of batches for commission approval. After the entire comprehensive plan went through revisions, the town submitted the new plan to the Florida Department of Commerce. 

With this revision, Lapovsky said the board spent significant time talking about climate issues and how things like sea level rise would impact future land use. 

Keeping comprehensive plans up to date is important to maintain a community’s vision. Conversations around climate change and sea level rise only started to become prominent in this latest revision, according to Lapovsky. 

A comprehensive plan also provides guidance on development, which expresses, for example, that the Longboat Key community is against high-rise developments along Gulf of Mexico Drive, according to Lapovsky. 

Any future site development plans on the island look at the town’s comprehensive plan to make sure the site will comply with the town’s vision. 

“It’s the roadmap, really, the guiding principles of what we want our community to be in terms of the decisions that we make that affect the health, safety, appearance, mobility (transportation) of our community,” Lapovsky said.