The Longboat Key Town Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday afternoon to approve the Longboat Key Club and Resort’s $400 million expansion-and-renovation plan.
The commission approved a final revised plan that includes much of what the Key Club proposed in the beginning: an 11-story, five-star hotel; a stand-alone meeting center; new wellness center and spa; and renovated Islandside golf clubhouse and golf course (with no driving range). Also approved, and among the most contentious pieces of the plan, were villas on both sides of Longboat Club Road and a seven-story condominium building on the south side of the road.
The commissioners took four hours alone Wednesday to bring themselves to vote. But that was only a sliver of the time it took to get there: five years from the time Key Club General Manager Michael Welly began his quest; more than $5 million in Key Club planning expenses; six revised plans presented to the town; more than 23 public hearings over eight months; more than $40,000 in town expenses; and more than an estimated $1 million in legal and other expenses for the opposition, the Islandside Property Owners Coalition.
And the decision came at the final hour — on the last day the Town Commission is permitted to render development decisions before its two-month summer hiatus, and on the self-imposed deadline of the Longboat Key Club’s investors. Based in England, they told Key Club officials they were prepared to walk away from the project if the commission postponed its final vote for the fall.
Learning of the vote from New York Wednesday afternoon, Loeb Partners Realty CEO Joseph Lesser said the following in a prepared statement:
“I am very appreciative and gratified by the vote of the Longboat Key Town Commission to approve the plan for the club’s Islandside redevelopment plan. We believe that the proposed redevelopment will be a great attribute to the town of Longboat Key and the club.”
But the Islandside Property Owners Coalition (IPOC), which opposed the modified project, hinted that a challenge to the commission’s decision was forthcoming.
Commissioner Robert Siekmann did not approve the project because he feared it was too massive for the Islandside Gulf-planned development and is not compatible with town codes and the town’s Comprehensive Plan.
“There is no other place on this island where this development would be appropriate, but it’s appropriate here. I think when it’s bilt, people will say, ‘Why did we complain?’, said Vice Mayor Jim Brown.
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Tags: Longboat Key, Longboat Key Club and Resort, Redevelopment, Town commission
