Commission grants Colony request

The Longboat Key Town Commission approved a continuance of the town’s tourism abandonment requirement for The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort at its regular meeting Monday, May 2.

The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association now has until Dec. 31, 2012, to reopen the property as a tourism resort.

Other Colony parties, which own portions of the recreational property in the middle of the resort, including longtime Colony owner Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber, agreed to join in as parties requesting the continuance.

Before the continuance was granted, if the resort was abandoned past Aug. 15 (the day the resort shut down), the town could have stripped the resort of about 85 of the resort’s 237 units because they were built on the property before town code required only six tourism units be built per acre.

The association must report back to the commission in March 2012 to give an update on how the renovation of the property is proceeding.

Also at its 7 p.m. regular meeting at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road, the commission:

Forwarded to its June 6 regular meeting for second reading and public hearing:
• An ordinance that revises the town’s beaches, parks and public places regulations.
• An ordinance that amends the town’s mortality rates for its three pension plans.
• An ordinance that eliminates a firefighter pension board member’s right to vote in pension board member elections if they are enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Option Program.
• An ordinance that incorporates amendments to a three-year, ratified contract between the town and the Longboat Key Police Officers’ Union.
• An ordinance that makes amendments to town requirements for walls, fences, hedges and berms.

Adopted:
• An ordinance allows for the town’s Firefighters’ Pension Board to be in compliance with an Internal Revenue Service requirement.
• A revised parking ordinance that prohibits parking in the state right-of-way along Gulf of Mexico Drive, with a few exceptions.

Reappointed:
• Allen Hixon and Walter Hackett to the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board.
• Kenneth Schneier to the Longboat Key Zoning Board of Adjustment.
• Beverly Shapiro to the Longboat Key Code Enforcement Board.

Appointed:
• John Daly and Leonard Garner to the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board.
• Lee Riley to the Longboat Key Zoning Board of Adjustment.
• Joel Mangel to the Longboat Key Code Enforcement Board.
• Charlie Czech to the Metropolitan Planning Organization Citizens’ Advisory Committee.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].