Gilbert says goodbye to P&Z

Planning and Zoning Board Member Sandy Gilbert attended his final Planning and Zoning Department regular meeting after six years of service during the board’s Tuesday, April 21 regular meeting.

Gilbert, a full-time, north-end resident, announced at the meeting he was leaving the board to pursue other interests, which include writing a future column for The Longboat Observer.

“I am ready to confirm that I won’t be applying for a third term to the Planning and Zoning board,” Gilbert said. “I really enjoyed my time here and learned a whole heck of a lot.”

Gilbert, 69, thanked members of the town staff, including Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Daigle and town planners Steve Schield and Ric Hartman.

Daigle thanked Gilbert for his years of service and said she could always count on him to ask the tough questions that provoked meaningful conversations during several planning board meetings.

After retiring from a 33-year advertising career for Time and Smithsonian magazines, Gilbert and his wife, Emmy Lou, became full-time residents of the Key in 2000 after visiting the island since the 1980s.

Since moving to Longboat, Gilbert served as a member of the water advisory committee that evaluated reclaimed water and drafted and evaluated both the contractors survey on building-department services and the citizens input survey for the community-center advisory committee.

His proudest accomplishments as a planning board member, Gilbert said, were working on the town’s visioning plan and helping to craft the town’s two charter amendments regarding voluntary reconstruction and a tourism pool of 250 units, which voters approved in March 2008.

A planning and zoning board member since May 2003, Gilbert has also served as the president of the Public Interest Committee and is a past chairman and vice chairman of the planning board.
Currently, Gilbert is a founding board member of Sarasota Bay Watch and serves as the state chairman of Solutions to Avoid Red Tide, or START.

P&Z CANDIDATES

The Longboat Key Town Commission will select a new appointment for Sandy Gilbert’s vacant post and decide whether to reappoint David Brenner and John Wild to new, three-year terms at its Monday, May 4 regular meeting.

Other applicants for planning board seats include: Andrew Aitken, Phineas Alpers, Gaele Barthold, T. Mark Benjamin, Rosemay Dilgard, Robert Krosney Jr., Patrick J. Mellett, Chuck Nechtem, Lee Pokoik, Richard Weber, Woody Wolverton and Patricia Zunz.

Zunz and Alpers have decided not to apply for new terms on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, choosing instead to vie for planning board seats.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].