Interim P&Z Director plans for Urban Land Institute

How does the town of Longboat Key plan for the next 20 years?

Interim Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray told the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key Oct 10 that’s the most important answer the town hopes to receive from the Urban Land Institute’s future report.
Below is a condensed list of the questions a list of nine ULI panelists (see sidebar) will answer for the town later this month. The questions are followed by Ray’s comments from last week’s Kiwanis Club meeting.

Longboat Key has an adopted Vision Plan. How realistic is it?

We want somebody from the outside who’s not attached to the Vision Plan in any way to take a good, hard look at it and tell us what they think and if it has value.

Who will be the likely future residents and visitors of Longboat Key over the next 20 years?

We need to know who’s coming here and how to plan for future residents. Will things continue the way they have, or will new groups of residents be attracted to the island?

What should be the balance of residential, tourism and supportive commercial services to ensure Longboat Key’s status as a premier residential and visitor destination?

What’s the appropriate amount of land uses? For instance, do we have too much commercial land? How much tourism does the town need? What do the businesses we have here need to survive?

Much of the building stock on Longboat Key is aging. How should the town encourage revitalization to make properties attractive for the future?

This is a big issue for us. A lot of our buildings were built in the 1970s and are showing their age. We need outside input to tell us how we should revitalize and/or encourage revitalization.

Do the differences in the north-, mid- and south-Key warrant separate planning efforts?
There’s certainly a difference in these three areas on the Key. Should we be treating them differently from a planning standpoint?

What challenges and opportunities should the town be aware of that are likely to influence our future?

What’s out there that we need to be aware of and prepare for? What do visitors and residents expect from a premier residential community like Longboat Key?

What innovations should Longboat Key be developing to address challenges in community infrastructure?

What approaches can we take to provide the least amount of impacts on our residents? There’s a deficiency of medical services on the Key and does the island need some sort of service like a health clinic on the Key?

What are Longboat Key’s most important assets?

We all know the beach and the water are our biggest asset. But what are the town’s other assets and how do we leverage them?

How important is the concept of a ‘town center’ to Longboat Key?

Publix is our de facto town center. Do we need something different? And if we keep the Publix area as our town center, how do we maximize its potential?

Should Longboat Key have a community center and, if yes, what attributes should it include?

A community center has been debated and proposed for years. We want the question to finally be answered for good. Is a community center a difference maker and an attribute that this community’s residents and visitors desire? And if we need one, what kind of activities and classes does our community need?

ULI Schedule
• 5:15 to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21 — The public is invited to meet the ULI panelists at the Longboat Key Hilton Beachfront Resort, 4711 Gulf of Mexico Drive.
• All day Tuesday, Oct 22 — ULI panelists will interview residents and others by appointment only.
• 8:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25 — ULI panelists will present recommendations to the Town Commission.

ULI: Meet the panelists
These nine professionals will work for five days to help Longboat Key strategize for the future of the island.

Panel chairman
Kamuron Gurol
Gurol has served as assistant city manager and community development director for the city of Sammamish, Wash., since 2005.
His team’s accomplishments include adopting a Town Center plan and new Shoreline Master Program.
Gurol has held positions as manager of the Snohomish County Planning Division, director of the Kitsap County Department of Community Development and corridor-planning manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation Urban Planning Office.

Panelists
Angelo Carusi
Carusi has spent the past 28 years with the architectural firm of Cooper Carry Inc.’s Atlanta office, the last 20 of which have focused on mixed-use master planning and retail design.
He most recently directed the design of the 1 million-square-foot The Shops at Wiregrass in Tampa and The Mercato, a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use community in Naples.

Bill Clarke
Clarke is a licensed civil engineer and landscape architect with more than 30 years experience who currently provides consulting services to developers, planning-and-design firms and public agencies in Ross, Calif.

He is a former principal of The SWA Group in Sausalito, Calif., and EDAW Inc.

Greg Cory
Cory served as senior vice president with Economics Research Associates (ERA) until 2009 and went on to found his own company, Land Use Economics LLC.

Cory has more than 30 years’ experience in analyzing the demand for hotels, resorts and recreation-oriented facility and has studied more than 450 resorts in more than 45 international markets.

Zachary Greene
Greene is director of commercial properties in the real-estate department at MassDevelopment, Massachusetts’ public economic development and real-estate development agency.
Previously, he was a commercial real-estate appraiser with Byrne McKinney and Associates in Boston, where he appraised and analyzed more than $1.5 billion worth of real estate throughout New England.

Jim Hill
Hill is acting director of the Ivory Boyer Real Estate Center at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business and a partner with East West Partners in Park City, Utah.
Hill has enjoyed a 30-year career in real-estate development and was managing partner-Utah for East West Partners from 2003 to 2011.

Donna Lewis
Lewis is planning director for Mercer County, N.J., the state’s capital county.

She managed the award-winning restoration of the Louis Kahn Bath House in Ewing, N.J., and is currently a member of the New Jersey Forum Steering Committee and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

David Panagore
Panagore is executive director for New Haven Parking Authority in Hartford, Conn. He previously served as chief administration officer for the city of Hartford and chief development officer for the city of Springfield, Mass.

Kenneth Voigt
Kenneth Voigt is a senior traffic engineer at Ayres Associates in Waukesha, Wis., and has more than 40 years’ experience in traffic engineering and transportation planning. He is the immediate past president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]