Key Club presents new drawings

Longboat Key Club and Resort officials presented Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Simpson with revised sketches Thursday, June 24 that show the Islandside project’s wellness center relocation and five new villa buildings on the north parcel.

As The Longboat Observer reported this week, Key Club General Manager Michael Welly said his design staff was working to present the town with project modifications that now include:

• Taking the proposed wellness center away from the proposed hotel and placing it on the north parcel just north of four tennis courts, in exchange for building one, seven-story building over one level of parking that would hold approximately 26 units.

• Raising one of the villa buildings one floor to add two additional condominium units along the Pass, already approved on first reading.

• Developing five villa buildings over one level of parking on the north parcel that would hold approximately 32 units. Four of those buildings are three stories over one level of parking and the most western building is four stories over one level of parking.

Welly called the revisions “another in a series of olive branches we have extended.”

“The more you work out the kinks on these revisions, the more I start warming up to this project,” Welly said. “If there is a consensus for this project next week, we will be a part of that consensus.”

The changes, Welly noted, will work for the club because the revisions would allow for 60 saleable condominiums to help fund other components of the project.

Islandside Property Owners Coalition President Bob White, however, says his coalition will not support the most recent changes.

"It's not anything that will be acceptable to us," White said. "We feel the original plan the town approved on first reading is something we can support. That's at the limit of what we are willing to accept."

If the changes are accepted by the Town Commission on second reading at 5:01 p.m. Monday, June 28, at Temple Beth Israel, the revisions would reduce the number of condominium units the club originally wanted to build in two north parcel condominium towers from 70 units to 60 units spread out over both parcels.

To download PDFs of the proposed sketches, click here.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].