Longboat puts off height discussion after notification miscue

A public hearing and the first reading of the ordinance regarding building height limit on Longboat Key, which was scheduled for Monday April 3, has been postponed because of an advertising error. It is rescheduled for Monday May 1.

This ordinance includes proposed amendments to the town’s zoning code for planned-unit developments, or PUDs, which are designed to encourage redevelopment of old properties through a voluntary zoning process. The ordinance is one of two originally scheduled for public hearing and first reading on April 3. The other involves amendments to the town’s comprehensive plan.

Town Manager Dave Bullock explained that the ordinance regarding PUDs was given an incorrect title in a daily-newspaper advertisement, and this title may have given readers the impression that the PUD ordinance will focus on amendments to the town’s comprehensive plan.

The advertisement appeared in the March 27 editions of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and Bradenton Herald. 

Bullock said he does not believe the advertisement complied with Florida law regarding notification of public hearings.

“We didn’t feel we met the legal test,” Bullock said. “And we didn’t feel people would be fully informed.”

Public hearing and first reading of the ordinance regarding the comprehensive plan is still scheduled for Monday, April 3. No discussion of amendments to the town’s zoning code for PUDs will take place, Bullock said, and public hearing of the ordinance will be properly advertised before May 1.

While discussing the PUD ordinance at the last Town Commission workshop meeting, commissioners rejected the Planning and Zoning Board's recommendation to increase the Key's building height limit to 80 feet over elevation. Click here for the full story. 

The town's advertising error comes after another procedural miscue. The omission of one spoken word during a town meeting last week certifying the March 14 commission elections and a pair of density referendums will require the Commission on Monday to redo the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort portion of the proceedings on Monday.