Town to determine scope of code work

As the Longboat Key Town Commission began its second round of discussions about how to address the town’s Zoning Code and Comprehensive Plan, Town Manager David Bullock suggested that the commission should first focus on what it wants before focusing on how much it will cost.

“The creation of the work scope is our most important work,” Bullock told the commission at its Thursday, Feb. 16 workshop.

In advance of the workshop, Bullock and town staff prepared a memorandum outlining methods taken by local Florida governments as they looked at their futures and amended, updated or rewrote their comprehensive plans. The efforts outlined in the memo varied widely — from the $20,000 land-use vision project to result in comprehensive plan amendments for Jefferson County taken on last year by Florida State University’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, to the $337,554 lump-sum fee approved last month by the Sarasota City Commission for the baseline and first phase of the city-wide mobility plan.

Bullock told the commission that it shouldn’t read too much into the lowest costs, such as the Jefferson County project, listed in the report given the detail and scope of the work needed.

“There isn’t another direct comparison,” the town manager told the commission. “That’s why you have such a range.”

Bullock proposed preparing a draft that he suggested could serve as a sort of “straw man.”

“You may love it, you may hate it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. It gets us started and focused.”

Five of the six commissioners present reached consensus to direct Bullock to move forward with the draft for commission comments. But Commissioner Hal Lenobel dissented.

“Your existing Comprehensive Plan has been used for so many years, and we have ended up with an Eden-type island,” he said. “I think we’ve done really well, and I see no reason to change it.”

But Mayor Jim Brown expressed frustration with that sentiment.

“Eden is falling apart,” he said, describing some condominiums that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s as reaching “the end of their usable lives,” leaving unit owners with few options if they want to someday sell the aging structures.

“I’m afraid if we don’t do something we could have Detroit,” Brown said. “Detroit on an island.”

The town will likely review issues surrounding the use of planned-unit developments before taking on a wider review of its Zoning Code and Comprehensive Plan.