Villagers propose idea for north end

Longbeach Village resident Craig Walters had reservations about many of the ideas presented at the north-end planning charrette organized by the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force earlier this year.

Specifically, he felt that discussions took a north-end hotel as a starting point for generating ideas and felt that materials were presented in a manner that “didn’t seem consistent with the open-mindedness of the plan.”

At one presentation, Task Force Chairman George Spoll told attendees that if didn’t matter if they loved or hated the ideas. The exercise was meant to generate ideas, not plans, along with community interest in the planning process. Although Walters wasn’t fond of many ideas presented, you could say that the Task Force met its goal.

Walters, along with several other Village residents have developed a “Village in the Park” conceptual plan that took root in discussions about the ideas generated through the charrette.

Village residents showed up en masse to a commission meeting two weeks ago and lobbied commissioners to remove, on first reading, language in its Comprehensive Plan that would have allowed for an overlay district. Although Villagers celebrated the decision, which will be the subject of further discussion at the June 4 commission meeting, it also created “a lot of hangover effect,” according to Walters.

“There was the feeling that we’ve kind of created a vacuum,” Walters said.

Since then, they’ve developed a plan that suggests extending the Village in a way that integrates low-density residential and commercial land use into a community park-like setting. It would incorporate several aspects of the Pine Avenue Restoration project on Anna Maria, developed by Ed Chiles and Mike Coleman. The structures, none more than two stories, would consist of condominiums over shops and offices in a unique design.

“Restaurants are essential. Art studios/galleries, a coffee shop, a bar/liquor store and a new gas station are all possibilities,” it states.

The residents have developed a short survey that they’ll send to Longbeach Village Association members to gauge their thoughts on the ideas. And, they hope to present their ideas, along with renderings, at the June 4 meeting.

“I guess I got more and more interested because I thought more deeply about the ramifications a hotel would have,” Walters said.

“The concept is actually pretty interesting,” said Acting Village Association President Michael Drake. “It takes what we have in the Village and extends it out toward Gulf of Mexico Drive.”

The plan states that financing would occur through a public/private partnership and states that it has “enthusiastic support” from multiple parties, including “the majority property owners of the Whitney Beach commercial properties.”

Walters declined to name the “majority property owners of the Whitney Beach commercial properties” who support the idea, but said that he hasn’t spoken to Whitney Beach Plaza owners about the idea. He said that contacting them would be premature at this stage.

“This is just a set of ideas … we’re hoping to start a dialogue,” he said.

Rich Juliani, principal of the Boston-based JKI Investment Capital LLC, which owns the plaza, said that he hadn’t heard about the plan when contacted by the Longboat Observer.

Juliani said that the plans would be impossible without the overlay district.

“They want more residential, but by squashing the overlay, the only thing they can’t put on it is residential,” he said of the commercial property.