Welcome Back: Key Club referendum passes

The town’s first-ever mail-only referendum held this summer will produce an application for a new Islandside hotel.

An application for the Longboat Key Club’s Islandside property is underway after voters approved a request from Ocean Properties Ltd. to convert 300 residential units to tourism units. 

The May 12 referendum generated 1,948 votes in favor, or 53%, compared with 1,721 votes, or 47% against it. A simple majority of 50% plus one of the returned ballots was needed for the referendum to pass. 

Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray expects an application by the end of the year for a 259-unit hotel, expanded meeting space with 10 to 12 meeting rooms and approximately 93 condominium/villa units.

The company expects to spend approximately $100 million on the project, which will sit along New Pass on the site of tennis courts south of Longboat Club Road that are no longer used. 

Leading up to the election, residents islandwide cited seasonal traffic issues as their top concern about a referendum that would allow another hotel on the island. 

“What I would convey to Longboaters is we have the same peak season traffic concerns as they do,” said Ocean Properties Vice President Mark Walsh May 12, after the referendum passed. “We will be looking at solutions long before this project ever comes out of the ground.”

Although Islandside Property Owners Coalition President Bob White said he still had traffic concerns after the approval, he says IPOC doesn’t have concerns about Ocean Properties. The company spent months negotiating a future project that IPOC will support. 

“They are certainly the best developer, I believe, to do that project,” White said May 12. “I think they will be a good operator and a good neighbor. While we will monitor any future application closely, the general concept plan we’ve seen is something we can live with.”

The Key’s first mail-in ballot drew record participation. Islandwide, 3,669 residents, or 57.6%, of the island’s 6,370 registered voters cast ballots. 

In Manatee County, 562 voters, or 53.5%, opposed the referendum, and 488 voters, or 46.5%, were in favor of it.  

In Sarasota County, 1,460 voters, or 55.7%, were in favor of the referendum, and 1,159 voters, or 44.3% opposed it.