Workshop outlines ODP and code fix work and timeline

“What are you trying to fix?”

That was the question Longboat Key resident Larry Grossman asked at a March 27 Outline Development Process (ODP) workshop held to receive public input for upcoming changes to the town’s codes and Comprehensive Plan.

The question served as the starting point for town staff and Bill Spikowski, of Spikowski Planning Associates, who was hired to make changes to the town’s codes.

The ODP process allows applicants to make modifications and ask for departures from town codes to approve projects that town staff otherwise could not consider.

Spikowski made suggestions to a town ordinance at the Planning and Zoning Board’s March 18 meeting, which would allow an applicant such as the Longboat Key Club to submit a future project.

Ocean Properties Vice President Mark Walsh, son of company founder Tom Walsh, told the planning board March 18 that it is his intent to build a future project at the Key Club that fits within the neighborhood and complies with codes.

Planning board members, though, have expressed concern and the need for clarification about an ODP process that doesn’t explicitly state who owns or is in control of unused units slated for planned unit developments (PUDs) like those in the Key Club’s Islandside and Harbourside communities.

There are approximately 600 unused units in Harbourside and approximately 800 unused units in Islandside. The planning board wants to know who can seek to build those undeveloped units.

Islandside Property Owners Coalition (IPOC) President and L’Ambiance resident Bob White told Spikowski at the March 27 hearing that “there’s still an open question on density and whether previous developers have any rights to those units in Islandside and Harbourside,” noting that Arvida Corp. wrote a letter to the town in 2009 during project hearings for the former Key Club applications. In that letter, Arvida claimed it still owned the unused units and didn’t transfer its development rights to those units.

Spikowski called Arvida’s claim “a real stretch” for property Arvida no longer owns.

Walsh said he believes his company, which bought the Key Club in 2012, is in control of the unused units.
Walsh also said he hopes the town preserves the company’s rights to ask for 12-story buildings and 130 feet of height for tourism uses for a future project, which the Comp Plan currently allows.

However, the current ODP process allows for departures up to eight stories, making it even more confusing for an applicant looking to town codes and plans for clarification.

Spikowski called the building heights in the current code and ODP process “confusing and controversial.”
More than 20 people in attendance at last week’s workshop provided comments to Spikowski and planning staff about the ODP ordinance and some questioned the changes being crafted that will help applicants like the Key Club.

Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray told Grossman “the ultimate goal is to rewrite the codes and Comp Plan so the town’s processes and terminology and everything else meets a standard widely recognizable off of this island.”

Spikowski also explained the new ordinance would clarify departure standards, clarify assigned uses in planned unit development districts like Islandside and Harbourside and clarify lot size language.

Spikowsi and planning staff will complete revisions to an ODP ordinance April 7, and the planning board will review the revised ordinance at its April 15 regular meeting and public hearing.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]