Your candidate: Larry Grossman

A regular day for Larry Grossman on Longboat Key starts at sunrise on the beach with a garbage bag attached to his shorts. He throws trash from the day before into the bag, which he fills to the top. During turtle nesting season, he also uses the time to search for turtle nests.

Then, he’ll head home and plan his daily bicycle rides along Gulf of Mexico Drive around the day’s government meetings. If there isn’t a scheduled public meeting at Longboat Key Town Hall, you’re likely to find Grossman near a dais in either Manatee or Sarasota counties, offering his advice on matters that affect this region.

“It’s how I spend my spare time,” Grossman said. “I want to lend my expertise to some of these jurisdictions going through change and planning.”

Grossman is vying for the Longboat Key Town Commission District 4 seat Jim Brown vacates next month when he reaches his term limit of six years. He is running against Planning and Zoning Board Vice Chairman Jack Daly for the seat.

His top priority if elected: overseeing the evolving process of changing the town’s comprehensive plan and codes. More importantly, Grossman believes he can help speed up a process that Commissioner Lynn Larson recently complained is taking longer than it took to write the U.S. Constitution.

“Speeding it up doesn’t mean it will be done tomorrow if I’m elected,” Grossman said. “But I can speed it up by suggesting we put revisions in the right order. You can do it faster while still getting it right.”

A retired planner who spent more than 30 years with the city of Alexandria, Va., Grossman was charged with creating plans that enticed development in dilapidated parts of town that were preparing for metro rail stations. He also helped redo the city’s comp plan and created more land-use categories. Relocating transformers as part of Alexandria’s undergrounding utility project was also part of his job.

“We had archaic zoning and weren’t planning for the future,” Grossman said. “It was similar to Longboat Key in many ways.”

After retirement, he became a commercial real estate broker, structuring deals such as a land swap to create a park in Alexandria and selling run-down city parking lots to developers to create mixed-use development.

“I did a lot of stuff to encourage development and utilize areas of town that weren’t working in their current form,” Grossman said. “I loved getting rid of pavement.”

Grossman believes the town should be broken down into individualized planning sections, or neighborhoods, for planning purposes.

“Every section of the Key is different, and we need to look at the relationship of nearby properties when we’re changing while still preserving neighborhood character,” Grossman said.

Grossman’s background as a real estate agent also leads him to believe the town can be more proactive in helping to sell and revitalize run-down north-end parcels, such as the vacant gas station property. And, he wants to lend his expertise to a new town center concept.

If elected, Grossman’s first priority will be transforming Bayfront Park.

“It’s a wasted asset,” said Grossman, who wants to transform the park into a “bold, utilized asset.”
Grossman said the town is moving in a positive direction.

“But they need someone on the commission that has the expertise I had for planning purposes,”

Grossman said. “I want to make where I live a better place. I’ve done that my whole life.”

Larry Grossman
Age: 66

Occupation: Retired city planner, former commercial real estate agent

Family: Wife, Patricia; one son

Residence: St. Judes Drive

Hometown: Boston

Hobbies: Bicycling, yoga, meditation, turtle walking, cleaning the beach

Interesting Fact: Grossman has an affinity for jazz music and singing international folk songs. He can sing in Italian, French, German, Hebrew and Arabic.