Colony seeks re-opening continuance

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon confirmed Tuesday that the association intends to ask the Longboat Key Town Commission for a continuance of the town’s tourism abandonment requirement this week.

In October, Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Simpson pointed to sections of the town code that revealed the resort cannot lay dormant for more than a year, or it will be considered abandoned.

If the resort is abandoned past Aug. 15 (the day the resort shut down in 2010), the town can strip the resort of 129 of the resort’s 237 units because, they were built on the property before town code only allowed six tourism units be built per acre.

Town attorney David Persson, however, has been working with the association and its legal counsel, who have the option of asking the commission for a continuance of the one-year deadline, if the property owner can show good cause that the property will be in operation once again in the future.

“At our annual meeting last month, we discussed at length about our intent to file a continuance,” said Yablon, who said the extension could be filed as early as Wednesday, April 13.
The association will ask for a continuance of at least a year or longer, which the commission will consider at its 7 p.m. Monday, May 2 regular meeting.

The association is still reviewing with a strategic consultant its list of 15 renovation proposals to find the right development plan for the shuttered resort.

The association is also working to open a limited number of units to its owners and believes the work it’ performing, coupled with its intent on selecting the appropriate renovation proposal, will be enough to show the town it needs more time to resurrect the facility appropriately.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]