Club to seek code changes at commission meeting

The Longboat Key Town Commission will review a request by the Longboat Key Club and Resort at its 7 p.m. Monday, March 1, regular meeting to amend portions of its zoning code that could eliminate some departures the club seeks for its Islandside renovation and expansion project.

In a letter sent to the Town Commission dated Feb. 24, club attorney John Patterson told the commission opponents have challenged the application based on a number of interpretations of the town’s zoning code.

Wrote Patterson: “These challenges have, in effect, been a stress test for the town’s zoning code. Areas of the code have been revealed as needing improvements due to conflicting or ambiguous provisions, among other things. We submit that it would be in the best interest of everyone for these areas to be amended now so that final action on the club’s application will rest on a foundation that will not invite protracted legal challenge by any party.”

The club, Patterson wrote, requests that the commission allows the Planning and Zoning Board to review proposed code changes to recommend to the Town Commission at a future workshop.

If the commission decides at its regular meeting to allow the planning board to discuss potential changes, the Islandside application likely will be delayed longer than the monthlong continuance originally anticipated.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].