Commission delays Islandside decision

After months of public hearings that began last year, the Longboat Key Town Commission decided Monday, June 28 to postpone a decision on the Longboat Key Club and Resort’s Islandside renovation-and-expansion project until Wednesday, June 30.

The commission will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road, to review an amended ordinance on second reading that would allow the club to build a project that it proposed Monday evening.

It’s the last time the Town Commission can approve a project before a two-month hiatus on approving outline development applications is imposed at midnight June 30.

The amendment to the ordinance proposed by Vice Mayor Jim Brown and seconded by Commissioner David Brenner directs staff to draft a revised ordinance that would allow the club to:

• Take the proposed wellness center away from the proposed hotel and place it on the north parcel just north of four tennis courts, in exchange for building one, seven-story building over one level of parking that would hold approximately 26 units.

• Raise one of the villa buildings along the pass (already approved on first reading) one floor to add two additional condominium units.

• Develop five villa buildings over one level of parking on the north parcel that would hold approximately 32 units. Four of the buildings would be three stories over one level of parking and the most westerly building would be four stories over one level of parking.

• Moving up the construction of the proposed five-star hotel by two years.

Brown, Brenner, Mayor George Spoll and Commissioners Phillip Younger and Lynn Larson approved the amendment to the ordinance.

Commissioners Robert Siekmann and Hal Lenobel did not vote to move the ordinance amendment forward.

Siekmann and Lenobel believe the changes proposed to the ordinance on second reading are too significant, despite the town attorney’s ruling that the ordinance can support the changes on second reading.

Despite efforts to move forward a past Islandside project that would reinstall the condominium towers and put the wellness center next to the proposed hotel, club officials told the commission they want to move forward with the project they brought forward Monday.

For more information, check www.yourobserver.com for live updates Wednesday, June 30 and pick up a copy of Thursday’s July 1 Longboat Observer.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].