Goodwill still shopping for Longboat Key location

Goodwill Manasota Inc. isn’t coming to the former Longbeach Chevron gas station on the north end of Longboat Key, but it still wants a presence on the island. 

“Donations are being missed out there because of the lack of an attended drop-off donation center on the island,” said John McKay, a Bradenton businessman and former Republican state legislator who donates his time as a Goodwill Manasota ambassador. “Our primary goal is to get an attended donation drop-off center out there somewhere.”

Three weeks ago, Goodwill backed out of a contract to purchase the former gas station property that’s been vacant since 2007. 

“The town said they may be installing a roundabout there in the future and could use some of the property for right of way needs,” said McKay, who served on the organization’s board and developed its Manatee County headquarters. “We were also told a drop-off location at the entrance of the town isn’t something they wanted, so we dropped it. We could have fought for it, but we chose not to.”

Although the nonprofit  investigated putting a drop-off center in Whitney Beach Plaza, Mc-Kay said the ingress and egress accesses for a location in the plaza won’t work. 

In the meantime, the organization seeks a zoning determination for a future location elsewhere on the island.

“Goodwill is working with a major local developer to look at our options for providing services to the residents on Longboat Key,” said Ray Couch, Goodwill Manasota’s vice president of real estate and market development, in a statement.

In an April 10 letter to Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray, Goodwill attorney Scott Rudacille asked the town to determine whether the donation drop-off component is considered an allowable accessory use under the town’s code. 

“Longboat Key’s zoning codes are somewhat confusing and antiquated,” McKay said. “While there are provisions to allow for the drop-off of goods for things like dry-cleaning and bicycle rentals, there’s nothing specifically to describe a drop-off for Goodwill-type donations.”

In the letter, Rudacille notes the town’s code already allows for “commercial uses or other uses similarly requiring the receipt or distribution by vehicles of material or merchandise” regarding off-street loading. 

“Thus the town has already recognized that commercial uses necessarily require the receipt or distribution of materials,” Rudacille states in the letter. “The code makes no distinction based upon the type or manner of goods or materials received. We fail to see how Goodwill’s receipt of donation inventory could be lawfully distinguished from these existing, approved uses.”

Rudacille states the code provides no basis to distinguish Goodwill’s donation deliveries from the receipt of merchandise or materials that occurs in every commercial business on the island.  

“We ask the town to confirm that the zoning code allows for Goodwill to locate one of its small, specialty-store prototypes (such as a book store), in the C-1 zoning district, or a larger Goodwill retail store in the C-2 or C-3 zoning districts, and that in either case, the code allows for the inclusion of a donation drop-off component as an accessory use,” Rudacille states in the letter. 

Town Planner Maika Arnold has been assigned to make a zoning determination on the request in the next seven to 10 days. 

“We’re just beginning our research now,” Arnold said.

Ray told the Longboat Observer in January that a text change in the zoning code is required for the drop-off location, which requires Longboat Key Town Commission approval.

Ray said if Goodwill officials disagree with her department’s assessment of the zoning determination, they can appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. McKay said the organization hopes to seek a clarification to add the use to town codes. He anticipates that process would take a year to obtain Planning and Zoning Board and commission approval.

McKay said the town “seems to support Goodwill’s mission.”

Mayor Jack Duncan recently reached out to McKay and Goodwill officials to offer the town’s support in the matter. 

McKay said Longboaters shouldn’t be concerned about a future Goodwill location on the island, noting it would be staffed by one or two people collecting donations in an approximately 2,000-square-foot location without a major retail component.

“If anything is put inside it for sale, it might be for a small book store,” McKay said. “But that’s about it. It won’t be a big store that sells merchandise. We believe a book store would be well- received out there, but other retail operations would not. We understand that.”

McKay said the donation center “would not be a dumping ground for donations” and would be used efficiently by staff to collect donations. 

“Donations are being missed out there because of the lack of an attended drop-off donation center on the island. Our primary goal is to get an attended donation drop-off center out there somewhere.”

— John McKay, a Bradenton businessman and Goodwill Manasota ambassador