Key Club presents a modified plan

The Longboat Key Club and Resort presented a modified Islandside renovation-and-expansion plan Friday, Jan. 29 that reduces the overall number of residential units in the project from 176 units to 154 units, drops the height of the proposed condominium towers and raises the height of the proposed hotel.

The hearing at Temple Beth Israel, however, didn’t last more than an hour because the commission granted a request by the club to continue the hearing for another two weeks.

“We dropped back to see if this project could be modified in a way to meet some of the objections made by opponents and incorporate ideas we thought were positive,” said club attorney John Patterson.

The club, however, is not ready to commit to the revised plan that Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Simpson presented briefly Friday until it can continue discussions with town staff and work on financial studies to make sure the revised project is financially viable.

Said Patterson: “We have been and will continue to work with staff to balance things out and come up with a plan that’s viable, one that will work, and one that the owners are willing to build and risk their capital for.”

The plan submitted tentatively for review Friday reduced the two condominium towers from 132 units to 61 units, while reducing the building height from seven floors to four floors over one story of parking.

The revised plan also calls for:

• A hotel with 196 hotel rooms that now has 65 residential units within the building and 10 floors, instead of a seven-floor hotel with 34 residential units.

• Villas on New Pass that now consist of four buildings with 28 residential villa units, instead of 10 units in two buildings. Two buildings are proposed at four floors over parking and the other two are three stories over parking.

• Moving the Longboat Club Road guardhouse 127 feet to the west of its existing location.

• Building a one-level parking structure that replaces surface parking to accommodate for the additional 65 units in the hotel.

• Replacing surface parking for the proposed spa/fitness center with two levels of parking under its structure to allow for additional space between the proposed villas.

The Islandside hearing will reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 12, at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].