Commission adopts town's Vision Plan

After more than five years of discussions, revision and debate, the Town Commission finally adopted the town’s Vision Plan.

The document was originally crafted in 2005 after public hearings to get resident input on what the island should strive to be in the next 20 years.

In 2007, the Town Commission accepted the document that was put together by consultant Herb Marlowe, but chose not to adopt it.

Several commissioners, past and present, debated for years whether the document needed to be officially adopted because much of it included goals, and the major implementation goal — the creation of a pool of 250 additional tourism units — was already approved by the voters in 2007.

But Commissioner David Brenner and Vice Mayor Jim Brown, who worked on the document at the Planning and Zoning Board level, worked to get the document adopted and revised the plan in subcommittee meetings last year with other committee members.

Even though Commissioners Robert Siekmann and Hal Lenobel disagreed last year with the revised 21-page document, the majority of the commission wanted to adopt it.

The commission voted 6-1 to adopt the document, with Lenobel being the dissenting vote.

Siekmann said he knew the adoption of the document was a foregone conclusion and never had an issue with the overall concept of a town Vision Plan.

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis said the commission will review the document at least twice a year, and it will become a focal point of the town’s annual Goals and Objectives Workshop. The Vision Plan will also be reviewed in the fall after the fiscal-year budget is adopted.

The Vision Plan includes the following goals:

• Encourage the modernization and redevelopment of tourism facilities.

• Encourage redevelopment strategies that would enhance retail amenities for residents such as mid-priced restaurants, a small cinema, etc.

• Communicate that the Key wants its local businesses to prosper and that it will regularly review its policies to ensure consistency with this intent.

• Encourage redevelopment of existing retail centers appropriate to the site.

Click here to read the entire Vision Plan.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]