Additional neighborhood coalitions could form

More than 125 people packed the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, a Division of Ringling College of Art and Design, two weeks ago to attend the first forum of the new North End Coalition of Property Owners.

So many people attended the March 20 forum that organizers who had set up 75 chairs had to keep adding them, and people lined the walls during the meeting.

The forum featured discussion about a variety of topics, including beach renourishment, canal dredging and north end redevelopment.

Town Manager Dave Bullock and District 5 Commissioner Pat Zunz updated those in attendance about pressing town issues.

Zunz told the Longboat Observer the majority of those individuals in attendance don’t go to Town Hall to discuss or learn about issues at Longboat Key Town Commission meetings.

“This new group is a means by which people can get together and become better informed and express their ideas,” she said. “It’s what the Urban Land Institute advised us to do, and it’s working.”

Zunz said town-wide meetings don’t attract similar turnouts.

“I think these smaller meetings within communities are a good way to get people together to learn about issues,” Zunz said. “The north end group intends to continue, and they have short-term, mid-term and long-term items they want to discuss.”

Zunz and North End Coalition of Property Owners Organizer Denton Crews said the success of the group and its turnout could lead to other coalitions around the Key.

“I believe this forum showed that regardless of how people have made their voices heard in the past, it demonstrated that when people come together in a context where they have the same goals, they are likely to be productive in a way town officials can appreciate without having to just hear the controversy,” Crews said.

The north end coalition has at least 10 condo associations that have joined, and the next meeting will be in the fall. The coalition plans to distribute notes from the March meeting and keep members informed through a possible website or a newsletter.

“We want to keep people updated,” Crews said.

To learn more
For information on the north end group, email [email protected] or call 383-0001.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]