Key Club expansion drives road shift

All roads to a successful Longboat Key Club project begin at Longboat Club Road.

Just ask Robert Goodman, president of Longboat Key Association Inc., a seven-member board that controls Longboat Club Road.

Goodman, 83, opposed a past Islandside project that the Key Club’s former owners, Loeb Partners Realty, submitted to the town in April 2008 to build a new hotel with 221 hotel rooms and 261 residences at Islandside. 

Fast forward seven years, and Goodman fully supports Ocean Properties’ plans for a $100 million project that includes a new 259-unit hotel with expanded meeting space that’s 10 to 12 stories and approximately 93 condominium/villa units. He said his association will most likely sign a memorandum of understanding in support of the project and the road relocation by year’s end.

Why the U-turn?

“It’s simple,” said Goodman, president of the association for 21 years and a Sands Point resident since 1976. “They’re moving the road to the north and putting all of the development south of the road. That’s all we ever wanted in 2008.” 

Goodman and Islandside Property Owners Coalition President Bob White previously opposed the past Loeb project that called for a meeting center on the north side of the road and a walkway across the road to funnel visitors from the meeting space to a hotel. Loeb also had no intention of shifting Longboat Club Road to the north to alleviate traffic concerns near the new development. 

Goodman is now reviewing a list of conditions that he says Ocean Properties must meet to improve and relocate the road.

There’s one condition in particular that Goodman wants both Ocean Properties and the Florida Department of Transportation to address. 

He says seasonal traffic issues have made it impossible for motorists to exit Longboat Club Road on the north end of Islandside at the private entrance and make a left turn northbound onto Gulf of Mexico Drive. 

“We have in excess of 1,000 owners here that must be able to go out to the town, and the north exit entrance is the best way to go, and it’s not safe during the season,” Goodman said. “Before we will agree to move the road, the town, Ocean Properties and FDOT have to come to an agreement that it’s going to be a workable solution for the future.”

He hopes a traffic light will be considered for the intersection. It’s an area also slated for an FDOT crosswalk just north of Longboat Club Road where Country Club Shores beachgoers cross to access their beach easement. 

At the south end entrance, Goodman said the road needs shifted to the north with wider lanes to accommodate larger service trucks, a relocated guardhouse and bicycle lanes. A roundabout or traffic light modifications to that entrance, Goodman said, are up to FDOT.

“Our main goal is the safety of the road,” he said. 

Goodman said it’s up to FDOT to decide whether a roundabout or signal timing issues at the current traffic light is the best solution for the road at the south entrance. 

Other conditions include new curbs, enhanced lighting and new landscaping. 

“Our main goal is the safety and the beautification of the road,” Goodman said. “We’re giving Ocean Properties a list of everything we would like done to the 50-year-old road and we will go from there. We’re very much for this project are look forward to working with Ocean Properties.”