What’s the plan?

If you haven’t done it, go to our website, YourObserver.com, and type in the search bar: GMD makeover. 

Then look for the link in the story that will take you to a YouTube video simulation of how a landscaped and enhanced Gulf of Mexico Drive could look and how two two-lane roundabouts could work.

It’s slick. And enticing. 

Wouldn’t it be great if Gulf of Mexico Drive actually looked like that? 

What’s the saying at Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it”?

That simulation is the Gulf of Mexico Drive makeover many residents and town commissioners have talked and dreamed about for the past 20 years. 

Likewise, town commissioners and others have talked for just as long about creating entryways at both ends of the Key that make statements befitting the island’s ambience and stature. The southern entryway is a step in that direction.

But money and other priorities always seem to have been key obstacles to moving forward on both plans.

Some things don’t change: the lack of money.

Indeed, after having had our appetites teased with this $30,000 conceptual video, we couldn’t help but think about what this Gulf of Mexico Drive makeover would cost. Town administrators haven’t gone that far.

But you can imagine. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association says it costs $2 million to $3 million to build a two-lane undivided road in rural areas, $3 million to $5 million in urban areas.

This project wouldn’t create a road from scratch, but when you add in the medians, roundabouts and landscaping, you have to figure 11 miles of an enhanced Gulf of Mexico Drive could easily reach $20 million-plus.

To be sure, pulling off a major renovation of Gulf of Mexico Drive will take years of planning, especially because Gulf of Mexico Drive is a state highway. It’s good to start thinking and planning now. And, yes, traffic remains Issue No. 1 on Longboat and elsewhere, so it’s relevant to be strategizing now how best to address our traffic woes. If the town is intent on installing roundabouts at its entryways, then perhaps it makes sense to do it all at once.

But let’s come back to reality. 

Once you start thinking about the costs of such an endeavor, you also must think about what else is going on. Topping the list: the $50 million underground utilities project. Noodle this: What would be the chronology? Install the underground utility lines, and then turn around and renovate Gulf of Mexico Drive? Or do them together?

Surely, there will be another multimillion-dollar beach renourishment in the next seven years. And then there’s forward momentum on the development of a town center near Publix and the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center. How much taxpayer money will that require to develop? 

Here’s one more you may as well add to the list: purchasing and restoring the historic Whitney cottage on the property of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts. What’s more, don’t be surprised if the town purchases the service station property at the corner of Gulf of Mexico Drive and Broadway to create a park, a home for the Longboat Key Historical Society and an enhance entry into north Longboat Key (see below).

All of these projects are part of a Big Dreams Wish List that would enhance the look and livability of Longboat Key. But by whetting Longboaters’ appetite for a beautifully landscaped Gulf of Mexico Drive with the administration’s simulated video, the town has triggered important questions for town commissioners to address:

What is financially and physically feasible? What are the costs? What are the priorities? What would be the effects on taxpayers? Completing these projects is one thing; don’t forget the ongoing costs. 

That cool, $30,000 simulated video looked like expensive fun. It also may turn out to be an important catalyst. What’s the strategy and plan, commissioners?