Development plans once again up to Longboat voters

Here we go again.

If approved in early December, Longboat Key voters will be asked on the March 2019 ballot to decide whether homes can be built at 5630 Gulf of Mexico Drive, a vacant lot zoned for commercial uses.

On the surface, this seems like a routine matter. But since 1984, when the town changed its residential density rules to

allow no more than six units an acre -- and required voters to decide on projects that sought to exceed those limits -- Longboat residents have a track record of turning aside such requests.

“People don’t want things built that are not in character,” with Longboat, or their neighborhood, said Tom Freiwald of the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force.

This is the second time around for this particular piece of land. 

An increase in residential density on the 1.8-acre lot, owned by Mote Scientific Foundation since 2001 and bordered by Jungle Queen Way and Tarawitt Drive, was rejected by voters in 2017 when a similar project was proposed. Also on the ballot in 2017: Unicorp National Developments' request to add density to the former Colony Beach & Tennis Resort site. 

Unicorp's request was rejected by more than 85% of the voters. 

The request for 5630 GMD was rejected by 58%, the closest any of these ballot issues has come to approval. In fact, representatives for the GMD parcel wanted to spinoff the ballot question, fearing Colony's coattails, but the request was too late. 

“It was on the ballot with a high density, highly controversial project,” said B.J. Bishop, chairperson of the town Planning & Zoning Board. “That was ridiculous.”

Two years might make a difference.

The homebuilder wants to construct a subdivision of coastal contemporary homes that would include open spaces, landscaping and a community amenity that would include a swimming pool, cabana, fire pit, grilling station and, boat docks.

 “Until now, it was unmarketable due to lack of viability for commercial use and has remained vacant as an underperforming asset in the community,” Mote’s representative, Bruce Franklin, president of Land Resource Strategies LLC, wrote in a Nov. 1 letter to Mayor George Spoll.

“Clearly, this proposed use would be compatible with the residential neighborhood to the north and east and would yield substantially less traffic than commercial uses permitted in the permitted in the existing C-1 Zoning District.” Franklin wrote.

"We're supportive of the Mote project, as we were the last time. There is too much commercial on Longboat. The conversion to residential makes sense."

Pete Rowan of the group Keep Longboat Special, an organization that fought against density changes at the former Colony site, said his group would like to see the referendum pass in March.

"We're supportive of the Mote project, as we were the last time,'' he said. "There is too much commercial on Longboat. The conversion to residential makes sense."

To be clear, the referendum only sets into motion permission to up the residential density on the land -- from zero as it stands now to four units per acre. Town Commissioners must still OK the change from commercial to residential zoning. 

Residential, however, makes sense for the site, Bishop said. “We don’t want any commercial in that location,” she said.