- August 12, 2026
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The pipe dream is now a pipe fantasy.
With the city of Sarasota’s latest batch of changes to its comprehensive plan, any hopes of a bridge from Sarasota to Longboat Key could essentially flatline.
“It means that it’s not even a consideration for the city of Sarasota,” said Longboat Key Commissioner BJ Bishop.
That’s because policy 6.8 of the transportation chapter of the city’s Comprehensive Plan will likely be nixed. City commissioners, in a 3-2 vote, approved of several changes to the transportation chapter of the Comprehensive Plan at a commission meeting Aug. 3. Those changes will be submitted to the state of Florida for review, and then will return to the city for final approval.
The transportation chapter was last updated nine years ago, said Sarasota Chief Transportation Planner Alvimarie Corales.
“Since then, many of the referenced plans, laws, regulations and local priorities have evolved,” Corales said. “This update ensures the chapter reflects current requirements while providing a modern framework to guide future transportation decisions.”
Public comment on the transportation chapter amendments was lively, with several objecting to the proposed changes in the plan. Independent Florida Senate candidate Martin Hyde described the transportation chapter changes as developer-friendly alterations that would increase traffic and continue the trend of increased gridlock in the city.
“In the middle of the dog days of summer on a work day when the obvious hope is nobody is watching, an important issue is being hidden in plain sight,” Hyde said. “This development-driven idea is a direct contradiction to public opinion.”
Policy 6.8 was titled “additional access serving Longboat Key,” and described city planning support for “an additional bridge to connect Longboat Key to the mainland in order to relieve traffic congestion on the John Ringling Causeway Bridge.”
The staff report that detailed the myriad changes to the city’s comprehensive plan explained the reason for the deletion of the policy.
“The City does not currently support planning for an additional bridge connection to Longboat Key, and such a project would require regional consensus, environmental review, and funding beyond the City’s authority,” the report reads. “Retaining this policy could create unrealistic expectations and conflict with current transportation and resiliency planning priorities.”
Bishop didn’t anticipate a bridge would ever actually be built directly from the mainland to Longboat Key, but said she hoped there would be more communication from the city regarding the deletion of policies that impact and mention neighboring jurisdictions.
“The disappointment was that the city of Sarasota’s planning staff did not reach out to Longboat planning staff to say we are looking at this and it impacts you all,” Bishop said, adding the time of the vote was also disappointing. “I don’t know if that’s because they’ve certainly been through a lot of disruption of not having a city manager and going through several interims and now having a new city manager who just came in when this plan was well down the road.”
Policy 6.2 was also deleted. The policy was an interlocal agreement for transportation on barrier islands. Longboat Key Planning Manager Elma Glisson wrote in an email to the commission that “because the policy specifically referenced the Town, consultation regarding its removal would have been beneficial. Although the policy was never implemented through an interlocal agreement, coordination on amendments affecting shared planning objectives remains consistent.”
City of Sarasota Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich wrote in an email the Comprehensive Plan was not the right place for the two policies and the city will reach out to Longboat Key in the future on transportation coordination.
“The interlocal agreement regarding barrier island transportation issues and a bridge to LBK are better suited as regional efforts that look at environmental issues, regional consensus, and funding beyond the authority of the city,” Ohlrich wrote. “Now that the City Commission has agreed to remove these components from the comprehensive plan discussion will begin with LBK about a regional approach to these issues.”
Bishop said regional planning through the Metropolitan Planning Organization does not suffice as a replacement to interlocal coordination. Bishop called the proposed removal of that policy as disturbing.
“Anything that the city of Sarasota does specifically to St. Armands or the Causeway that runs between St. Armands and the Ringling Bridge has a tremendous impact on Longboat Key residents. One of the things that was concerning in the overall discussion of their transportation plan is their staff is hoping to slow traffic down so that people will get out of their cars and bicycle or use public transportation or walk more,” Bishop said. “For LBK residents, the average age being 72, walking or riding a bike to get to doctors or the hospital in the city of Sarasota is not a reasonable or practical plan.”
