Landscaping work planned on Bay Isles Road

Saltwater tolerant plants will be used on the medians, and the project is expected to wrap up in time for the Fourth of July parade.

By S.T. Cardinal
| 4:30 p.m. March 30, 2026

The white shell median on Bay Isles Road near Town Hall will be refreshed in a landscaping project set to wrap up before Independence Day.

Longboat Key
News

Bay Isles Road needs some sprucing up.

The road that Town Hall, the Public Tennis Center, the post office, a church, a synagogue, a bank and a commercial complex surround has multiple island medians.

At the moment, they’re not the prettiest sight. Closest to Town Hall, a long, bending median features only white shells in it. The median that Bay Isles Road loops around by the church and synagogue is filled with dry, dying oaks, palmetto bushes and unmanicured sabal palms grouped together in an unflattering mish-mash.

That’s all set to change as the town prepares to refresh the medians with new plantings. Public Works Director Charlie Mopps said the Bay Isles Road landscaping project should be completed before the Fourth of July.

“That’s out to bid right now,” Mopps said. “We’re hoping to open it up in April and have construction done by the end of June. That way it’s all established and ready for the July Fourth parade.”

Town Manager Howard Tipton said the Bay Isles landscaping work will be one of the final town-completed repairs from the 2024 hurricanes.

“This is our last piece,” Tipton said. “There’s still some work at Durante Park that needs to be done, but we’re going to wait on some of that because that’s also where the subaqueous project is going to start and we don’t want to put stuff in and have it all trampled. But mostly when we get those pieces done, we’ll be back to normal.”

The oval median at Bay Isles Road will be refreshed in a landscaping project that will uproot the unkempt plants in the median.

The cost for the project was not shared at press time. Tipton said funds saved from the Quick Point Nature Preserve repairs would be used to pay for the Bay Isles landscaping project.

“We have a budget for the project and that’s how we’re able to go out to bid, but it’s based on what was left over from the Quick Point recovery effort,” Tipton said. “We thought our budget for that was a little robust, so we anticipated some savings.”

Salt-tolerance

Longboat Key is surrounded by saltwater, and that saltwater often makes its way onto landscaping during high storm surge events or through irrigation systems. Town Manager Howard Tipton said saltwater tolerant plants would be used on Bay Isles Road.

“One of the things that we try to talk about is making sure if we’re replanting, plant with salt-tolerant plants. We saw so many of the plants that were burned with the saltwater, and that’s a real thing,” Tipton said. “If we’re in an area that may flood, then really look at what can accommodate the saltwater.”

There are many types of plants that can withstand damage from salt. Some coastal Florida friendly plants include the following, according to University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences:

Beach sunflower
Railroad vine
Muhly grass
Sea oats
Cabbage palms
Hibiscus
Plumeria
Spider lilly

author

S.T. Cardinal

S.T. "Tommy" Cardinal is the Longboat Key news reporter. The Sarasota native earned a degree from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a minor in environmental studies. In Central Florida, Cardinal worked for a monthly newspaper covering downtown Orlando and College Park. He then worked for a weekly newspaper in coastal South Carolina where he earned South Carolina Press Association awards for his local government news coverage and photography.