- May 6, 2026
-
-
Loading
Loading
At Longboat Key’s Monday Town Commission meeting, the main event was removed from the agenda, leading to the early departure by some in the crowd.
“If you’re here to hear the items 6C and 6D on the agenda regarding the St. Regis sign, they have withdrawn the application, so you’re welcome to stay, but if that’s what you’re here for, you’re also welcome to have your afternoon free and go off and do something fun,” Mayor Debra Williams said. “You are welcome to come up and speak if you want.”
There was no public comment on the subject Monday. The topic has been discussed at length in previous meetings as developers of St. Regis have made a push to alter the town’s sign code to allow a stainless steel arch the St. Regis Longboat Key resort had installed on a private groin extending into the Gulf. Town leaders claim the arch violates the town’s sign code, but Unicorp President Chuck Whittall and legal counsel claim the town doesn’t have jurisdiction over Gulf waters and that a permit issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the arch is all the permission they needed.
Last Thursday, the lawyer for St. Regis developer Unicorp, Brenda Patten, sent an email to Town Commission requesting continuances on the two ordinances that would allow the sign, writing that Unicorp and the St. Regis are “reexamining their options regarding the sign and whether a sign code amendment is necessary.”
The request for continuance comes after the town’s Planning and Zoning board recommended denial of the ordinances.
About 80 minutes after Williams said the issue had been removed from the agenda, town leaders discussed next steps in the St. Regis arch saga, noting that a continuance was not granted and the issue looks be headed to court.
“It’s a sad day, really,” said Town Commissioner Gary Coffin. “That it’s come to this is a shame. I thought there would be more cooperation between them and the town.”
Town Attorney Maggie Mooney told commissioners that Town Manager Howard Tipton has given the St. Regis a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday, May 8 to bring the arch into compliance.
“We laid out two paths. One was allow the text amendment to go through and see how that played out. The other was pursue enforcement to take it down, to bring it into compliance. Without following the path forward on the text amendment because that was withdrawn today, we still have a structure that is non compliant with our town code,” Mooney said to the Commission. “If it is not brought into compliance by that date and time, then we need to talk about options.”
That deadline will not be met, Unicorp President Chuck Whittall signified.
“We’re not going to take the sign down at this point in time,” Whittall said. “We don’t want to give away any legal strategy, but we think the town is looking at this incorrectly and if they take us to court we’ll see what our options are and see where it goes.”
That will likely be district court. Mooney recommended that the Town Commission enter into an engagement agreement with the law firm Garcia Dell to represent the town in any potential litigation.
“This would be to pursue litigation and engage (attorney Martin Garcia)’s services to force the structure to be taken down by the property owner,” Mooney said. “So I am asking for the commission to authorize that engagement agreement and litigation in the event that structure is not brought into compliance by the deadline set by the town manager.”
If the sign is not removed, Mooney said the town would elect to skip the special magistrate hearing and take the matter straight to district court.
“Given that they have asserted before that they don’t think we have jurisdiction, we could go to a special magistrate hearing, we can argue they’re in violation of the code and they can argue we don’t have jurisdiction and we can argue, oh yes we do,” Mooney said. “At the end of the day, someone is going to be unhappy because the magistrate would rule one way or the other. Then one of us would appeal to the district court.”
