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Longboat Key’s Planning, Zoning and Building staff will continue revising proposed changes in the town s rules for sea turtle protection, aiming for a final vote on July 2, the Town Commission s last planned meeting before the summer break.
Cyndi Seamon made a turtle nest in summer 2020. Photo Credit: Nat Kaemmerer
Commissioners talked about the rules for about 90 minutes on Monday before putting off the ordinance s final vote. If passed, the changes wouldn’t take effect until the 2022 turtle season, which runs each year from May 1-Oct. 31.
Specifically, commissioners wanted the ordinance to clarify what specifically a “turtle-friendly light bulb” means. The proposed ordinance says they are bulbs that are certified by the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or a bulb that produces only long-wavelength light, which is 560 nanometers or longer.
For years, Longboat Key leaders have tried to figure out solutions for north-end residents’ complaints about loud music from boats moored around Jewfish Key and north-end beaches.
This spring, the issue has arisen again, along with the volume and residents’ frustration levels. Town commissioners have heard complaints over the past few weeks from residents over what they insist is an untenable situation, particularly on weekends. Still, town leaders insist, there is no simple solution.
A Lands End Drive resident took this picture of fireworks coming from a boat on April 16.
“It’s noisy. It’s obnoxious,” resident James Haft said. “Two weekends ago, there was a particular boat that had an all-weekend rage party going on [that] kept the whole neighborhood up Friday night [with] disco lights and the stereo so loud that our windows were shaking in the house.”
With the rustling palms and soft music that now fills the space, it’s hard to imagine that just a couple years ago, there was an abandoned eyesore of a gas station where Whitney’s now stands proudly welcoming visitors to the north end of Longboat Key.
“(My business partner and I) said we wanted to make it half as good as the original renderings,” owner James Brearley said. “Now we look at the renderings and say, ‘We think it’s better.’”
James Brearley pulled out old renderings of the building.
Residents of the north end, organized in the LBK North group, decided to recognize the beautification with the Good Neighbor Award. Laurel Phillips, one of the leaders of LBK North, presented the award to Brearley on April 22.
8 hours ago Share State transportation officials begin hearing from residents on an approach to take in replacing or fixing up the Longboat Pass bridge.
It will take years for the Florida Department of Transportation to replace the Longboat Pass Bridge, if ever. But those long-term possibilities, outlined recently at a public forum, haven’t stopped north-end Longboat Key residents from offering their perspectives on what they’d like to see.
Drayton Saunders owns the landmark property at 7300 Gulf of Mexico Drive, overlooking the drawbridge from the east.
“My primary concern is about [the] right-of-way, the impact to our property and any chance it downgrades the value and kind of condition of us being a homeowner next to that bridge,” he said. No further financing or planning is in place.