The Final Solution at the North End

Foot bridge over Bishop's Bayou at north end park

What to do at the north end to solve the failed commercial blight that has been becoming increasingly worse over the past twenty years. The time has come for the town to work with the taxpayers to create a solution that will allow the surrounding 500 residences to coalesce as a neighborhood, free of the specter of an abandoned Whitney Plaza, gas station and bank building. The taxpaying north end residents are not able to support retail at the north end for many reasons. Longboat Key residents need to realize that there is 3 times more commercial property on Longboat Key than the 3000+ year-round residents can support. Some of this land needs to be converted to residential or public use. The north end, with its concentration of 500+ residences within a few minutes walk from Whitney Plaza, is the most advantageous place to create a community park that will have high usage by the surrounding homes while raising property values and hopefully attracting more families.

A community park at Whitney Plaza and the adjacent properties would not require parking since 1000+ residents own property within a few minutes walk of the park facility. There is existing public parking across GMD if needed. The park could provide social activities such as Pickle Ball, Bacci Ball and shaded areas for socializing. Tables and chairs tastefully located beside the bayou would provide a beautiful ambiance while respecting the fragile ecology of the waterway and adjacent residences.

Visitors to our island would be greeted by an attractively landscaped natural setting as they come onto Longboat Key from the north. A community park would have zero impact on traffic congestion. If the town reduces the speed limit to 35 MPH along the northern part of GMD, as has been done quite effectively by Bradenton Beach, residents would be able to traverse the highway in relative safety.

Whatever efforts the town might make to encourage commercial development at the north end, two things would remain unresolved and prolong the present decay brought on by the inability of the business community to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The first is the predictable resistance by the 500+ residence owners surrounding Whitney Plaza to tourism, as it threatens their way of life. The second is the town's inability to guarantee that any developer will be willing to invest millions at a location with very low drive-by numbers, as has been pointed out by the current owners of Whitney Plaza. No one has been able to attract a successful business to Whitney Plaza in the past twenty years. 

There is a fix for the commercial property blight that has existed at the north end for too many years. It is a solution that would increase the value of the surrounding 500+ homes and condominiums while not increasing density or congestion - a community park.

Given the fiscal obligations the Town currently faces, such as resolution of pension funding and the much larger and ongoing beach maintenance program, finding a way to purchase the commercial properties at the north end would be no small challenge. An ad velorum bond could be one mechanism. Another might be a privately offered tax-free instrument to the current property owners, somewhat like an owner-financed mortgage.  But the projected tax base differential between the current decaying commercial land at the north end and a beautiful community park, that would augment the island's bucollic ambiance, would probably be more than enough to off-set the cost of a low interest mortgage on $6 million in land acquision costs. Please do not take issue with these estimates, they are just that, estimates. This is a discussion and open to constructive input.

There are so many pluses attached to turning the empty, decaying commercial property at the north end of Longboat into a beautiful community park, surrounded by 500+ residential properties, that a park almost looks too good to pass up. The aggregate value of residential real estate directly surrounding Whitney Plaza exceeds $200 million. Only a modest increase in assessed property values, as a result of added community amenities, would more than pay for the $6 million long-term low interest loans used to acquire the aproximately 8 acres of commercial land to be included in the community park.

The choice between taking a chance that some commercial development will occur at the north end after 25 years of nothing as the result of some sort of commercial overlay, or the assured increase in property values resulting from transforming deteriorating and non-performing commercial property into a highly desireable community park, is clear. In the long run, the taxpayers of Longboat Key would profit most from investing in their own community. All ships rise on the tide, it is said. Actually, the county should buy all the commercial property as they will profit most from increased ad velorem taxes.