The best laid plans of mice and men

Commissioner Duncan is now advocating a long-range 25-year plan for our community. I guess he is saying that we need to follow his plan if we ever want to see our community prosper again. Unfortunately, none of us will be around to see if he was right. As justification for his call for long-term planning, Commissioner Duncan states " the town has to look no further than the current state of the island’s deterioration, in the form of aging shopping centers and foreclosed homes."

I do not disagree with Commissioner Duncan that our residents and town government need to become more pro-active in maintaining all aspects of our community. We differ is tactics and strategies.

Commissioner Duncan uses the community center as a focal point in his discussion and appears to be advocating a community dialog, whereas Commissioner Brown appears to feel that he and his fellow commissioners are the only people who need to be involved in both the design and the method of financing a community center. I prefer Commissioner Duncan's more inclusive approach. Commissioner Duncan raises the question if we even need a community center. A few weeks ago I proposed re-purposing unoccupied commercial property as a community center, both to test the waters for a need for a center, without committing the community to yet more bonds, and alleviating the glut of empty commercial buildings on the island. We could also have a community center up and running before the coming season. I do not see any downside to this idea.

It has now been 18 months since the current commission assumed power and assured our community that they would solve all the problems left unresolved by their predecessors. I believe the phrase "fix town hall" was used at one point. I do not see that anything has transpired since then. Actually, it looks like we have actually slipped further behind. The Key Club expansion has experienced one setback after another during the 2.5 years since the KC hearings first began. I remember the town attorney saying that he and the town planning staff would resolve any lingering questions in a couple of weeks. That was long ago and the most recent missive from the town attorney, concerning referendums, portends of even longer delays. I have always advocated a responsible rejuvenation of the Key Club since it is is an attractive and classy part of our community. The KC helps us stand out as an affluent retirement community. Unfortunately, the Loeb group chose an uncompromising political solution that has become a statutory and legal quagmire, with no end in sight, inspite of the town attorney's repeated assurances that everything will be OK any day now. The commission should have prevailed upon Loeb to come up with a viable project. They did not and a majority of the commissioners still press forward with their grand design for us all without paying any attention to the economic and legal realities that surround them.

Some of the actions by our commissioners, including what I believe to be unfortunate exchanges between commission members and residents who are experts in the area of land use, seem to be leading our town towards becoming a poster child for a possible future Florida Harris Act ordeal.

Commissioner Duncan is quite correct in his assessment that commercial property is deteriorating on Longboat and that more and more homes are coming onto the market. It would be nice to counter his appraisal with some good news. However, the longer our country sinks into economic decline, the more people will hit the wall, and be forced to unload the economic burden of a second home that they only used a few months a year. This is an economic reality for a seasonal retirement community. No amount of long-range planning will alter the course of events. Commissioner Duncan decries employing tactics where he feels long-range strategies are needed. I disagree. When the house is on fire it is not the time to look into pension plan alternatives with the fire fighters union. We need to take more immediate measures to improve our community image and to attract the baby boomers to buy here instead of Anna Maria Island or The Villages in central Florida.

I have written several columns about what I believe we need to do to improve our market position and that does not include still more hand-picked committees of head-bobbers to rubber stamp the ideological beliefs of the current people in power. I wish the current people in power were more effective than they have been over the past 18 months. From failed referendum votes to a stalled Key Club project, to failing to look at the root cause of our failing commercial real estate, there's a lot of smoke and a lot of rhetoric and little else.

The realities of the national and global economics cannot be solved by strategies, no matter how well-meaning. No one knows what socio-economic conditions will prevail twenty years from now or even next year. We need to be nimble and seek solutions for tomorrow not after we are all dead and gone.

One place we need to start looking is in the area of retail real estate. Remember we have enough retail real estate to support a community of 75,000 people. We actually have fewer than 8,000 averaged over the year. If people want to have the commercial tail wag the dog, then we will need to tear down a lot of older two astory condominiums to make way for tall buildings that will house 75,000 people on a year-round basis. That most likely means tourists, since our current residents don't stick around after April. If we manage to get 75,000 people to stay on Longboat during the hot season, than we will have an economic base to support the present commercial real estate property, and I guarantee we will have terrific traffic jams every day. Of course, we will need new water, sewer and electric services along with a solution to the impediments of the Circle and Bradenton Beach. I already know people who prefer to live on Anna Maria rather than fight the traffic at the Cortez Road light in Bradenton Beach.

Short of accomplishing all the above, there is simply too much land on this island zoned commercial. If Publix does decide to fully develop their land at Avenue of the Flowers, that will draw customers away from the Center Shops and any future for the new mega Whitney Plaza. One can only divide a pie so many ways before everyone goes hungry.

We need good news now. We need a community center now, not years from now. A lot of delay and strife will occur if the commissioners attempt to force an unpopular tax burden on the voters, before we even know if the people will support a community center. Keep in mind that the proposed town budget shows a deep cut in funding for recreational activities. Let's use common sense not theoretical strategies and lets get moving and get something accomplished. There has been too much posturing and not enough actual improvements over the past 18 months.

See picture at: http://lbk-folk.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men.html

Collateral Damage

(Key Club Project Model)

Bank of America recently sold the Grand Mariner to investors at about one third the original construction loan and after the project sat idle for several years. The original investors, in their zeal to optimize their investment, proposed a project that sailed too close to what was allowed by the town's codes and ordinances and a suit ensued. Eventually, the Grand Mariner developer declared bankruptcy. There is no blame here, only financial loss and missed opportunities. Perhaps if the planning and zoning board had applied the town codes more strictly things might have turned out better for the developer.

Land use suites have been lodged against the town by several developers and residents. My experience only goes back to the mid 80s when the Klauber suit cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million dollars. That loss actually shows up in your utility bill today since the utility fund was used to pay the plaintiff.  There was collateral damage stemming from the Klauber suit in the form of about 70 upscale resort/spa suites, with overflow from the spa into surrounding hotels and motels, that were never built. Instead we gained a few more condominiums that are occupied perhaps a month or two a year. Klauber's resort/spa might have become another island hallmark similar to the Colony. We will never know. But we do know that if the project had been completed there would now be around 70 more tourist units to support local businesses.

The collateral damages from the failure of Klauber's resort/spa, and other projects such as the Grand Mariner, the Poseidon and even the proposed house on Longboat Drive North are twofold. First, the vitally needed redevelopment of older properties is impeded. Second, and perhaps a more important consequence of land use suites, is that the the suites may discourage future developers from venturing onto our island. Each time a developer or a resident files a suit against the town for perceived grievances, our stature as a stable, developed community with well founded codes and ordinances may be diminished. Additionally, perspective home buyers may begin to shy away from purchasing property in a community where developers are able to compromise existing property values with the help of a developer-friendly town government.

I am not questioning that the suites I am referencing were necessary or that the outcomes were not just. I am simply saying that if a different course of events had occurred we might now have more tourist units and new luxury condominiums in our community. The suites I am referring to involve actions by the town in land use applications. The town has an unfortunate record in court for those town government actions that displeased developers or residents enough to go to court.

I see the Key Club expansion project as perhaps the best example of how things might have been different. Many people in our community believed that if the Key Club and IPOC could have reached an amicable arrangement, we would not now be witnessing a protracted litigation that will certainly delay the proposed project. Instead our town attorneys and commission decided that it was more to their liking to accept the Key Club proposal in toto, even if it plunged the project into a succession of lawsuits and government interventions. It may come to pass that the Loeb Partners reach a decision to withdraw the project just because of the specter of more and more legal costs and lengthy delays. The current commission and the town attorney appear intent in fashioning some sort of revisionist version of what existed when the Key Club began its tortuous journey through quasi-judicial proceedings. Only the courts will decide if what the commission is currently doing can be substituted for what existed when the commission passed the Key Club expansion plan.

For the commission and the town attorney it seems all to possible for them to legislate their dreams. But they may find that at the end of all the court proceedings, it might have been easier to change the past.

Just as when an 80s commission asked Ms. Stroud about the Klauber suite, and if they had the right to revoke Klauber's building permit, Ms. Stroud has assured the current commission that they have the right and the power to take things into their own hands, this time to rewrite the codes and the comprehensive plan to suite the developer. We will have to wait to see if the courts agree with Ms. Stroud this time.

As for the Key Club proposal, I do not recall any other time in my life when I have witnessed a public entity being paid by a developer for its services on behalf of the developer. I am personally very uncomfortable with the financial arrangements in what to me looks just like a pay-to-play government deal. Let's hope there is not too much collateral damage this time.