What Town Center Green Becomes If Its Library Never Arrives

Today Longboat Key's Town Center Green is mostly lawn. It has an oval sidewalk, the Karon Family Pavilion bandshell, and a small building that houses the Longboat Key Historical Society. Publix, the tennis center, Town Hall and the Longboat Key Club surround it. On Saturday, Nov. 21, from 5 to 7 p.m., the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce brings Light Up Longboat to the Green, with food vendors, music, a tree lighting and prizes.

This year's lighting arrives at an unusual moment. The empty ground beside the Chase Bank and Publix parking lot was supposed to hold a Sarasota County library, with an outdoor terrace facing the bandshell. Most of the Green's future was planned around that building, including when its seasonal farmers market comes back. Now the building's future depends on a county decision that hasn't been made yet.

A Park Built in Stages, With the Library Saved for Last

The Green was never meant to be finished in one go. The Town of Longboat Key's project-cost sheet lays out the phases:

• Phase 1, completed 2020: clearing and grading for $854,000. The town paid for it with help from a $400,000 Sarasota County Community Redevelopment Grant.
• Phase 2, completed 2023: $1.5 million in town site work and park construction, plus an $800,000 outdoor performance stage paid for with private donations.
• The pavilion's naming: Paul and Sarah Karon pledged up to $500,000 to the Longboat Key Foundation for the stage in exchange for naming rights.
• The unveiling: the Karon Family Pavilion debuted at a Veterans Day event on Nov. 11, 2023.

The small building on the Green is older than all of it. The Historical Society works out of the former linen cottage from the Whitney Beach Resort, which was moved to the Green in 2021. After closing for the summer, it reopened this fall and is open to visitors Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you're coming for Saturday's lighting, the cottage will have closed hours earlier, so a midday visit that week has to be a separate trip.

The Observer's 2023 coverage of the pavilion unveiling was already looking ahead to the library. The lawn, the walkway and the bandshell were the setting. The library was meant to be the building that made it a full town center.

Approved on Nov. 2, Uncertain a Week Later

The library made it through every step the town controls. On Nov. 2, the Longboat Key Town Commission unanimously approved the development plan on second reading, with little discussion. The Observer reported that the planned unit development agreement carries seven conditions, which Town Planning Manager Elma Glisson called standard. They include following town code and FEMA rules and having a licensed surveyor verify open space and lot coverage. Commissioners also approved an 18-foot setback change so the building's larger footprint would fit. Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman said Chase Bank and Publix had raised no objections.

The larger footprint came from the community. The plan had Sarasota County budgeting $11 million and the town adding $4 million in private donations, including $1 million pledged by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, for whom the library will be named. The fundraising campaign, led by the town and the Longboat Key Foundation, added the expanded meeting space and the outdoor terrace to the original design.

Then on Election Day, voters approved Amendment 3, a state constitutional change that expands the homestead exemption and reduces property tax revenue for local governments. Before the vote, Sarasota County leaders had said the Longboat library would be cancelled before construction began if the measure passed. At a budget workshop, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis told commissioners the revenue gap could be about $87 million.

The county still hasn't voted on the library. In its Nov. 9 report, the Observer quoted Town Manager George Landry:

"Until they actually put it on the agenda for their board to ratify a decision on what's on the table, it's not technically dead yet."

According to the same report, the town has asked the county when it plans to take formal action so town officials can be there for the discussion. State Sen.-elect James Buchanan, who supported the amendment, said he wants to talk with town and county leaders about how the library could still go forward.

Manatee County has already decided about its own project on the island. In the Manatee County section of Longboat Key, plans to build or fund a north-end community center are off. Manatee County Commission Chair Tal Siddique told the Observer, "We're absolutely going to cut (the community center) and a few other things." Sarasota County hasn't made a similar statement about the Green, so the library is still pending.

The Market That Paused for a Library

The farmers market shows how much of the Green's calendar depends on the library. The Market on Longboat Key had set up on the Green since 2022 under organizer Nancy Ambrose. It was scheduled to start Dec. 1, 2025, and run through peak season into April. The Observer reported that it was cancelled for the 2025-26 season.

The library played a role. Ambrose told the Observer that organizers had expected no market that year because of library construction, and only learned over the summer that the market could go ahead. By then, the season's permits and liability insurance were due Nov. 1, and many vendors had signed up with markets that met more often and were easier to reach than one on the island. She said a market needs about 60 vendors to look and feel like a market.

The town also tied the market's return to the library. That story said any new market would have to wait until construction was finished, and Brownman said "the event may revive after the library and community hall project comes to fruition in the future." Until the county decides, the market's return has no date either.

How the Green Was Planned to Hold a Crowd

The parking study shows how much use the town expected the Green to get. The Observer's Oct. 14 parking report said the 78 existing parking spaces east of the Green are already double the 39 town code requires for the library's day-to-day use. For events drawing hundreds of people, a survey counted 603 off-site spaces at the Mediterranean Plaza, the post office, nearby churches, banks and the tennis center that could be used with the lot owners' permission. For anything bigger than those 681 combined spaces, Planning, Zoning and Building Director Allen Parsons said busing people in or another way of adding parking would be needed. The seventh condition of the Nov. 2 approval covers parking for special events at the library.

Planning for crowds of hundreds assumes a town center that draws them. Light Up Longboat, which the Chamber's event listing calls "always a crowd favorite," and the free art festival in February already test the Green that way, with only the lawn and the bandshell to work with.

The Season Ahead, On and Off the Green

These events start after this post goes live. Listings come from the organizers' own calendars, so check with them before you go.

The Chamber's listing names sponsorship levels of $75, $150 and $300 for Light Up Longboat but doesn't list a general admission price. The Festival of the Arts brings the Green's biggest crowd of the winter, and it lands right at peak season. Details are on the ArtFestival.com event page.

When the tree lights up Saturday, it will stand on a lawn the town has spent six years and several million dollars of public and private money building. The terrace that was supposed to face the bandshell is still a drawing, and its fate depends on a vote Sarasota County hasn't scheduled. The Observer's Longboat Key coverage is the best place to watch for that agenda item.

If you'd like to talk through how projects like this one shape life and property on Longboat Key, Adnan Dedic follows them closely. Let's Connect.