St. Regis Arch
To: Editor
I entirely concur with Chuck Whittall on why the St. Regis arch should not only be permitted it should be embraced! There are many examples of great hotels in Europe, like the Carlton Cannes which have made virtues of their iconic pier arches..
* They’re stylish and distinctive.
* They can be a memorable and romantic place to meet.
* They are a focal point and a frame for photos
* And yes, the tasteful St. Regis Longboat Key Arch will almost certainly become another iconic place where memories are created.
To suggest that it’s ’Jersey Shore’ is silly and uninformed.
Michael R Williams-Jones
Longboat Key
St. Regis Arch
To: Longboat Key Mayor Debbie Williams
Congratulations on earning the deserved respect of your colleagues and your election as Mayor.
I recall when I first met you and learned of your earlier community service talking up the need for good people to have interest in Longboat’s government. I take no credit in your local career other than saying I knew you when.
With regard to the efforts of Mr. Whittall and Ms. Patten to continue to argue for the St. Regis wedding arch, I am as far removed from being a fan of this structure as there can be. Aesthetics are subjective. The best I can say for the arch is it is dumb, unsightly and unneeded. And basically installed in knowing contravention of the rules on the Town. The maneuver of having a State agency “approve” it was a neat but transparent workaround and as such offends me in its disrespect for the Commission and staff. Because a property owner (or President) wants something, or likes something, or thinks it’s neat is no reason for the Town to contort itself trying to shoehorn it in. The fact that it exists currently is meaningless as far as rules are concerned. There are regulations, laws and ordinances for reasons. The time to challenge is in advance, not after presenting the governing body with a fait accompli. In this case, the Planning Commission got it right and the Commission should take their guidance.
Lest anyone think I have some grudge against Mr. Whittall or his legal team, during the years of his working his proposal through the Town, I had many meetings with him (always with a witness by my side) and don’t recall a cross word in our discussions which were all held at his request.
Indeed I was Mayor at the two March 2018 hearings that gave the important initial plan approval to the St. Regis. I always found Chuck reasonable and rational, combined with the reach-for-the-stars mindset common and perhaps needed by successful developers. When compromise was called for on his part, he realistically was cooperative. Ms. Patten was always professional and very good to work with. I’m disappointed in her having gone forward with the initial side step and the continuing arguments, but I realize she is representing her client.
I wouldn’t characterize this as a hill anyone need “die” on, but I would ask Mr. Whittall if the success of the St. Regis, including wedding bookings is existentially tied to a piece of metal no prospective bride ever expressed disappointment to the Town or anyone else to our knowledge by not having such a thing out on the water. Please, Chuck. It’s an unneeded edifice and an unneeded battle. I hope for you to be a key corporate citizen for decades to come. Why sully the memory of all you will contribute going forward with this fight.
Terry Gans
California
St. Regis Arch
To: Terry Gans
Thank you so much for your thoughtful note and kind words. I appreciate you expressing your perspective, which is helpful given your past experience and involvement. The commission will consider yours and other comments we receive when the matter comes before us. Thank you again for your email. Please give my best regards to Diane.
Debra Williams
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Participation in Saturdays cleanup
To: Longboat Key Commissioner BJ Bishop
Hi, BJ. Yes, a similar instruction sheet has been sent to all the area churches. I’m trying to coordinate the cleanup, so I really need to know who’s coming; or at least how many to expect!
Jason Brandt
Longboat Key
Participation in Saturdays cleanup
To: Jason Brandt
Mr. Brandt – we have registered through our church. Have you shared your notes with the other religious organizations participating?
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
Participation in Saturdays cleanup
To: Allyne and Bob Zorn
Thank you for your interest in the clean-up of Gulf of Mexico Drive as part of the Faith-250 weekend! Please see the attached sheet for important information. Any additional questions can be directed to me.
Jason Brandt
Longboat Key
Participation in Saturdays cleanup
To: Allyne and Bob Zorn
Thanks! Will send this afternoon.
Jason Brandt
Longboat Key
Participation in Saturdays cleanup
To: Jason Brandt
My husband and I plan to attend. Can you send us the information we need? Thank you.
Allyne and Bob Zorn
Longboat Key
To: Longboat Key Commissioner BJ Bishop
Thanks Commissioner Bishop. Staff spoke to the contractor at the house once again. The barrels are protecting a dangerous gap between the bike path and the driveway waiting on the asphalt to be replaced. We’ve requested a timeline and will follow up through the Town Manager when we have that.
Allen Parsons
Director Planning, Zoning & Building Department
Town of Longboat Key
St. Regis Owner Fights for Wedding Arch
To: Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Director Allen Parsons
The cones are still blocking the bike lane on GMD by the large house being built south of the mobile home residences. This continues to be a serious safety issue for cyclists. The cement was poured 3 weeks ago – there does not appear to be a reason to maintain this safety hazard.
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
St. Regis Owner Fights for Wedding Arch
To: Longboat Key Commissioner BJ Bishop
Thanks Commissioner Bishop. The St. Regis is still operating under a TCO. The $200K donation is one of the requirements of receiving a CO. The developer is aware of this requirement and has indicated it will be paid prior to the CO.
No plans have been submitted for pickleball/tennis courts. The developer has been advised not to submit additional plan revisions until a CO is received. The potential pickleball/tennis courts will require a PUD amendment & public hearing approval.
Allen Parsons
Planning and Zoning Director
Town of Longboat Key
St. Regis Owner Fights for Wedding Arch
To: Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Director Allen Parsons
This article states the St. Regis is building tennis and pickleball courts. Do they have a CO yet? Have they filed plans for these courts? They promised $200k to address the absence of courts to the town. Has that money been received?
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
February Tourism Numbers from Visit Sarasota County
To: Longboat Key Commissioner Gary Coffin
Research that includes occupancy, average daily rate, and economic impact usually runs about a month behind. So we should have March stats from our 3rd party research vendor (Downs and St. Germain) by the end of April. I’ll share when I have them.
Attached is the snapshot we were able to pull from Zartico for Q2 for LBK. It also includes some PR highlights.
Let me know if you have any questions (Jess, CC’d, is best to answer any detailed questions for Zartico).
Erin Duggan
President/CEO
Visit Sarasota
February Tourism Numbers from Visit Sarasota County
To: Visit Sarasota CEO Erin Duggan
Erin, do you have the numbers for March Longboat Key at this point?
Gary Cofin
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
February Tourism Numbers from Visit Sarasota County
To: Longboat Key Commission
To kick off your weekend with a smile, we’d like to share a recap of a recent satellite media tour Visit Sarasota County hosted at Mote SEA to showcase this fantastic new attraction in addition to raising information on other offerings in our community such as Nathan Benderson Park and the UTC Shopping Center.
You’ll see in the video that Kevin Cooper, Bruce Patneaude, and Julie Fanning did a fantastic job representing our community.
This satellite media tour is just one example of how we work with media from around the World to tell the various stories of Sarasota County.
I’m also attaching a public relations recap for February and March to give you an idea for all of the various ways we work with media to tell the amazing stories of our community.
(And remember, you can always “pitch us” story ideas by emailing PitchUs@VisitSarasota.com.)
Here are tourism numbers for Sarasota County comparing 2026 to 2025:
Visitors were 101,400 compared to 105,800 in 2025
Visitor direct expenditures were $174,735,600 compared to $180,328,600 in 2025
Lodging occupancy was 80.5% compared to 84.1% in 2025
Lodging average room rate was $361.06 compared to $335.68 in 2025
There were 317,900 room nights sold compared to 330,700 in 2025
A few additional notes about this month:
Visitation decreased year-over-year in February 2026 (-4.2%), resulting in a decrease in direct spending (-3.1%).
Combined room rates increased (+7.6%), and occupancy decreased (-4.3%) year-over-year, resulting in an increase in RevPAR (+3.0%).
Changes in hotel metrics followed a similar pattern: Hotel room rates increased year-over-year (+9.9%), and hotel occupancy decreased (-2.0%), resulting in an increase in hotel RevPAR (+7.7%).
VR room rates increased (+5.2%), and occupancy decreased (-6.4%), resulting in a decrease in VR RevPAR (-1.6%).
International regions continue to experience significant year-over-year decreases in visitation.
As always, do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or want to share with us your successes or challenges!
And…congratulations to Siesta Key Beach for being chosen as Best Vacations by U.S. News and World Report for 2026!
Erin Duggan
President/CEO
Visit Sarasota
St. Armands Handout
To: Longboat Key Town Manager Howard Tipton
Tip You know how I feel about just being there, and I think you’re spot on with that. I’m very sorry I was not able to make it. I’m very happy to hear about the low-lying area in front of the Sarasota Yacht Club being part of the Coon Key Bridge improvement, this area has been a mess for the past 40 years. Thanks for this update.
Gary Coffin
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
St. Armands Handout
To: Longboat Key Commission
This is the handout from last night’s St. Armands workshop. Several points to note from the community feedback discussion:
Resiliency – Lido beach nourishment project is finishing up this month, and dune rebuilding will happen this fall.
Concerns about stormwater infrastructure maintenance and readiness for even a heavy rain event.
Concern shared about the aging water and wastewater infrastructure.
Concern shared about options for flood protection and the complexity of the issues that provide no simple answers (i.e. – water coming up through the floors or from a neighboring store).
The drainage issues by the yacht club will be addressed with the little Ringling bridge replacement. Efforts to engage landlords and businesses to understand what’s holding them back from additional investments in St. Armands are in the works.
Lastly, the lesson of being present was (in my opinion) once again reinforced. The city had several commissioners there as well as a number of staff. The county didn’t have their stormwater director available and unfortunately only sent a lower level (non-technical) staff person to represent the department/county. That sent the signal, unintended as I’m sure it was, that St. Armands isn’t a high priority for the county. On important issues, being present often matters as much or more than the message being shared. My 2 cents anyway.
Howard N. Tipton
Town Manager
Town of Longboat Key
US Recycling
To: Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch
Jen and Ron, it looks like there is a new operator coming. I received a copy of a Warning Letter from this month for non-filing violations, sent to Freedom Estates. The representative on site refers to a new owner. I don’t know whether Freedom Estates sold or will be leasing to a new operator. Activities continue on-site without a permit. DEP has received no response.
Justin Bloom
Sarasota
Request for Records
To: Justin Bloom
I sent you multiple emails on March 12 with 2026 documents and communications. The search results produced yesterday contained 2025 communications. There was a warning letter sent by certified mail last week that is relevant to your concerns. I’ve attached that. We have not received a response from the facility yet.
Rick Gillis
Senior Assistant General Counsel
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Dependent special district millage
To: Carl Shoffstall
I’ll call later this morning but I plan on attending the PREP meeting but I have an event at 4:30 p.m. and will only be able to stay for an hour.
Jen Ahearn-Koch
City Commissioner
City of Sarasota
Dependent special district millage
To: Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch
Please give me a call regarding our conservation. At tonight’s Prep board meeting we will be discussing this topic, I have tried several times to get a hold of Joe (city attorney) to come and speak at meeting tonight. I am hoping you can attend also.
Carl Shoffstall
Sarasota
Dependent special district millage
To: Sarasota City Attorney Joe Polzak
I reviewed s. 200.065 which governs the fixing of annual millage rates, and the FDOR Trim Handbook. I’m attaching a couple excerpted pages from the handbook. The millage caps are based on the taxes levied by the city plus all of its dependent special districts. So in a given year, the rolled back rate will be based on all tax levies by the city and each of its dependent special districts, and exceeding the aggregate rolled back rate is subject to voting requirements of 200.065 (rolled back rate or less is simple majority; exceeding rolled back rate by up to 10% requires two-thirds vote; higher than that requires unanimous vote).
At the millage hearing, cities with dependent special districts can approve the millages for all the districts with a single unanimous vote.
Christopher Roe
City Attorney
City of Sarasota
Parking code
To: Sarasota Interim City Manager Jennifer Jorgensen
Thanks for this. I’m not convinced that a close reading of SB180 would prohibit us from requiring that a certain portion of the parking be accessible to residents’ guests. Joe will be looking into this.
A new wrinkle introduced by Steve’s email: if street parking adjacent to a residential tower is counted towards their parking requirement, does that preclude us from imposing parking fees and/or time restrictions?
Debbie Trice
Mayor
City of Sarasota
Parking code
To: Sarasota City Mayor Debbie Trice
I am a little behind on forwarding email, yikes! Sorry about the delay on this. Please see below some information Steve put together for Dave earlier this year regarding some of the questions you had on guest parking within our current zoning code. We can keep talking with Joe Polzak and Steve on needed changes and how that will be affected by SB 180, which will sunset in 2027 if not extended.
Jennifer Jorgensen
Interim City Manager
City of Sarasota
Parking code
To: Sarasota City Manager Dave Bullock
Currently, the zoning code does not differentiate between residential and guest parking standards. Introducing this distinction would currently conflict with SB 180. Additionally, in the downtown, on-street parking along the corresponding frontage is permitted to count toward required parking (see below). This standard may reduce available on-street parking but removing it would also create another conflict with SB 180.
Steve Cover
Director of Planning
City of Sarasota
Parking code
To: Sarasota City Director of Planning Steven Cover
Required parking is not specific to providing visitors/workers therefore they end up parking on the street and the visitors and workers parking spots are often empty. What code changes are needed to make sure empty spaces are used by those in the building. Hopefully that makes sense.
Dave Bullock
City Manager
City of Sarasota
