- June 19, 2025
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There isn’t much free space available on Longboat Key, but town officials want to explore how to create a little more elbow room for various department employees.
Longboat Key officials hope to hire a consultant to perform a facility planning analysis to determine what upgrades the town needs to accommodate its 134 employees. Potential upgrades could include a new shared office building and a Public Works expansion.
Town Manager Howard Tipton said the town is recommending about $10,000 to be used in fiscal year 2026 for this study — a small price to pay, but one that could shed light on the town’s space needs.
“It’s not a big effort, but we want to be able to justify any of the costs that come up. Building out here is not cheap, especially when you have to elevate,” Tipton said. “Hopefully, the facility study that we want to do will help us nail down what the most optimum combination of things would be.”
In 1994, the town hired Maddox & Associates Architects to conduct a similar spatial study that led to new buildings like town hall, public works and the police department.
The buildings cost $2.1 million for town hall, $1.75 million for public works and $1.5 million for the police department. Those buildings opened between 2001 and 2003.
Now, Tipton said it’s time for another look at how the town can best use the space it has or build more.
“We want to design space for the long term,” Tipton said. “We want to design spaces that are going to give our team a workspace they can be proud of and help us be more efficient.”
One of the preliminary ideas Tipton shared after conversations with staff is a new building shared among departments like Information Technology, Human Resources and the Police Department.
And there’s already a spot in mind: the Longboat Library land.
It’s not a definitive choice yet, but Tipton said it could provide the opportunity to repurpose that building for town uses. The town owns the land and leases the building to the private Longboat Library, which will likely close in 2027 when the new Sarasota County library opens at the Town Center Green.
The Longboat Library is located at 555 Bay Isles Road, directly behind the Longboat Key Town Hall and the Planning, Zoning and Building Department building.
At the town’s first budget workshop on May 19, town staff presented an early estimate of $2.3 million for a new building with no specific fiscal year listing.
It’s possible a consulting firm may recommend rehabbing the current building, but Tipton said it would need some major upgrades, like an HVAC system for IT and some way to deal with flooding.
The IT Department is currently in the Planning, Zoning and Building Department. With a new office space, Tipton said the IT Department could move to the new building and give the PZB Department a little more elbow room.
Director of the Planning, Zoning and Building Department Allen Parsons doesn't think his department needs a whole new building, but said having a little more space could be beneficial where they could share among other departments.
"In conjunction with other needs the town has, we could definitely use the space," Parsons said.
Having more space in the PZB building could allow for more personable interactions, too, which could add to the town’s value of customer service.
“I think we could be more efficient, I think we can be more effective,” Tipton said. “And I think it has the ability to improve our customer service.”
Human Resources is another department that could benefit from some more space. It is now in the main town hall office area, but Tipton feels HR should have a more private office space when dealing with sensitive matters.
Tipton also sees the possibility of the Longboat Key Police Department using some of the space in a new building.
There was consideration to expand the police department, but funding fell through in 2024 and the plans were set aside. Tipton now doesn’t believe adding to the police department building is a smart move.
“Adding space to the police department building makes no sense,” Tipton said. “We have such limited parking and we need all of that. We can’t just take out 15 spaces for an expanded building.”
But the police personnel could use space, too, mainly for a new driving training simulator and other training exercises. For some training, Tipton said officers need to go off-island, which could take an officer off patrol for several hours in season.
Further north is the Public Works Department building on General Harris Street.
If he could, Tipton said he would go back and change the location of the building. General Harris is in one of the town’s lowest-lying areas, which proves challenging during rainy days and storms.
But that building could benefit from a little more space, too. Here, Tipton said an expansion makes more sense.
In 2001, the building's construction was complete and, to Tipton's knowledge, the original plans included a conference room and additional office space. The final plan nixed those rooms.
Based on previous experiences in other municipalities, Tipton said a Public Works Department thrives with a dedicated meeting space to plan out objectives, or a “war room.”
“I’ve never had a public works facility that doesn’t have a ‘war room’ where you can put some maps on a wall,” Tipton said. “They don’t have that and I think it would be helpful for them.”
Somewhat related to the idea of space is the Bayfront Park Recreation Center.
The building moved to its current location in 1984 from the Far Horizons resort. The town then took ownership in 1994.
Plans for a rebuild of the center fluctuated since then, including a $6 million plan in 2003 that was rejected by 67.6% of voters.
In 2016, Bayfront Park received a major upgrade with help from Sarasota County, but there was opposition for renovations to the recreation center.
Over the years, the town invested smaller amounts in roof upgrades, cosmetic repairs and other improvements as needed, but Tipton said it’s time to take a serious look at alternatives for the building.
“I think within the next 5 to 7 years that building is going to start getting to the point where it may not be safe,” Tipton said. “We’re either going to take it down or we’re going to do something. We can’t do nothing.”
The town has some older designs in hand, but Tipton said any new rebuilds likely would not need to be as grand as previously imagined due to the Sarasota County library being constructed two miles south of Bayfront Park.
