The Longboat Key commission is navigating legal waters around Jewfish Key.
The Jewfish Key Preservation Collective, which acts as a homeowner’s association for property owners on the key, requested disengagement from the municipal boundaries of Longboat Key Dec. 19, 2023.
Manatee County Property Appraiser online records indicate Jewfish Key, a 38-acre island off the north end of Longboat Key, is home to 21 parcels owned by 11 entities. There are nine residences.
A Feb. 6 email from town manager Howard Tipton said the request for separation came after the JKPC ratified a resolution mandating the submission of the petition.
Correspondence to the town from Aaron Thomas, an attorney with the Najmy Thompson law firm of Bradenton, stated that more than 15% of eligible JKPC voters favored the petition.
Tipton wrote in an email about the town’s responsibilities: “From our perspective, their request triggers that a feasibility study be done and presented to the town commission before the end of June. It is rare that a request such as this is received by a municipality and staff is working to ensure that we are in compliance with the applicable statutes.”
Should the de-annexation request be approved, Jewfish Key would become part of unincorporated Manatee County and property owners would no longer be governed by the town’s regulations or pay taxes to the town.
Town planning, zoning and building director Allen Parsons, in a Feb. 14 interview with The Islander, said de-annexation has never been attempted in Longboat Key. As a result, the town is still gathering information for the feasibility study.
“This is all new to the town and there are not many of these that have occurred in the state,” Parsons said. “Annexing is common. A portion of unincorporated county gets annexed into a city, but de-annexing is pretty rare.”
Parson said the commission would decide if the request for de-annexation is valid. Should the town vote against the request and the collective appeal, the issue would go to court.
“We are targeting having the public hearings in the months of June,” Parsons said. A feasibility study would be released about a week before the hearings begin.
Town officials would not speculate as to the reasoning behind the JKPC’s request but one difference between Longboat Key and unincorporated Manatee County is LBK’s toward short-term rental policies.
In residential zoned districts of LBK, a short-term rental minimum stay is limited to one month.
Jewfish Key is zoned as an island preserve residential district.
Meanwhile, Manatee County has no limits on short-term rentals.
Longboat Key adopted vacation rental restrictions in 1982 that differentiated between residential and tourism zoning.
“There was a state statute that was passed in 2011 that prohibited jurisdictions from enacting any kind of short-term rental restrictions on the length of stay,” Parsons said.
He said Longboat Key’s early regulations preserved the identity of its residential communities.
“I think that it’s made a pretty significant difference, especially over the past 10 years or so, where online vacation rentals have really taken off,” Parsons said. “I think the character of the town could have changed rapidly over that time.”
The Islander reached out to Thomas Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 for comment but, as of Islander press time Feb. 27, no response was received.
The Islander reached out by email Feb. 6 to JKPC president Michael Mincberg for comment but, as of Islander press time Feb. 27, no response was received.