By Charmaine Engelsman-Robins The slick, stylish nightclub marking its 70th anniversary this month (celebrated 9/2 featuring the Instigators) certainly belies the humble beginnings and questionable past of its seven decade history. Since 1947, the Beach Club has been many things to many people. There’s not much on record of the Beach Club’s earliest years. It’s […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com Just as motorists in downtown Sarasota have learned to be wary of U.S. 41 near Gulfstream Avenue when it rains hard, drivers on a section of Siesta Key’s Higel Avenue know to watch out for flooding in one particular area. In 2014, a couple who lives on that segment of […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney Twelfth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Frederick P. Mercurio has granted a joint motion of Siesta Acquisitions LLC and Sarasota County to hold in abeyance a dispute over a June Board of Zoning Appeals decision regarding street setbacks for tall commercial buildings in the Siesta Key Overlay District. In the joint […]
Siesta Key Association launches another survey On Aug. 4, the SKA emailed its latest survey to members. This one is in response to a July 11 County Commission discussion regarding the potential for charging people to park at Siesta Public Beach. Commissioners indicated a keen interest in using the resulting revenue to boost mass […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney The Turtle Beach Campground will be closed through the end of September, Sarasota County staff informed the County Commission in July, so the water, sewer and electrical infrastructure can be replaced. By unanimous vote on July 12, the board approved the project without comment. The work was scheduled to begin […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com Given continuing frustrations of residents and visitors trying to find parking spaces at Siesta Public Beach, the Sarasota County Commission directed staff to work on proposals, including charging a fee, whose revenue could be used to provide more mass transit options. County Administrator Tom Harmer said staff would […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com As the No. 1 Beach rankings have brought more and more attention to Siesta Key since 2011, property owners have capitalized on increased demand from visitors for accommodations — including single-family homes, Sarasota County Code Enforcement officers say. “I get lots of emails [about […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com A June 12 vote by the Sarasota County Board of Zoning Appeals has prompted not only legal action but also a proposal for an amendment to the county’s Zoning Code that governs all of Siesta Key. With the consensus of the Sarasota County Commission on July 12, County […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com The Siesta Key Association (SKA) has unveiled one of the key arguments it intends to make against the dredging alternative upon which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has settled for the proposed Lido Renourishment Project. During the nonprofit’s regular meeting on July 6, Robert Luckner, a member […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com Call it a “tale of four houses.” In a two-block span, three new towering residences and one under construction epitomize for longtime Siesta Key residents the unwelcome changes that have been taking place on the island in recent years. The four-story structures at 547 and 551 Beach Road are advertised […]
By Roger Drouin Every time Michael Holderness drove by the Siesta Beach Resort & Suites, in the past, he thought about the potential. The only official hotel on Siesta, the property had seen more glorious days as a small, yet popular tourist mecca that was built in the fifties. Now, Holderness is working to put […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com With one partial summary judgment ruling already having gone against the plaintiff in the case, Sarasota County is seeking a second one relating to the County Commission’s May 11, 2016 vacation of a 357-foot-long segment of North Beach Road. In a June 2 filing in 12th Judicial Circuit Court, Assistant […]
