Outdoor kitchens on Longboat Key

Longboat Key is a barrier island town between the Gulf and Sarasota Bay that lies in two counties, with its northern part in Manatee County and its southern part in Sarasota County. The 2020 Census counted 7,505 residents on about 4.1 square miles of land. In the 1920s John Ringling bought land on the south end of Longboat Key and planted Australian pines along today's Gulf of Mexico Drive, and the Town of Longboat Key was incorporated on November 14, 1955. Development peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and today very few large private tracts remain undeveloped.

On both the Manatee and Sarasota sides of the island, building permits come from the Town of Longboat Key, whose Building Division handles plan review, permits and inspections and requires contractors to register. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical work always needs a Town permit, and patios directly on grade are exempt only when zoning staff approve them.

Every Longboat Key lot on the Gulf or on New Pass or Longboat Pass has a required waterfront yard 150 feet deep, measured from the mean high-water line or the erosion control line, where no structures, walls or pools may be built except a few listed items; even a single-family variance can never bring it below 50 feet. On Sarasota Bay the waterfront yard is 50 feet (20 feet for a single-family home), on canals 30 feet (20 feet for a single-family home), and accessory structures are not allowed in any required waterfront yard. In Longboat Key's residential districts, a detached accessory structure must stay out of required street, side and waterfront yards, may be no taller than 10 feet (15 with a pitched roof) and only 8 feet within a required side or rear yard, and must keep 10 feet from side and rear lot lines. Only structures without kitchen facilities and at least 10 feet from the house count as unattached; anything closer counts as attached and must meet the house's own setbacks. How your kitchen is classified, we clarify with the Town during planning.

On Longboat Key's residential lots, outdoor mechanical equipment may not sit in the required street or waterfront yard, must stay at least 10 feet from side and rear lot lines, and may be no higher than 6 feet in a required yard or 8 feet elsewhere. New or replaced equipment must be screened for view and noise by a fence, wall or planting at least as tall as the equipment. About two thirds of Longboat Key's housing units are multifamily, and the Town has adopted the Florida Fire Prevention Code, which bars grills on balconies, under overhangs and within 10 feet of a structure at buildings other than one- and two-family homes. Florida allows listed electric tabletop grills up to 200 square inches and listed equipment permanently installed according to its listing.

Hurricane Helene struck Longboat Key on September 26, 2024, with storm surge inundation of 5 to 7 feet above ground from the Anclote River south to Longboat Key, and a sensor on the island measured 6.68 feet above mean higher high water. Two weeks later Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Siesta Key, bringing 4 to 6 feet of inundation from Longboat Key to Venice and a reading of 5.04 feet on the island. Because the town spans two counties, Longboat Key is mapped on two FEMA flood map series, the Manatee County panels revised in August 2021 and the Sarasota County panels revised in March 2024. Within the town the maps show coastal Zone VE with base flood elevations of about 10 to 17 feet along the Gulf, Zone AE of about 7 to 12 feet across much of the island, and smaller areas of Zone X. Longboat Key builds above FEMA's minimum, requiring lowest floors at least 1 foot above the base flood elevation and, seaward of the coastal construction control line and in coastal high hazard and Coastal A zones, the lowest structural member at least 3 feet above it. If repairs or improvements to a building reach 50 percent of its market value, the whole building must be brought up to these rules, with mechanical and electrical equipment elevated as well.

Under Longboat Key's marine turtle ordinance, new development seaward of the coastal construction control line or with lights visible from the beach must use turtle-friendly bulbs and fixtures, mounted as low as possible, and must not light the beach directly, indirectly or cumulatively; glass in line of sight of the beach needs tint of 45 percent light transmittance or less. Nesting season runs from May 1 to October 31, when grills and other portable equipment must be removed from the beach every night from 11 pm to 5 am. In beachfront gardens, we plan the kitchen lighting with these rules in mind.