Longboat Key Library: Funding, Site Plan and Timeline

Disclosure: Danielle Gladding's husband, Nick Gladding, serves as Longboat Key's District 3 Town Commissioner. They speak for themselves and not for each other, and nothing here represents the Town of Longboat Key or its Town Commission. He does not review this content before it is published.

The money to build a Sarasota County library on Longboat Key's Town Center Green is in place: about $11 million in county library impact fees, plus private donations for the upgrades. The money to run it is not yet committed. Two votes a day apart now frame what happens next: the Town Commission's final hearing on the site plan on November 2, 2026, and Florida's vote on Amendment 3 on November 3.

Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty is an independent brokerage serving Sarasota, Longboat Key, and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Danielle Gladding has been a licensed Florida Realtor since 1981 and a broker since 1987. This post sets out what has been approved, how the library is paid for, what the plans show and what is still undecided, from the public record and local reporting.

How is the Longboat Key library paid for?

The library depends on two separate pots of money from different sources.

	Building the library	Running the library
What it pays for	Design, construction and donor-funded upgrades	Staff, utilities and daily operations
Source	Sarasota County library impact fees, plus private donations	Sarasota County's general fund, which is mostly property taxes
Status, October 2026	In place	Not yet committed

The Longboat Observer put the split plainly on June 25, 2026: "The $11 million in county funds to build the library are in place via the library impact fee, but the upwards of $1.5 million in annual operating costs are not." At the county's June 17 budget workshop, Deputy County Administrator Steve Botelho estimated the operating cost at almost $740,000 for a partial year in 2028, rising from $1.1 million in 2029 to $1.4 million in 2031. Longboat Key News summed it up on October 8: "Neither source can pay a librarian or an electric bill."

The private share has largely been raised. The Observer reported on September 20 that the Town and the Longboat Key Foundation raised $3.8 million, according to the town-county funding agreement, more than the campaign's goal, and that the county had already been paid $1.6 million of it. That total includes a $1 million pledge from the Vernon G. and Sandra J.C. Buchanan Foundation. County Administrator Jonathan Lewis told county commissioners in June that no decision on operating money is needed until after the election.

Where does Amendment 3 come in?

Amendment 3 is a proposed change to the Florida Constitution on the November 3, 2026 ballot, titled "Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments." According to the official ballot summary filed with the Florida Division of Elections, it would:

Raise the homestead exemption for all non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, then adjust it for inflation
Lower the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent
Require counties and municipalities to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration
Allow other expenditures if county officers or county or municipal governing bodies approve them, unless general law prohibits them
Take effect January 1, 2027

Libraries are not named in the list. Like every Florida constitutional amendment, it needs at least 60 percent of the vote to pass. Our guide to Florida Amendment 3 and the homestead deadline covers what it would mean for property owners.

Sarasota County has estimated the effect on its budget. As the Observer reported on August 25, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis presented estimates at the final budget workshop of $46.85 million less collected in fiscal 2028 and nearly $87.09 million less the following year. The county states on its own Amendment 3 page that it does not support or oppose any ballot measure. Speaking at a Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance luncheon on September 23, County Commissioner Ron Cutsinger compared the second-year figure to the combined budgets of six departments, Libraries and Historical Resources among them, as a sense of scale rather than a list of planned cuts.

The library's position was stated at the Town Commission meeting of September 14, 2026. Commissioner Nick Gladding asked Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman how a "yes" vote would affect the library, and Brownman answered, as the Observer reported: "The county has made it very clear because of the magnitude of the impacts of Amendment 3 they will not be constructing a library on Longboat Key at this time if Amendment 3 passes." He added that, for now, "the county continues to move forward as if nothing is changing."

Views on the amendment itself differ among local officials. The Observer reported on September 19 that State Rep. James Buchanan told the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club on September 16, "I'm voting for it," arguing that counties could cut spending. At the same club's August 19 luncheon, Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse called the amendment "the single biggest home rule pre-emption the state has ever passed."

What has the Town approved so far?

On October 5, 2026, the Town Commission voted unanimously on first reading to advance two items. Ordinance 2026-13 amends the Bay Isles planned unit development to allow a county library on the Town-owned Town Center Green at 600 Bay Isles Road. Site Development Plan Order 2026-02 approves the detailed plan. The Planning and Zoning Board had recommended both on September 15. The second reading and final public hearing on both items is set for November 2.

The groundbreaking date has shifted earlier. In September, then-Town Manager Howard Tipton said it was scheduled for March. By the October 5 hearing, officials were pointing toward the end of February.

What will the library look like?

County staff reported that the architects had submitted 60 percent construction documents. According to Longboat Key News and the Observer, the plans show:

An 11,273-square-foot building on a roughly 28,000-square-foot corner of the Green, between Publix and the public tennis center
A community room for about 200 people, which a county representative called "significantly larger than what we would normally build for this library"
Large sitting steps for reading, and a covered terrace facing the Great Lawn
An upgraded entry paid for with donor money
No kitchen, which was considered and dropped

The larger community room is the main reason the island raised private money. It came out of the Town's 2024 workshops, where residents asked for a real meeting hall. Fitting it required compromises. The zoning district calls for a 30-foot side setback, and the county asked to build within 12 feet of the south property line, beside Publix Park and the Chase Bank parcel. Three of the site's 15 trees are to be removed and five transplanted, with seven new trees planted.

Parking drew most of the Commission's questions. Town code requires 39 spaces for a library this size. For events that fill the community room, staff identified 14 neighboring properties with about 681 spaces, most of them empty after 5 p.m. Longboat Key News reported that the Town has no contracts with those owners, only what staff called "good relationships." A condition of the site plan requires a special event transportation management plan for large gatherings, with the event sponsor arranging the borrowed parking. The Green sits beside the Town Shoppes of Bay Isles and the public tennis center, so event-day traffic on Bay Isles Road is worth watching.

What is still undecided?

Several pieces remain open after both votes. The lease, funding and operating agreements between the Town and the county still have to be finalized, and the county's operating commitment waits on the election. If the project were abandoned, a county spokesperson said donors would be refunded. Tipton was more open-ended in September, saying that if the amendment passed, "then we'll have to figure out how to refund the money that's been raised." Neither outlet has reported a specific refund process.

The wait has been long. Longboat Key News counts two decades of false starts, a collapsed college partnership and two hurricanes. Sarasota Magazine reported that county commissioners added $1 million for Longboat library development in 2022, and in September 2024 the Observer reported that the private campaign had not yet reached its target.

Library service on Longboat Key today

Until a building opens, Sarasota County's Pop-Up Library brings library cards, borrowing and holds, materials drop-off, Wi-Fi and help to areas with limited library access. The county's 2025 listing placed its Longboat Key stops at Town Center Green on the first and third Tuesdays of the month; check the county library calendar for current stops. Sarasota Magazine reported that a county digital library kiosk was installed at Town Hall in 2019. The closest full branch is Selby Library at 1331 First Street in downtown Sarasota, about 8.3 miles from Town Hall.

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A note on sources

This post draws on reporting by the Longboat Observer (June 22 and 25, August 25, and September 19, 20 and 25, 2026), Longboat Key News (June 30 and October 8, 2026) and Sarasota Magazine, the Town of Longboat Key's October 5 agenda, and the official Amendment 3 ballot summary from the Florida Division of Elections. Plans change between first reading and final vote. Confirm current status with the Town of Longboat Key before relying on anything here. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

Danielle Gladding came to Sarasota in 1976, has been a licensed Florida Realtor since 1981 and a broker since 1987, and lives in Queens Harbour inside Bay Isles. She runs Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty with her daughter and Sales Partner Alison Kanter, and can be reached at (941) 539-8535 or through the contact page.