If you've ever taken your boat — or ridden on a friend's boat — to or by Shell Key (between Fort DeSoto and Pass-a-Grille), you may have noticed some changes on this county-managed park. Namely, the water between the mainland and the island's getting mighty skinny. And also, those two new high-rises on the mainland.
The times, they are a-changin', my friends.
And so is Shell Key. What happens if — hypothetically — that new, tiny sand bridge attaching itself to the mainland grows? Where does the preserve end and the land any developer with enough money can buy begin? What happens to the terns and other nesting birds who exist in (relative) peace, safe from outdoor cats, off-leash dogs and the environmental detritus of development?
Turns out, these are all good questions. And you should totally ask them at the Aug. 15 meeting, when Pinellas County presents the update to its Shell Key Preserve Management Plan (last updated in 2007; currently in draft form and available for your perusal here) to its stakeholders. And by "stakeholders" we mean you — the public. Pinellas County's pretty clear in the plan it wants to buy some privately held land should it become available, so it looks like the county intends to safeguard the more than 1,800-acre preserve best it can. However, the plan also mentions the land adjacent to Shell Key has "low density" zoning, but a quick glance at the county's own land use and zoning maps indicate the area closest to the key is zoned RM, or "residential multi-family district", which allows for — not shockingly — multiple families on one lot. The zoning should allow no more than 15 units per acre and no building should be more than 45' tall.
We may have to go back and count the units in those two buildings towering over Shell Key, but if you have, this might be a good question to ask at next week's meeting. Along with a few other questions.
Public meeting on proposed update to Shell Key Preserve Management Plan | Tampa Bay Watch Marine & Education Center Community Room, 3000 Pinellas Bayway S., Tierra Verde | Aug. 15: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
